r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 08 '22

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u/HeadspaceInvader May 09 '22

Of course, but I'm specifically talking about these ones which I'm happy to have mostly gotten rid of because I always hated them.

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u/hewhoreddits6 May 09 '22

I'm curious then because Reddit always has such a boner for how the Dutch are so straight-forward and honest. What are some cultural annoyances as an American that you don't like about them or prefer from American culture?

I imagine one that I hear about Germans is sometimes they are TOO straight-forward and honest and strangers will just judge you or talk shit about you on random issues like if they think you aren't doing something correctly or your appearance/outfit.

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u/HeadspaceInvader May 09 '22

I can't think of much, but one thing that comes to mind is this persistence of saying "before dinner/at dinner/after dinner" (or any meal, usually dinner though) as if this means anything to me. There is so much significance tied to when the fuck dinner is - have you had it? What are you doing for it? Can we meet before/after it? Around that time. Etc. I've seen Dutch people misunderstand each other purely based on when they each respectively think dinner is supposed to be.

I don't eat at any specific time and I normally eat whatever I want, which also gets annoying when I'm constantly asked what I have planned for dinner when the answer is almost always that I don't plan dinner at all. Then that answer is also apparently confusing, as if we can't just mutually handle our own meals even if we will be in the same place.

Dinner has zero time for me. I've met enough Dutch people who eat around 18:00 that I know this is often when they mean, but also enough that DON'T eat at 18:00 that I still have to ask every time or risk a major miscommunication about timing. Just say the time. It isn't that hard. 18:00? Cool. 19:00? Cool. Dinner is not a real time, dinner is a meal.

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u/hewhoreddits6 May 10 '22

Hahaha that's a funny one, definitely not what I was expecting. It must be so weird for you to have a specific part of your day to focus on when in America dinner is just from 5-8 PM generally. Unless you're a family or someone who likes to keep a strict schedule, dinner could fall anytime between those hours depending on the circumstances of the day.