Friday, November 1, 2013
I'm considering moving to the Netherlands, can anyone give me some information?
I'm considering moving to the Netherlands, can anyone give me some information?
I'm currently an American university student, I'm considering moving to the Netherlands after I finish graduate school. I'm of Indonesian descent, so I do know plenty of people that live in the Netherlands. I have begun learning some conversational Dutch, but I'm taking my time since it will be at least 5 years before I'll even begin any serious work on moving. I have some questions about the country, can you please answer them for me? 1. How are the schools in the Netherlands? 2. How much is English spoken in the country? Is it spoken rarely? Often? Is it used much in the workforce or in schools? 3. I'm a devout Catholic, are there many Catholic churches there? 4. What about cost of living? Is it high in Amsterdam? And taxes, how high is income tax? 5. I heard that the Netherlands is one of the most densely populated nations, how does this affect your lifestyle? 6. Are there any noteworthy differences between Dutch and American culture? 7. I usually don't like to venture into politics, but I'll make an exception in this case. Do most Dutch people approve of Balkenede? Are the Christian Democrats well-recieved? Or do people usually favor the Socialist or Labor parties better? 8. How's the weather? Does it snow in the winters? Are the summers humid or dry? How much rain do you get per year? 9. Do you air a lot of American tv shows on TV? How do you personally like Dutch shows? Thank You, and Happy Holidays!
Netherlands - 1 Answers
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1. The schools in the Netherlands are mainly public schools. We have elementary schools (kindergarten + primary schools, from 4 till 12 years), secondary schools (4, 5 or 6 years long, depending on what level) and higher education (university etc.) The secondary school is divided in vmbo (4 years), havo (5 years) and vwo (6 years). Only with vwo you can go to university. You'll probably do havo or vwo. In the havo and vwo, you have to choose your subjects. You have different 'directions', alfa and bèta. You'll see when you get here. 2. Knowledge of English is widely spread in this country. English is a compulsory subject in secondary schools, and almost all primary schools offer English in the last two years. You won't have any problems with that. Only some older people might not speak English at a decent level, but children learn English very early because almost all tv programs are not translated but subtitled (they see English everywhere). 3. There are lots of Catholic churches here. Although the Netherlands were, originally, a protestant country, there are Catholic churches. You'll find more of them in the south (south of the big rivers), where the majority of the people is catholic. But most of the people here aren't engaged with any religion, the majority does not have a certain religion (you can check wikipedia). 4. The cost of living is relatively high in the Netherlands. Also Amsterdam is expensive, but that's everywhere in Western Europe. There is not one percentage of income tax, it varies from 30% to more than 50 %, depending on your income. http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_inkomstenbelasting_2001 5. Because the Netherlands are densely populated (and because it's a really flat country), we always use the bicycle for transport. You'll find bicycle parking lots at every railway station (those are numerous too). Almost everybody goes to school by bike. 6. Well, one of the main differences is that we are not so materialistic, the size of plates is smaller, practically everything is smaller. We have to share the little space we have with everybody ;) We also don't celebrate Christmas in the same way you do. We don't 'do' Santa, we celebrate with family and decorate, but not much more. Some people go to church. What we do do, is Sinterklaas. He arrives in late November on a steam boat with his 'helpers' (black petes, Zwarte Pieten), and he gives gifts to children. It is celebrated on the 6th of December (Saint Nicholas' Day), or the evening of the 5th (pakjesavond). Sinterklaas was brought to America by Dutch colonists and 'transformed' to Santa Claus, by the way. 7. Well, most people do actually. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been re-elected. But there are really many political parties in the parliament, so the majority of the people favor somebody else. Although Labor parties are favored, there is a shift to the right-wing (Geert Wilders), who is against people from other countries (Allochtonen) 8. The Netherlands have a sea climate, soft winters and cool summers. The average temperature in July is around 18 degrees, in January around 3 degrees. But the weather can be treacherous, sometimes we have cool wet summers, sometimes it is 30 degrees, sometimes it freezes in winter (or snows like now, though that is rare), sometimes it does not get below zero the entire winter. Sometimes it even freezes at night in late April! 9. There are lots of American tv shows on Dutch television. Oprah Winfrey, dr Phil and as the world turns are all broadcasted here. But personally I favor Dutch shows, they're more suited for us and made for the Duch, I think. Good luck in the Netherlands!
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