Ask a Dutchman!

Ask a Dutchman? Yes.

And to kick things off, a controversy that has recently arisen in the Jewish community. The supreme rabbi of the Amsterdam Jewish Community signed a declaration issued that mentions that homosexuality is a disease, and can be treated. While the rabbi in question, Ralbag, who is also a psychologist, declared that he personally does not think homosexuality is a disease, he also admitted having treated ´some persons´ succesfully. As a result, first the Jewish Community has suspended their supreme rabbi, following which the Community itself has been threatened with a ban, should they not reinstate their supreme rabbi.

In the video below two spokespersons for the Amsterdam Jewish Community declare being ´unhappy´ with Ralbag´s signing of the declaration. (It´s from the Dutch national news show.)

http://nos.nl/l/tcm:5-1160351/

Ralbag himself is currently in Israel with his wife, and will stay there for some time, following indications that he and his wife may be in danger if returning home at this point. No further information was disclosed.

Why would he be in danger? Angry violent queers?

I'm shocked that a psychologist would say something like that. I don't care about his religion.

This was more like a comment. Heres a question:

In the netherlands you have a very liberal view on prostitution. What do you think about what they do in Norway and Sweden, making it illegal to buy sex? (But not to sell it)

How seriously we should take "Geert Wilders"? Does he have real political influence?

How mutually intelligible is Dutch and German?

aronnax said:

How mutually intelligible is Dutch and German?

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I'm not Dutch, but may I answer this one? I do speak Dutch...
German and Dutch are probably closer related to each other than to any other language. There are a lot of similarities, but they are not mutually intelligible, like the Scandinavian languages are. However if you make a little bit of an effort, at least understanding the other language isn't that difficult. Speaking is something very different, as I have noticed
It also depends a bit on the German dialects. The dialects along the border with Holland and Belgium (for instance Aachen, Cologne,...) have more similarities with Dutch, making it easier for those people to understand us.

muhtesem insan said:

How seriously we should take "Geert Wilders"? Does he have real political influence?

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Yes and no. On one hand, Geert Wilders is unofficially part of the current ruling government, but on the other hand, Geert Wilders is also marginalised by the other political factions (to some extent even by the current ruling government, which is why he is only unofficially part of the ruling government and Geert Wilders' political party doesn't have any ministers) making it difficult if not impossible for Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party to force anything through that distinguishes his party from all the others.

How true is the American stereotype that everyone in the Netherlands smokes pot since it's legal?

the statistics I've seen showed that Dutch are considerably less likely to have smoked pot than Americans on average.


Link to video.

1:00

(not sure about the source)

bombshoo said:

How true is the American stereotype that everyone in the Netherlands smokes pot since it's legal?

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First of all, pot isn't even legal in the Netherlands: By law, pot is illegal, but the ban simply isn't enforced to a certain extent. And no, not all Dutch persons smoke pot, since in the Netherlands, smoking pot is still considered less socially acceptable than alcohol or nicotine, despite its availability. I do occasionally smoke pot myself though, but I've never touched the stuff that is both illegal and could get you penalized obtaining it (LSD, Cocaine, MDMA).

EDIT:

Monsterzuma said:

the statistics I've seen showed that Dutch are considerably less likely to have smoked pot than Americans on average.

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I don't think that is true, though the Netherlands has relatively less drug-related deaths than hard-on-drugs countries like the US and Sweden.

Thanks, I didn´t know that. (For a large part, the ´toleration´ of soft drugs, attracts tourists.)

Tycho Brahe said:

Why would he be in danger? Angry violent queers?

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Apparently, while in Israel, he´s received serious warnings about a possible threat, but wouldn´t divulge on the sources or contents of these threats.

Tycho Brahe said:

In the netherlands you have a very liberal view on prostitution. What do you think about what they do in Norway and Sweden, making it illegal to buy sex? (But not to sell it)

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I´d say the practice is more liberal than the view. As for making prostitution illegal, ever since the late 19th century there have been attempts to do so, notably in Amsterdam, but also in other cities. Making prostitution illegal doesn´t solve the problems associated with it. Personally I don´t see much point in making ´the oldest profession in the world´ illegal; especially prostitutes (that actually have a trade union of sorts here) would benefit more by making it a safe trade, and making sure that no human trafficking is involved. Making it illegal is in this sense most counterproductive.

