Netherlands: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture (Culture Smart!)

Culture Smart! Netherlands will take you beyond thestereotypical windmills, clogs, cheese, and tulips to understandthe complex layers of Dutch identity. There are tips on what toexpect and how to behave in different circumstances, and there is asection on business style and working practicesThis small, densely populated, low-lying country on Europe’snorthwestern seaboard punches above its weight. As the name“Netherlands,” or lowlands, suggests, nearly 25 percent of it isbelow sea level and the Dutch have spent centuries keeping theNorth Sea at bay — hence the saying, “God made the world, but theDutch made Holland.” In the seventeenth century their maritimetrading empire straddled the globe, and the scientific andintellectual life it stimulated ushered in our modern age. Todaythe Netherlands is a prime economic hub of Europe and the port ofRotterdam is the largest in the world.The Netherlands has an international reputation for championingjustice and human rights. It is also famous for its liberalattitudes, reflected in Dutch law and especially evident in thecapital, Amsterdam. Intelligent, cosmopolitan, outward-looking,enterprising, and modest, the Dutch are people worth getting toknow and Culture Smart! Netherlands offers the perfect insight intotheir customs and attitudes.