Things that annoy me...

(disclaimer: I do not mean to insult anybody with what I write here today.)

Hello my Dears,

Did you know? When your on holiday somewhere, there are ways to recognize Dutch people.
I have noticed this many many times before, both in my own country as well as in the countries I have been to spend my holiday in. When there is a person who is crossing the road next to a zebra crossing -say, 10 meters besides it- you can be almost certain that person is a Dutch person!

(translation: typically Dutch)

Now of course there are Dutch people who do use a zebra crossing to cross a road, and there are none-Dutch people who do not use a zebra crossing to cross a road. But when I was visiting Antwerp someone actually told me its a very common thing for Dutch people to do!

When I heard this I started looking for fellow Dutch people who do this, and guess what? Jep, indeed! A lot of Dutch people actually do this! My own family and friends do it as well! I was amazed by it when I noticed it was actually a true thing which the man told me. That was about 7 years ago. Now, I can't help but be annoyed by these "typical Dutch things".

An other typically Dutch thing: Asking for a discount (note: of course this happens in other countries too, but we are known for it). We have a special sayings for it, amongst them: "Af dingen" and "Pingelen". Now of course, when you can get a discount, why not ask for it? Or if something on the market is really expensive, getting something off the price can be really helpful, and asking never hurt a man, right? But what if it gets annoying? What if people don't stop asking for a discount, until its almost for free? Or when they start getting forceful, angry and rude? Asking for a discount in places where you really can't get one! And getting mad when they don't get it! Thus, a lot of people get mad. And to some people, yes I sometimes make myself guilty of this as well, I'm no saint, but so do you!

Dutch people are known as "People who like to have things for as little money as possible". There are even the sayings like "Going Dutch" or "Having a Dutch party" (which we actually call an "American party"). And of course, who wouldn't want things cheap? When I find a cheap cute dress, I feel really lucky! But I really dislike it when I'm walking in a store and I hear people complain about the price. Sometimes I hear people complain about something that is already really cheap, but they still think it's to expensive! As if they're not happy until it's for free! But they don't understand that when something is cheap, someone is not getting his or her money! And then when people get fired to because the company has to cut down on they're expenses, they complain even more!!

I think Dutch people complain to much. Everything is always someone els his/her fault, but never our own. "I" has to get everything "I" wants to have, "I" lives only to serve "I" but "he/she" must keep in mind that the world is all about "I" and should do everything to please "I". If "he/she" does not do what "I" wants, "I" gets mad.

Traffic is a perfect example of this. Holland is quite small, but we have a lot of roads and cars. It's uncommon to have a rush hour without a traffic jam. When on the road, we are driving with a lot of other cars on the same road as us. Sometimes someone does something stupid or rude. Some people's first reaction is to shout and give them the finger. They become angry and try to "get back" at the driver. Thus they start annoying other drivers, which usually makes things worse. But they themselves have done nothing wrong! They themselves can drive perfectly! All the other drivers should have they're drivers licence taken away, but not them, ooh no, because they are perfect.

A few years back we went to Paris by car. We are used to the Dutch style of driving so when we entered France, suddenly things started to get far more relaxed! I can't really explain it, I guess it is something you have to see for yourself. The traffic in France has it's own pace, or something. After a week in Paris we went back again. We were driving on the road, the easy "lalallalala" way, when suddenly some kind of idiot drives past up pulling stunts and driving a few Km/h to fast. Guess what kind of licence plate the idiot had? Jep, it was a Dutch one. The closer we got to Holland, the more idiots we encountered, until we were surrounded by idiots, and got used to the Dutch way of driving again. I have had some Germans who also said that Dutch people are idiots on the road.

You know, I used to be really proud of being a Dutch girl. The Netherlands were my pride! But so many things are changing. People are getting rude and only care about themselves. We are starting to lose our morals and values. Of course this is something that happens everywhere, but these are the things that bother me most. And of course I do know that not every Dutch person is like this but, these are the "typical Dutch things" that bother me.

I hope I will give the people who read this something to think about. And please share your thoughts.
And for those who feel insulted by this: I'm really sorry if I insulted you, I did not mean to do so, but hate comments will be deleted and I will not delete this post.


Love,

Chibi Ohimesama

(ps: Pictures of my room will follow, but I wanted to get this off my chest first, because it had been annoying me for ages)
(source picture: http://www.goeievraag.nl/vraag/typisch-nederlands.33894)