As for making buying sex illegal, that seems to be the same kind of ignoring the ´problem´. It will still hurt the trade of the professionals involved, which makes me inclined to see it as just another hypocritic approach.

aronnax said:

How mutually intelligible is Dutch and German?

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Less so than one might think. Especially tricky is that similar words have different meanings in both languages. Although in practice I think - especially in the border regions - it´s less of a problem. Educationwise however, German isn´t very popular as English as a second language. which is somewhat odd, seeing as Germany has been our largest trade partner for quite some time.

bombshoo said:

How true is the American stereotype that everyone in the Netherlands smokes pot since it's legal?

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As Mosterzuma mentions, it´s more of a stereotype. Pot is regulated. Recently there have been plans to regulate it even further, but so far nothing subtsantial has changed. (Oddly, growing /I] pot is illegal, if it´s for commercial purposes. Often criminal organizations are associated with large scale weed production.) Personally, I don´t know anyone who does smoke pot, although me and a brother of mine have tried it - once. (Turned out it didn´t agree with either of us.)

just an ordinary subpost so I'll remember this

Kaiserguard said:

EDIT:

I don't think that is true, though the Netherlands has relatively less drug-related deaths than hard-on-drugs countries like the US and Sweden.

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Wikipedia says it, therefore it is true!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_lifetime_cannabis_use_by_country
US: 42.4%, NL: 22.6%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_cannabis_use_by_country
US: 13.6%, NL: 5.4%

source of data: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Monitoring_Centre_for_Drugs_and_Drug_Addiction
looks legit, imo.

aronnax said:

How mutually intelligible is Dutch and German?

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I grew up in Northwestern Germany close to the Dutch border. The local dialect we have is a Low Germanic language, just like Dutch (but not Standard German), which makes it possible to figure out most Dutch sentences if you know the context (sometimes I watch ads on Dutch TV for fun). It's easier with written than with spoken Dutch, though. Language continuum in action

How many windmills does the average Dutch person own?

Leoreth said:

I grew up in Northwestern Germany close to the Dutch border. The local dialect we have is a Low Germanic language, just like Dutch (but not Standard German), which makes it possible to figure out most Dutch sentences if you know the context (sometimes I watch ads on Dutch TV for fun). It's easier with written than with spoken Dutch, though. Language continuum in action

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I agree. I can make myself be understood by Germans and I can understand most of it, even though I suck at it (finall grade for German was a 5,5/10). And I prefer reading German over talking/listening it, it's just easier.

Joecoolyo said:

How many windmills does the average Dutch person own?

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well, we have a population of 16,669,112
and we have about 1170 windmills (counting only those foreigners associate with The Netherlands)

A bit of math teaches us there are 0,00007 windmills per capita

Louis van Gaal or Johan Cruijf?

mayor said:

I agree. I can make myself be understood by Germans and I can understand most of it, even though I suck at it (finall grade for German was a 5,5/10). And I prefer reading German over talking/listening it, it's just easier.

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I'm always impressed with how many Dutch people speak German. Our language is really too complicated and not really worth it considering it's easier to just communicate in English.

Oh, and the Dutch accent in German is really adorable, especially in women.

Leoreth said:

I'm always impressed with how many Dutch people speak German. Our language is really too complicated and not really worth it considering it's easier to just communicate in English.

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Well in highschool you have to learn at least two foreign languages. English is the first and for your second you can choose between French and German (there are schools how offer other languages but these are most common).
The reason I can make myself understood is, probably, the fact I choose German, for the sole reason my French was worse, and that I used to work in the largest supermarket in the region. A lot of Germans come there, we even had Duitsedagen (Germandays). This were days when the Germans were free and came en masse to the supermarket.
I turn the Dutch teenagers went to the swimming pool across the border cause it was cheaper

Are you afraid that Germany would invade you again ??

Sorry for hijacking your thread JEELEN but I just have to answer this one

Harvin87 said:

Are you afraid that Germany would invade you again ??

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they already to that every Saturday, day off and during Summertime