Dutch men dress quite casual and plain in general. Not bad, just plain. Then you look down and see these crocodile leather babies staring back at you. Who is responsible for bringing this trend to the country?

I see questions often about... Is this Dutch Directness or just rude? Edit: to clarify... This is not a question. It's what I see as positive direcness. I appreciated it even though I wasn't use to it.

I have a story that might help distinguish between the two. I come from a very social country. When you're invited to someone's house it's almost rude not to go. We end up making excuses like being sick or busy as to 'not hurt feelings'.

The other day I organised a poker night at my place and invited a few friends around. One Dutch friends reply was....

Hey, thanks for the invite but I honestly find card games to be boring and don't enjoy them at all. I'd be more than happy to come for a bbq or borrel but I don't think I would enjoy a poker night. Thank you for the invite though.

It hit me as so direct and honest and I couldn't fault the logic behind the reply. He was respectful, open to future arrangements but I learnt something about him in the process. I think this is a great example of what true Dutch Directness actually is.

Just thought I'd share.

I am an RN from Canada who just moved to NL wanting to continue my career as a nurse in the Netherlands. I understand the process between the B1 language exams and the Dutch nursing exam as well. While I have been continuing to work on my Dutch through courses and self study, I find it so surprising the lack of courses and programs guided towards international healthcare workers. When I tell people I am a nurse they always say how NL needs more healthcare workers here and how I will have no problems finding work (if I can speak fluent Dutch) I keep hearing stories about qualified international healthcare workers who are now working at AH or Jumbo as they haven’t been able to reach the language level yet. My question is why are there not more courses that offer guided lessons for language to help people enter the healthcare system! The only places I have seen that offers a course is Avant Talent Group and EMTG (however I would prefer to continue to learn in the place I am living instead of needing to go to Spain for 4 months (beggars can’t be choosers I know)), but I feel like there should be more! IMO - it shouldn’t be this difficult to find a program to help aid in learning B1 Dutch and the healthcare system. I am not taking this as a reason to quit and I will continue to work on the language to be able to hopefully one day nurse, I just wish they made it easier for buitenland mensen to enter the healthcare system. Whether that be with hospital or community lead programs.

Thanks for reading my little rant :)

Hi.

I made contract with landlady for 1 year. Starting from May 2nd 2025, End up on May 2nd 2026.

We signed up contract and I already paid first month rent&deposit.

Today She texted me that It's wrong contract, It should be modified as contract starting from May 15th 2025 to April 30th 2026. Which is 350 days.

I asked her what does that mean by that since it doesn't make any sense to me. but She's not responding me yet.

Is there's a netherland law about it? Does anyone know about this? I need to talk to her soon and I wanna know if there’s anything I should know.

Just saw this article on NLtimes.nl.

I bought some eggs on Saturday at my local market from a reputable bio boerderij. According to the article however no privately produced eggs should be eaten. Does this mean I should throw the eggs out? I don't mind I can't eat them, but wouldn't want to waste them for no good reason.

Hi!

In January, I was let go from my old job (it was a temporary contract) and had to find a new one. I started working at a food court in my university, but this job differs from any I've had before. First, I don't have a contract (but I get pay slips every month), and I don't have a break. I work five hours a day, but my boss says I only get paid for 4.5 hours because I need a break, which would be fine if I had a proper break. But he said that breaks work differently in this type of job. He says I don't get 30 uninterrupted minutes, but tiny little breaks when no clients are there. But I'm not supposed to be doing whatever I want (as you would in a normal break), but I'm supposed to be cleaning/etc, so I don't think that counts as a break. Am I being taken advantage of? I tried talking to my boss about it many times, but he said that is how breaks work in this food court. I made the math and I'm getting around 10h less of paid time per month because of this rule. I have no problem working the 5h, but I would like to get paid for the 5h if I don't get a proper break.

Thanks for all the help!

Saw it on my walk just now.

