{"id":6550,"date":"2017-01-28T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-12T15:51:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T19:51:47","slug":"so-your-character-is-from-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriagracehowell.com\/staging\/6258\/so-your-character-is-from-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"So Your Character is From The Netherlands … Featuring Arlette @ Arlette Writes"},"content":{"rendered":"


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It’s time for this month’s So Your Character is From Another Country! This is a monthly or bimonthly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven’t checked out last week’s So Your Character is From Germany …<\/a> be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!<\/span>
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\nMy extent of knowledge about The Netherlands is that there are a lot of tulips and dikes, pedestrians don’t have the right of way, it’s very flat, and Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates<\/i> is set there. I’m so happy to have come across Arlette who has far expanded my knowledge of this country. <\/span>
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\nLet’s welcome her!<\/span>
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\nDisclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.<\/span>
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My name is Arlette, a 23 year old Dutch. I work as a meeting & events sales coordinator at a hotel in the city centre of Amsterdam. I\u2019m a bit of nerd, love reading and watching tv-shows, but I also have a passion for travelling. I have yet to venture beyond Europe, but I have already seen and explored so much on my home continent\u2026Every city and country has its own story to tell. I love it. I\u2019m sharing my stories on my blog. <\/span>
\nBlog<\/a>\/\/Facebook<\/a>\/\/Twitter<\/a><\/span>
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\nWhat do you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?<\/b><\/span>
\nThe capital Amsterdam is a landmark on its own. The canals and canal houses are typical for the city and therefore also for The Netherlands. Further, we celebrate Kingsday every year. Something typical Dutch. On this day we celebrate the birthday of the King (or Queen) and everyone goes all out in the colour orange, which is the national colour of the Netherlands. Orange clothes, balloons, any kind of decoration you can think of. You have to see it once to believe it\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kingsday<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Tell me about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?<\/b><\/span>
\nThe Netherlands is known for being below sea level, which most of our country is. We have a lot of dikes and reclaimed land. Add some cows to that sight and you have the countryside of The Netherlands. Of course we have larger cities as well, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague are very known, but I have to add Maastricht and \u2018s Hertogenbosch as lovely cities of The Netherlands. They are situated more to the south and have a completely different atmosphere, far more relaxed.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Amsterdam<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
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Tell me about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?<\/b><\/span>
\nThere is a lot of foreign influence when it comes to restaurants here in The Netherlands, though we also have \u201cour versions\u201d of for example Chinese food. The Dutch cuisine has some typical mashed potato dishes. Mashed potatoes with kale, with onions and carrot, yum! <\/span>
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Dutch Mashed Potatoes with Kale<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Tell me about any different speech patterns in your country. Slang? Idioms? Words for things such as \u201cbiscuits\u201d instead of \u201ccookies\u201d?<\/b><\/span>
\nWe have adopted a lot of English words into our language, words such as “computer” and “laptop” aren\u2019t foreign to us anymore. It\u2019s funny actually how many English words we have in our language nowadays. Some of them, such as “computer,” are official words and are in the dictionary, but a lot of younger people use \u201cunofficial\u201d English words all the time too.<\/span>
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