I know some Dutch people who would be rather offended if you’d call them a Hollander. 
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- Thread starter Grendelsbayne
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You can call me everything except Twentenaar, mostly I go with Achterhoeker. 
I always thought Twente and de Achterhoek were the same area...You can call me everything except Twentenaar, mostly I go with Achterhoeker.
I always thought Twente and de Achterhoek were the same area...
You should get a ban for that post
afaik Twente is the same as Overijssel and Achterhoek is the province adjacent to the south and east of it. But being a foreigner I might be mistaken.I always thought Twente and de Achterhoek were the same area...
I think we need a map.
Twente is a regional name for the eastern part of Overijssel. Most people in Overijssel live in Twente (because it's more urbanized) but more than half of Overijssel is not Twente.
Achterhoek is the region south of Twente, but not a province (it's the eastern part of the province Gelderland). Though as I understand it there's a bit of Germany that counts as Achterhoek, too.
ah! That's interesting. Thank you! =)
Twente and de Achterhoek are actually two of my favourite holiday destinations. 
We generally go to Deventer, Haarlem or the sea (usually Vlissingen/Middelburg, but we've discussed other possibilities - maybe Zandvoort someday). Leiden was nice, too, but more for a daytrip.
I'd love to go to Texel or Terschelling to learn more about the coastal fauna and flora =) Coming from a mountaneous area, I am fascinated by the sea.
The different dialects thing had me thinking. Is there such a thing as High Dutch that everyone speaks and understands, like High German or Queen's English?
The different dialects thing had me thinking. Is there such a thing as High Dutch that everyone speaks and understands, like High German or Queen's English?
There's ABN (algemeen beschaafd Nederlands). Although wikipedia tells me it hasn't officially been called ABN since the 70s, which is funny since I've never heard it called anything else. It's what all the newscasters and most of the politicians and tv personalities use 90% of the time, what language courses are generally based on, etc.
In my experience, most people speak ABN most of the time (at work, with friends from other areas and so on). Dialects are primarily only used with family or local friends/acquaintances - and even then not necessarily all the time - and a lot of places have fewer and fewer people who can truly understand the local dialect fully (accents are still pretty strong but, say, many traditional local words that aren't in ABN are barely used).
Having said that, my experience doesn't cover the whole country, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear there are major exceptions in specific places. Limburg in particular sounds like the kind of place where dialects would be doing a lot better than average. And Friesland is a whole different kettle of fish with it's own separate language.
ah, that would be very much the same situation as in German. Only that here local dialects seem to be a bit more dominant in the spoken language. There are rather a lot of Germans who are unable to speak an unaccented High German.
Well, if the standard is 'unaccented' ABN, I'm not sure how many here could do it, either. Actually I'm not really sure if ABN has a 100% definitive accent to it in the first place. The 'Gooise' accent is hugely popular among celebrities, but that's a fairly recent development (like ten-twenty years or so). A Brabander speaking ABN will still have a soft G sound that's totally different from the (painfully) hard G of an Amsterdammer speaking ABN.
I like Deventer, Haarlem and Middelburg too, Vlissingen less so. I’m afraid I don’t remember anything about Zandvoort. Coastal towns in Holland tend to be crowded and touristy, in my experience.
I’d recommend Vlieland, as there are no cars allowed on that island.
Vlissingen has a nice beach. (At least, by our standards - pretty and never too crowded.) And not much else, honestly. For a long time we couldn't even find a decent seafood restaurant there (for some really bizarre reason I still don't understand) though there was a really nice sushi place last time we went. And if you do find a restaurant or shop there that you really like, odds are it'll be out of business by the time you go back again because all the businesses there seem to have serious trouble surviving through the off season. But the beach is really the main reason we go there anyway.
For shopping, dining and general atmosphere Middelburg is just better and you can still visit the beach at Vlissingen with a ten minute train ride if you want. But there's something just so much nicer about a hotel on the beach...
I prefer the beaches in Zeeland over the ones in Holland, so I can understand why you like Vlissingen. I’m not really the summer beach holiday type myself, as I prefer my beach empty and windy. But we do have some beautiful dune areas near Castricum, Bergen and Bloemendaal
same here I am not the bathing type (as a matter of fact I can't swim, even though I work in the water most days), but I enjoy learning about the native plants and animals.
I have 4 books in Dutch which might give you an insight in my character and interests: Het Margriet kookboek, Feldgids schelpen, De larven der Nederlandse Chironomidae and last but not least: Waterpissebedden
I am not the bathing type (as a matter of fact I can't swim, even though I work in the water most days), but I enjoy learning about the native plants and animals.I have 4 books in Dutch which might give you an insight in my character and interests: Het Margriet kookboek, Feldgids schelpen, De larven der Nederlandse Chironomidae and last but not least: Waterpissebedden