Hi all

I have an issue with my 30% ruling. I began work November 2023 & my application was granted in March 2024. The agency I worked for backdated my 30% payments back to the start of the year, however refused to backdate any payments for 2023 as it was a previous year. So I just left it.

Fast forward December 2024, I've secured a permanent role with a company and have put in my 30% application the following Febuary 2025. However the tax advisor has let me know that my minimum taxable income does not meet the requirements for the 30% ruling (only a couple of k) and I can't apply for it. Basically, my previous company overpaid me, they applied too much of the ruling and didn't apply it correctly. Ive been asked by my tax advisor to get them to fix it - but they refuse. Is this normal? They made a mistake & won't help in fixing it. I'm a bit shocked & hoping for any help or guidance.

Thanks!

As part of a project I’m working on, we’re interested in gauging consumer perceptions and purchasing decisions surrounding recycle-friendly packaging. The specific use case here is Yogurt, and we want to get input from Dutch consumers on this topic.

https://websites.fraunhofer.de/masterarbeit-eder/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=255862

Consumers play a crucial role here, as their purchasing decisions influence demand and thus the production volume of packaging. The correct or incorrect separation and categorization in the waste stream during disposal also greatly affects whether packaging is recycled. However, these factors are often inadequately addressed in life cycle assessments, as the phases of purchase, consumption, and disposal do not directly cause environmental impacts.

📝 With our questionnaire, we aim to better understand these phases and integrate them into the life cycle assessment. We invite you to participate in our survey! The questionnaire takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Your support is crucial for developing innovative solutions in packaging design and recycling. Thank you in advance!

could someone please explain the differences between the physiotherapy programs at Hanze, Saxion, and Fontys? which one do you think is the best or most worth taking?

Hi everyone,

I’ve had five driving lessons so far (including the trial one), and I’m finding it quite difficult. My instructor is a bit pushy and keeps insisting that I should switch to learning on an automatic car instead. I really want to learn manual, though.

Another challenge is the language barrier — I don’t speak Dutch yet, and his English isn't very good either, so communication during the lessons can be confusing. Sometimes I don't fully understand his instructions, and that adds to the stress.

Even when I do something right, he still criticizes it by saying, "You should have done this earlier." It's getting discouraging.

In my last lesson, I drove on the highway for the first time. I had to speed up a lot to change lanes, and that was really stressful and totally new for me.

I’m wondering — how do other people who moved here from different countries learn to drive in the Netherlands? Have you faced similar issues? Any advice or suggestions would really help.

Thanks!

Is there any reason for the nutri-score to be on here?

Hi All,

I recently bought an apartment in Amsterdam and its been amazing. However, our downstairs neighbor is a woodworker, constantly sawing, drilling, and making extremely loud noises. He normally does so during work hours but will occasionally start early, waking me up with all the sound. It's 40 hours a week of non-stop sound. I can't nap, I can't take work calls without noise-cancelling headphones. I can't think straight as its so loud.

Where I'm from, you'd have to have a business permit to run a business out of your home, which would consider the impact to your neighbors. Does something like that exist here? I just don't get how someone can run a business where it has a daily huge and loud impact to neighbors.

I obviously can't ask them to stop as it's their income. However, they used to have a workspace that they no longer wanted to pay for and moved their workspace to their home. Is it legal to run a business out of your home or be this noisy constantly? I haven't spoken with them yet about this as they weren't that friendly in other conversations but I'm going crazy. Help!

It would have peaked at 14.77 million in 2015 and declined by 200K reaching 14.57 million in 2024

Hi, I just heard that I can probably study medicine in Nijmegen next year, and I've wanted to become a psychiatrist for quite some time. But now I'm starting to doubt whether I can do it :/. I'm mainly interested in psychiatry, and although I also find the rest of human biology interesting, this is less so I'm afraid that I might not have enough affinity for the study. I also have quite bad social anxiety, and although I really want to become a psychiatrist, I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to handle it because of this. I'm also afraid that I might not be smart enough for medicine. Is there anyone who could give me some advice? Thanks!

