The Dutch are truly global citizens, with top English, cities that attract people from all over the globe, and an innovative spirit that never ceases to surprise.
Yet, the Dutch have their own incredibly distinct culture. Some of it is great, like cycling, a fascination with pindakaas, and their attitude toward euthanasia. Other parts, like an underlying current of racism, are, well, not so good.
However, sometimes even the Dutch are surprised by what’s normal for them. In a Reddit thread, Dutchies shared what they were most shocked to find was truly a Dutch phenomenon.
Curious? So were we! Grab your Dutch spectacles and let’s take a look through their eyes.
1. The “flourish of approval” named the krul 💯
The krul is a symbol used on Dutch schoolwork. Got an answer right? Made a fantastic point? Here’s a krul to tell you that you did a great job. ✅
“Today I learned this is classic Dutch, and all hours spent during class perfecting my drawing of this symbol have been in vain, knowing this is only used in the Dutch culture.” – DnJealt on Reddit
“Seriously, wtf. I’m studying to become a teacher outside of the Netherlands, and now I can’t use my krul-skills? I’m demanding a refund.” – Catorsomethingiguess on Reddit
2. Broadcasting your new baby’s name on your window 🍼
“The signs on the yard or the window with the name of the baby when one is born. And perhaps also the birth cards (geboortekaartjes) that we send when a baby is born.” – Alvheim
READ MORE | Dutch Quirk #87: Invest way too much in window decorations to announce a new baby
Let’s not talk about the stork’s bum plastered on the window, too, hey Dutchies?
3. The inspection-shelf toilet 🚽
“The Dutch toilet. The ones where you poop on a shelf instead of directly in the water.” – LowLandsLawyer on Reddit.
READ MORE | Dutch Quirk #81: Have toilets with an inspection shelf for their poo
“It’s quite convenient, though. As a kid, my grandma was always the one to discover that I had a pinworm infection because she had a toilet with a little shelf on which the parasites were visible.” – Th3_Accountant
4. Hé hé, nou nou 🙃
“The noises y’all make. When reacting with confusion or shock, you often hear a “heh!?”. Then there’s the explanatory “hah?” after someone explains something. There’s also like the “pwoooaaa” sound people make when admiring something.”
“The huge variety of tonal grunts and sounds you can make to say goodbye while walking away from someone, starting at “dooo” and “jooo” and finishing somewhere around “joooojojojojo” etc. People say something like “wayooo” when reacting to something good like a pleasant surprise.” – lekkermooi_
5. The toilet birthday calendar 📆
“It’s a big A3 /A2 poster on the inner side of the toilet door. It has all months without the year stated. You write in the days of the names and birth years of your friends and relatives. So whenever you take a dump, you can look at the calendar and see whose birthday is next and how old they will be. Since you go to the bathroom daily, you’ll never forget anyone’s birthday ever again.” – MagickWitch
“Ugh, this. I’m American, and my S.O. is Dutch. We live in Italy. We have a toilet calendar. I look at it in confusion every time, still after 4 years of living together and 8 years of being together lol.” – supermarketsushiroll
READ MORE | Dutch Quirk #43: Hang a birthday calendar in their toilet
“Every time I get a birthday call, I know the person calling has just taken a shit.” – Firestorm83
6. The doorzonwoning, a typical Dutch house layout 🏠
You enter a Dutch house and instinctively know: hallway, on your left a toilet, maybe some stairs. The door to the right will take you to a long living room, windows on either side. Somewhere hidden is a tiny kitchen.
Welcome to the doorzonwoning, or literally the “through-sun-residence”.
“I did not know 1. that such a house had a special name and 2. nor that such a house is something typically Dutch. To me, that’s just a house, nothing special about it.” – Village_People_Cop (Translated).
To be honest, it’s quite genius. The sun comes through one window of the living room during the morning, then through the other window during the afternoon. Delightful!
7. Taking white bread buns on a day trip 🥯
“When my Dutch boyfriend and I went on a trip, he prepared half of dozen ‘sandwiches’. They were zachte witte bolletjes with a slice of cheese. I was somewhat confused because I wouldn’t call them sandwiches, and six identical ones seemed like the most boring meal ever.”
“I thought we would eat somewhere nice since we were on holiday lol. He later explained that he was just following what his mom does, which is to always take some food with them wherever they go :).” – worrywort__
8. Sharing teabags ☕️
“Sharing teabags. As a student, I always shared teabags with my friends (since one bag is strong enough for 2-3 or more cups). Freaked the foreign students out.” – bobnplums
9. Doing the lekker wave when something tastes good 👋
Ever seen a Dutch person’s hand spasm near their cheek? Don’t call an ambulance, it’s likely that they just find something super lekker.
READ MORE | Dutch Quirk #23: Perform the “lekker wave” if something is delicious
“Kinda moving/shaking your hand close to your face when you say lekker or heerlijk. I find it so weird when people do it.” – innerworldjoy on Reddit.
