What do BRITISH People Think About the DUTCH? | Easy English 112

Who is this person? Do you know?

I don't know who that gentleman is, no.

No.

It's Dutch,

he's a member of the royal family in Holland.

Is that the king of the Netherlands?

He's got like, orange on, hasn't he? - Yeah.

No.

Stieg Larsson.

Oh, that's chappie.

That's the prime minister of er... - go on.

Denmark.

No.

Sweden.

No.

Norway.

Somewhere in Scandinavia.

More south.

Oh er...

Netherlands.

Hmm...

Dutchess something.

No?

Prime minister?

Not... not far off.

Looks like royalty.

I don't actually know.

That's a Monet, isn't it?

Oh, that's Vincent Van Gogh, isn't it?

Yeah. - Bang on!

Oh yeah, okie dokey.

Yeah, we know Van Gogh.

Oh, that one looks like a king.

Exactly, exactly.

But I don't know which king, though.

I don't recognise this chap either.

Looks like a king of England, of some kind.

I don't know.

Yeah, you're onto it.

James or...

I never know any of them,

I could completely guess at James somebody.

No, not quite getting who that is, no. - No?

Er...

You know that face?

No.

D'you know who that is?

Oh, it looks like Rutger Hauer.

It is Rutger Hauer.

Wow! You're the first person to get that.

No idea.

Is that a really young (George) Best?

Oh, Johan Cruyff.

D'you like football?

You like football.

That's Johan Cruyff.

Oh, that was a disaster.

What do you think correlates them?

'Cos you got two.

And there is a correlation of all these people.

They're all royalty.

No all royalty, but they're all from one country.

Oh, they're all from England. - No.

Dutch connection?

Dutch! These are all Dutch people.

Oh, they're all Dutch?

Oh, they're all Dutch.

So, there we go.

So, they're all Dutch then, aren't they?

They're all Dutch people.

Oh... - These people are all Dutch.

Hello, welcome to Easy English.

So today, we're making a video  with our friends Easy Dutch!

I want to know what the people  of Britain think of the Dutch;

if they've ever been to the Netherlands,

if they've ever met Dutch people,

any stereotypes they had about Dutch people

and what about Dutch culture or

a Dutch character trait,  would improve British life?

Now our friends at Easy Dutch are making

the counter-question to our episode.

They're asking the Dutch;  what they think of the Brits.

But back to our episode,

This is what British people think of the Dutch.

Before we start, don't  forget to like and subscribe.

Here we go.

I feel like Brits don't really have

much of a Dutch connection, really.

No, no.

Well, Amsterdam.

Go on. - (Coffee) shops.

In terms of Dutch people, or the...

nation of the Netherlands or even Holland,

what do you know about...

Nothing about that country,

I've nev... not even been there to visit.

Never been there at all in your life?

No.

Would you like to go, at  some point in you're lif...

No.

Whereabouts in the Netherlands, have you been?

Pretty much everywhere, I'd say actually.

Oh really? - Yeah, I've toured  Netherlands heavily, yeah.

Have you ever been to the Netherlands before?

I've been to Amsterdam. - Oh, okay.

I've taught in Amsterdam... - Oh, okay.

Which was quite exciting.

What about your experience?

Have you been... you went  to the Netherlands, right?

Yeah, I've been to the Netherlands.  - Whereabouts did you go?

Erm...

Was it a hen... a hen do? - So embarrassing.

Is that... is that Amsterdam? Is that... is that?

Yeah, yeah.

Was it for a hen party?

No, it wasn't. - Oh, okay.

No. I went a lot when I was young,

when I was a student and like,  when I went ''Interrailing'',

I ended up in Amsterdam. - Right.

And obviously, there was all  the things that students,

at that age, enjoy.

And so, that was part of the attraction;

was to go there, meet our friends.

Party.

Get stoned.

But have you... have you been to the Netherlands?

Yeah, I've been to Amsterdam  a couple of times. - Okay.

That's where most people end up going, though.

Which is really cliche. - Yeah, OK.

And when did you go? Were  you 17/18, maybe? - Yeah!

And more recently, a stag do.

So, it couldn't be any more  cliche a visiting, to be honest.

Amsterdam, for er... the usual kind of business,

fact-finding trips... - Liar. Boys.

And, Rotterdam, for the European  Cup Winners' Cup final in 1991.

He's been mostly everywhere,  following Manchester United, you see.

Managed by Johan Cruyff, at the time.

Have you been to the Netherlands?

Yeah. - Yeah. - Many times.

She... she dated a Dutchman. - I dated a Dutchman.

Did you really? - Yeah.

Oh, he didn't educate you  very well on Dutch people.

Er... well...

Yeah, no.

Is there like, a character trait,

that you'd recognise in Dutch people?

Yeah, they're very tall,  they're pretty chilled out.

Erm... and yeah, they're quite...

I don't know. They're just...

they're quite nice.

I like the Dutch.

I think they're very... I  think they're very progressive

And yet, quite old fashioned.  - Right? Interesting.

Why'd... why'd you say old fashioned?

Because they sort of, have their traditions

and their ways of doing things which  are quite traditional, you know.

I thought you were gonna say because  they also have a royal family?

Oh no, I'm not bothered about that.

But yeah, that could be part of it, yeah.

