For the arrangement of my internship, I had to go to the Netherlands. Again I remarked some interesting differences between the Belgian people and the Dutch ...

Sources (Geert Hofstede) told me that Belgian people and Dutch people aren't very alike. G. Hofstede said that "there are no 2 countries so different than Belgium and the Netherlands".

According to my source   (http://www.luzazultrainingen.nl/nieuwsbrief2007-1.htm):

- Belgians have more hiërachie than the Dutch people.

"De Nederlanders gaan al snel over op de informele termen; "je" en "jij" ."

This was also the case in my internship-meeting. The company was not very hiërachic. The Belgians are far more formal and that's the reason we think the Dutch people are arrogant and have little respect.

-A date is a date

"In Nederland toch, in Belgie zijn dit slechts een paar hoofdlijnen, waar je van kan afwijken of flexibel hanteren. De Nederlander is hier rechtlijniger in, en de Belg flexibeler."

This was also the case in my communication with the Dutch company

12-12-2011, 00:00 Geschreven door Tim Vanbelle  

The Russian girl I met had never learned how to ride a bike.

She said that in Russia not many people do this, because it's very dangerous over there. The traffic, in most parts of Russia, is a mess, she told me!!! 

I think this is because people in Russia are very particularist. They think the law is different in all circumstances. They interpret it the way they want, so they will be less galant and more stressy. Because of this the traffic becomes of course much more dangerous... And this is the reason why people avoid riding bycicles.

So... we teached her how to ride a bike.

You can imagine this was a very FUNNY experience 

17-12-2011, 00:00 Geschreven door Tim Vanbelle  

Another thing I've learned is that the Germans are far more patriotic than we are!

We are NOT AT ALL patriotic (but maybe we have less thing to be proud of ?) Of course we also have things to be proud of but where just a small country.

When I was watching a game of soccer with some German people, they all knew their national anthem, and they were all singing allong! Even the woman!

(And most woman also know all the player names, in Belgium this is certainly not the case!)

After a while we were also telling jokes. I was amazed that these german people also made jokes about the war. I thought this would certainly be a "NOT DONE" toppic. But these young people didn't see it this way. It made me think about a very funny video I saw recently :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0

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