10. Having a flessenlikker in their home 🍯
Despite flessenlikker sounding like something you might keep in your lingerie drawer, its purpose is super innocent: it’s a device used to scrape all of the contents out of a jar. (Yep, those Dutchies sure are cheap).
“I like how the English article says, ‘there is an element of the technical and engineering community that sees the bottle scraper as a monument to a wrong type of technical solution. This group argues that the best solution to the problem of remaining vla in bottles was to put vla in different containers, preventing the problem from ever occurring, rather than inventing another tool and then educating a population in its use.” – Caelorum on Reddit.
11. Having to bring your own birthday cake on your birthday 🍰
“The thing I found really strange was when it was my birthday, I had to bring cakes to work for everyone – baffled me. Happy birthday to me now minus 100 euros!” – Kakakakakakakakaaka
12. Getting a kroket out of a wall 🌭
What? You’ve never taken a delicious fried treat with a questionable filling out of a locked door to eat? Then you’ve never met a FEBO wall, a kind of vending machine for hot snacks (and thus, obviously never gotten pissed on too many Heinekens at your local brown pub).
For as little as a euro, that treat can be just what drunk you needs. We guess you can also eat them at other times too. 🤷♂️
Submitted by shoot-me-12-bucks.
READ MORE | 5 Reasons I Love FEBO (aka that ever-giving wall of fried delicacies)
13. Congratulating everyone for one person’s birthday 👍
Never had the joy of experiencing a Dutch person’s birthday? Here’s how it works. You congratulate the birthday person. Then you congratulate their friends and family. Then their friends and family also congratulate you. Congrats! 🎉
“When I visited a birthday in Holland, literally, everyone congratulated everyone. Even people I’ve never seen before said ‘congratulations’, but I thought they were going to introduce themselves, so I said my name while they congratulated me.” – _Steven_Seagal_
“Congratulating me, while my girlfriend had her birthday.” – uw_moeder
READ MORE | Dutch Quirk #39: Say happy birthday to everyone
14. Eating chocolate on bread for breakfast 🍫
“Eating chocolate on bread and calling it ‘breakfast’. You don’t see me complaining about that, I love it!” – nomisfed
READ MORE | Dutch Quirk 11: Eat hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) for breakfast
15. Having designated towels in the kitchen 👩🍳
“Having two types of towels in the kitchen: one for dishes and one for hands. Didn’t know about this until I made a mistake at somebody’s house and they let me know about it (in no uncertain terms, I’ll tell you!)!” – WriteTurn
“One is called hand towel and one is called tea cloth (handdoek / theedoek) lol” – gasman147
16. Dutch ‘droppings’ 🌳
“Dropping kids in the woods to let them find their way back on their own… Never thought that this was a weird thing until I told my non-Dutch friends about it! Edit: forgot to mention it’s at night.” – Interesting_Till1241
READ MORE | The Americans have learned of Dutch ‘Droppings’ and now they’re confused
17. Freezing bread for later 🍞
“The freezing of bread. As a Dutch person, it is completely normal for me and very convenient. According to my Lithuanian wife and kids, it is very, very strange…” – Le_raz
18. Not having a floor in a rental 💸
“Having to put your own floor (laminaat) in when moving into a rental… The last two apartments I moved into, I was the first tenant, so I had to put a floor in. Pain in the ass and kinda expensive for a house you don’t even own.” – Ok_Election7896
READ MORE | 9 kooky things about renting in the Netherlands
19. Putting everything into their agenda 🗓
“This is hilarious! My husband sent out invitations to his birthday like 6 weeks in advance, and nobody could make it because their agendas were already booked. My kid’s birthday is in September and I’m already inviting people for it, cause otherwise they’re busy.” – Hannie123456789
READ MORE | The Dutch agenda: plans to take over the world
20. Taking a beer for the road 🍺
“The BVO when going to a party, especially as a student, blew my mind when I arrived here” – madInTheBox
“For the non-Dutch here: it means “beer for the road.” You take an entire beer with you to drink on the way home.” – kytheon
21. Sharing your identity (but also not) 🕵️♂️
“Sharing a copy of your identity card/passport for legal reasons (for instance, when renting or buying a house) edited with a stripe covering your photo and signature.”
“For me, as a non-Dutch, this idea is just nonsense. How would an edited photo be a proof of identity? If I’m photoshopping my ID, how can one guarantee that other details were not tampered with as well? 😅”
“There’s even a government app to do so, so obviously, that’s something very rooted in Dutch culture that one must adapt to. I think it’s quite weird :)” – ArlindoPereira
Curious about those Dutchies and their habits? Check out the cutest activities from Dutch people and (if you dare) the grossest things Dutch people will never confess they do.