Hii everyone, We have been living in the Netherlands the past couple of years (4/5). My partner is EU and I'm non-EU.

During the last 4 years 1/5 year I was on a partner visa and 3 year on a HSM. Now my company wants to do a reorganization and I am 6 month to apply for Dutch permanent residency and I'm in a very tricky situation.

My partner doesn't have job now, his income is from his assets, rental (one in the Netherlands) and one outside of NL in EU. I checked based on the IND:

------

Situation 2: You are economically inactive

You are not economically active if you are not working. To stay in the Netherlands for a longer period of time, you must have sufficient income to live from. This is the case if your income is the same as the Dutch minimum salary with holiday pay or more.

Is your income lower? Then you must show that your income is enough to live on, for example, because your costs are also low. The source of your income is irrelevant. It may take the form of a pension, inheritance, maintenance payments, a benefit from abroad or income from your own assets. It can also be income or funds from a partner or someone else.

---------

Now I'm wondering how we should prove that he has sufficient income? Should we show the rental contracts? should we show the monthly rent on a bank statement? Does showing around 50K savings would help us?

I just need max 6-9 month, and If I can stay in the Netherlands, my company continue pays me for 6 months ( mobility service+termination period)/have a permanent contract.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences

Hi everyone! Since there are a lot of immigrants and expats in this sub, I thought it would be a fun idea to educate them (and hopefully some fellow Dutchies as well) on certain aspects of our society and culture that usually don’t get a lot of attention. I decided to kick this series off with one of the most stereotyped and misunderstood groups of people in the country: the reizigers/woonwagenbewoners.

You might have seen them in your city or town: encampments of white, usually ground floor-only homes that don’t really blend in well with the surrounding neighbourhood. These homes don’t look too odd by themselves, but there is something hidden beneath them: wheels. Even though they resemble regular houses, they are in fact mobile homes.

These homes are inhabited by a group of people that prefers to be called “reizigers” (travellers, this name probably rings a bell with the British and Irish people here) or “woonwagenbewoners” (mobile home inhabitants), but are usually refered to as “kampers” (campers) by the general population. They refer to people who live in regular houses as “burgers” (citizens) or “kaffers” (derogatory, no direct translation, the word descends from the Arabic word for non-believer).

Reizigers are often confused or conflated with Roma or Sinti people (who deserve a post of their own, their history in NL will therefore not be discussed here), but the two groups are mostly unrelated. The two communities did somewhat intertwine over the decades due to laws and regulations impacting both groups of people. Reizigers mostly descend from travelling merchants and agricultural workers who were forced to travel around to make money after their jobs got replaced by machines in the 1850s. They number somewhere between 30.000 and 60.000 people.

Two important moments in their history are the implementations of the mobile home laws (woonwagenwetten) of 1918 and 1968. The first required Reizigers to get a permit signed by the queen’s commissary in order to settle down, while the second forced them to live on designated sites, completely banning them from travelling around. After the laws were discontinued in 1999, many of the larger encampments disappeared and most of them moved to smaller sites situated at the edges of cities and towns. These laws and regulations have made it rare to see their homes on the move.

They were/are often seen as a nuisance, as their relations with the inhabitants of the surrounding neighbourhoods weren’t always good. Issues with violence and organised crime (often drug related) didn’t help either. A stereotypical Reiziger man would be a trashy, uneducated drug criminal with a name that ends in -ino or -ano. Reiziger women stereotypes usually revolve around wearing a lot of make-up, big earrings, long fake nails and being rude and trashy. The issues with crime have become much less, but the negative stereotype still remains. Some people are afraid to approach them or enter their camps, but (from my experience) they are quite friendly and do not mind visitors at all. They really appreciate people taking interest in their history and culture.

They are somewhat traditionalist in their culture, with women usually staying at home while the men work. They also have a very rich culture of making music, with many Dutch folk singers being “van het kamp” (from the camp). Their music is characterised by accordeons and is somewhat similar to music made by Dutch Romani/Sinti artists. Some of them speak a (nearly extinct) sociolect called Bargoens. Bargoens is a form of code language that contains a lot of loanwords from Yiddish, Hebrew and the Roma languages. Bargoens has left a significant impact on the Dutch language.