So I would say they're, in my experience,

usually quite outgoing,  friendly, generous. - Yeah.

Some people might say they're kind of,

a confident bunch of people. - Okay.

Willing to kind of, share  their thoughts and opinions.

What you think of the Dutch people, that you met?

Their English is incredible. - Yeah.

I once had a very amusing episode,

where I er... I went into the street

and I was trying to find how to get from A to B,

'cos I was working there.

And I went up to this guy,

he was sort of, smartly seated and I said;

''do you speak English?'' And he said;

''yes!''

As in; of course I speak English!

Are there any stereotypes that  you had about the Dutch people,

before you went there? And how  did they kind of, match up?

Oh yeah! So stereotypes;

cycling, flat surfaces...

And the people?

The hurdy furdy furdy...

pronunciation, the people being,

a weird combination between quite staid and

stand-offish and then incredibly free and open

and mostly naked and sexual.

Before you went there, did you have a stereotype?

Of what Dutch people would be like

and how did that kind of, compare?

I think the only stereotype before I went,

was the Austin Powers, freaky-deaky Dutch guy,

but I can't remember who his character was.

Goldmember. - was it Gold... yeah!

I don't know if that was the er...

the most fairest representation.

Well, there's that thing about,

you know, ''going Dutch'' and all that.

So they could be quite mean, in a sense.

You go out to a restaurant  or something and it's like;

Well, you had the drink...  - That's not being mean,

that's just being... - Yeah but, ''going Dutch''

is when you share the cost of a meal.

You know, they haven't got  that English thing about,

the amount to pay, which is good.

It's part of their progressiveness really.

But, it could come over as slightly mean.

There were... I mean, there's a stereotype that,

I think the Brits have, that the...

that never bothers me, but the Brits say;

''Oh, they're very direct'' and I say;

well fine, I'm happy with direct.

And did that match up? - Oh completely, yeah.

But I was completely fine with that,

it makes life a lot easier.

If you're asking directions; direct.

If you're...

I don't know, asking a question.

Then, you get a direct answer,  I'm... I'm fine with that, yeah.

Non of this, beating around the bush that the...

Non of this beating around the bush.

And, you know, if... if somebody bumps into you,

they say, ''sorry!'' They say;

''Oh, I'm terribly sorry!'' Sort of, you know,

I'm not sure about whether  I should say sorry or not.

It's very sort of, straightforward.

from your experience as a 17/18 year old,

smoking weed in Amsterdam.

Is there like, a cultural  thing or a character trait

which you could take from the  Netherlands and put into Britain?

And make it kind of, better?

That would improve British people/culture?

Just... just by being a bit  more laid back and chilled out.

What would you then take,

as someone who's been to  the Netherlands quite a lot.

What would you take from culture/character traits,

anything from the Netherlands  that would improve like,

British life, British people... - Oh, erm...

well, I don't know about these days,

because politically, it's changed a great deal.

I'd say, it's not the same place  it used to be 20 years ago,

to be honest. But, what I  largely enjoyed about is...

is it's very, very friendly,  very open, very welcoming.

We are quite conservative in our thinking here,

tradition... traditionally,  unless you're in Brighton.

But erm... and over there I would say, you know,

I've made friends with fruit  farmers who run festivals,

as I've made friends with wild  people that run clubs and bars

through to the early hours of the morning and...

But they will actually rock up with some cloggs on

and think it's perfectly fine as well.

It's... I guess it's that they let go of what...

what we all think is cool here. - Right!

They don't even consider that there.

So there's... there's less sort of...

Less inhibitions. - And you'd bring that over?

Oh, I'd love to. That would be great, wouldn't it?

Yeah, yeah. - It would actually, yeah.

I get there's much more of a  sense of equality and equity,

whether that's a value, I don't know.

But there's a concern for the underdog

and more of a concern for being more equal.

And economically, they are more equal;

the gap between the lowest  paid and the highest paid

is nowhere near as great as it is here.

Oh, so it's a political thing rather than  social thing. - Rather than a social thing.

Yeah, I'm not answering your  social question, perhaps.

But, as a political thing, that.

But as a social thing; I don't know.

I didn't get enough of a  sense of difference. - Yeah.

'Cos there was... I get a  sense that socially, maybe,

they're slightly closer to us.

(Their) sense of humour is certainly closer.

They do... they can do sarcasm.

I've been to Sweden; sarcasm  doesn't work, don't get it.

Occasionally, they find it funny, 'cos they're;

''oh, this is the English sense  of humour, it's so amusing''.

They quite like. Where Dutch, it's the same.

We've made the wrong decision  by moving out of Europe,

in terms of (the) European Union.

We could be more like the Netherlands,

by still being in the European Union.

But that's a kind of... that's a  bit too political for this er...

Okay, then what about a character trait?

Is there... - Character traits, yeah.

So I think they're kind  of, again, generalisations.

But, you know, kind of,

British are perhaps more reserved. - Right.

Bit kind of, claim to be a  bit shyer, in that respect.

and perhaps being a bit more outgoing and kind of,

approachable, would be one thing.

Nice, that's a good one. Brilliant!

Thanks for watching this week's episode.

Let us know what you thought of both episodes

In the comments below

and any opinions you have on the Dutch.

And we'll see you next week, bye!