Were you surprised by anything on this list? Tell us in the comments below!
Reddit posts edited for spelling and clarity.
So true !!!And rally funny!!
I have designated kitchen towels and freeze bread. Mom had the birthday list in the bathroom. I have never been to the Netherlands. It must come with the DNA.
Looking at your name I would think so 😇
Me too. I guess its definitely in our genes! I also eat Hail
On rusks, love Dutch liquorice and anything Dutch lol 😆
I’m Indonesian. My Opa is half dutch.
But aside of my own bloodline, Indonesian ofc adapting a lot from this list 🙂
The Krul sure. I was also confused when other than the Dutch and the “associates” don’t know about Krul.
Bread and meses (the way we say that chocolate sprinkle) are my every morning breakfast since I was a kid! Hahaha
After more than half my life in NZ, I’m 75 this month, most of it still applies………only…….. don’t think I’m cheap……🤔
“Vrijdaggen” is not mentioned, I still do that too.…….🫣🫣
What the hell is vrijdaggen?
Yep Number 18…the Floor thing !!!
Who takes their floor with them??? Do they buy a house on the measurements of their old floor??? Why would you do this?? Totally weird !!
When you leave a rented property, you are obligated to leave it in its original condition, so everything must be removed, including the carpeting. If you know who the next tenants are, you can discuss whether they are willing to take over any of the items.
They are talking about floor coverings.
Your POV is from the tenant. But this topic sits on the landlord side of the deal. We have leases called gestoffeerd (meaning flooring and curtains) or ongestoffeerd or kaal (without) it has ro do with if the landlord wants to be bothered with it. There are countries that dont even include a kitchen in their lease.
In Germany it’s bring your own kitchen.
Landlords can demand to leave the house empty, even undamaged floors ti be removed. Due to environment and not wasting good materials, nowadays you are allowed to leave it behind as long as it is in good condition.
most rentals are without floors or cutains etc. if you’re the first, you have to put it in. when you leave, you might sell it to the next person who’s going to rent it. If they do not want it, according to the rules you will have to remove it. there are “gestoffeerde” rentals, rhey come with floors and curtains and such.
I love how they congratulate other members of a family when someone has a birthday. I mainly do it when it’s someone’s child so I’ve kind of adopted it in Australia. When at school in Holland I used to bring a lolly for everyone in my class.
Congratulate all of the guests is definitely something above “the rivers”. Born and raised in Noord Brabant but I only congratulate the “jarige”. Live now 25 years not far from The Hague but still not congratulate everybody.. I found it weird
True, it is weird but also the three kisses on the cheek or in the air to say hello to someone is weird. Two i can understand (one left, one right) but why three?
I lived in Wassenaar for 3 years while in high school and the floor plan of our house was exactly as you described
Having your passport half edited is obiliged due new European privacy rules since 8 years. So I don’t think this is a special Dutch thing.
This was hilarious and soooo insightful even after living in the Netherlands for 3 years! Well done! 👏🏼
You have to take it out when you’r renting OR buying another house. Unless the new owner wants to take it and pay for it.
toilets not true
yes it is/was. When I was a child I all the toilets where like the Dutch toilet. I think it is half Dutch, half typical now.
It’s all true & I wasn’t aware of how many things I still do the Dutch way while living in Australia most of my life
Same here!!! Didn’t realize how Dutch I am considering my father was half Indonesian and my mother 100% Dutch. Spending the first 10 yrs of my life in Amsterdam must have left it’s mark
I have lived in Australia since I was 12 and am now 76 and I still do most of the things the Dutch way. My mother, 100 years old, still does all these things. I have brought back Flesselikkers for my work colleagues, they love them. I love all the Dutch quirky ways.
I think every country has its own thing. I am dutch , love to spend holiday in the uk . I always find it strange not having a separate toilet but in the uk you have to go upstaires to someones bathroom . And in the usa you come in the livingroom entering the front door . We have a hallway , with a separate toilet room en staires to go upstairs . So I think every country has somthing different. And yes chocolate sprinklers on white Bread is very normaal over Here
Or “speculaas” or “ontbijtkoek” on white bread with lots of butter.
we have also stairs to go downstairs☺️
Haha, maby some Dutch People do all these things, but most Dutch People have their own, and different live style.
I wouldn’t call them weird, maybe strange or odd or typically Dutch. Some habits you’ll find in other countries too. Some are very practical and innovative. Every country has their own quirky habits 🤣🤣🤣👏👏
Strawberry sandwich with sugar, always on a Saturday in the summer, loved them
Made the mistake when going to my first Birthday party not going around congratulating everyone. Some I had never met. Being British expected the hosts to introduce me. Was promptly told I was rude.
Being very Dutch myself, I recognize them all, except for the congratulating everyone on a birthday. We don’t do that. Just the one who is having a birthday, their partner & close kin. So….