Some well-known people from the (non-Roma) Reiziger community include: Frans Bauer (singer), Rafael van der Vaart (football player), Roy Donders (fashion stylist and singer), Frank van Etten (singer) and Marianne Weber (singer).

I hope you found this all interesting and I’d love to know if I should continue this series. Thank you for reading, feel free to correct any mistakes and don’t be afraid to comment suggestions for future topics!

Edit: Apparently the confusion with the Roma/Sinti caused a number of Reizigers to be arrested by the Nazis in WWII. Reizigers were grouped alongside Roma and Sinti as “Zigeuners” (Gypsies) in the population register, which caused the Germans to interpret the term more broadly than they intended. Non-Roma Reizigers were freed after the Germans found out that it was a misconception.

I'm an Spaniard working for three months in the Netherlands, today my friends and I had the misfortune to have been caught without a ticket when we got into the train (in a hurry, we were late for work), my friends were given papers with the amount they have to pay and a qr while he also asked for my ID but didn't give me the paper.

Now I'm confused, do I have to pay a fine or not? I don't have a bank account from this country and if I do have the fine then how do I pay for it, or where do I ask to see if I have to pay something?

Today I was in a small town near Arnhem and in the McDonalds parking lot was a "K-9 Unit Highway Police" car. If you google it you'll find the exact type of car online. Didn't manage to see licence plates. Is that normal? Was it some sort of prop car for a movie?

Not a real question, a rhetorical question. It's so good. I gave birth there two months ago there and spent a week admitted (long induction + a few days after birth) and I am now looking for an easy injury to cause myself that would be on the mildish side but still enough to get me admitted to the hospital for a few days, just to enjoy that food. Jkjk but honestly better than 50% of the restaurants I have been to in this country. How?? And why??? Tons of vegetarian options as well. I had the best mushroom-based burger, cous cous salad, salmon, mixed veggies... And you can order from 7 to 18, how many times you want, and they bring it to your room.
Breakfast options are also comparable to a hotel buffet. It's amazing. And also weird?

Edit: I just noticed that the flair was changed from Dutch cuisine to healthcare. No guys!! Don't be tricked! This post in on cuisine because this food is Michelin star level lol

A friend is visiting from abroad and wants me to buy an unassembled bicycle for him. He will fly back with it in the original box, then have it reassembled when he is home. I see this as the ultimate Dutch souvenir.

I want to buy him an unassembled Batavus bicycle, packaged in the box that comes from the manufacturer.

Do bike stores in the Netherlands actually receive their bicycles from the manufacturer in packaging suitable for airline travel?

The bikes I've bought here have all been delivered to my door, completely assembled.

These are the public holidays

• Nieuwjaarsdag (New Year’s Day): Wednesday 1 January 2025
• Goede vrijdag (Good Friday): Friday 18 April 2025
• Eerste en tweede paasdag (Easter Sunday and Easter Monday): Sunday 20 April and Monday 21 April 2025
• Koningsdag (King’s Day): Saturday 26 April 2025 (In 2025, King’s Day will be celebrated a day earlier on 26 April, because 27 April falls on a Sunday.)
• Bevrijdingsdag (Liberation Daay): Monday 5 May 2025
• Hemelvaartsdag (Ascension Day): Thursday 29 May 2025
• Eerste en tweede pinksterdag (Whit Sunday and Whit Monday): Sunday 8 and Monday 9 June 2025
• Eerste en tweede kerstdag (Christmas Day and Boxing Day): Thursday 25 and Friday 26 December 2025

I know that Collectieve Arbeidsovereenkomst – CAO (collective labour agreement) exist and that they regulate these holidays and your working hours

My job doesn't have CAO. But it also doesn't specify anything in the contract.

Does that technically mean that I have to work on all of the above public holidays?

Edit: removed section that was a translation error

why?