Japan and the Netherlands

[ShounenSuki]

I was wondering how the Japanese think about the Netherlands and the Dutch. The two countries have a long history together, but unfortunately, thanks to the Second World War, many people in the Netherlands don't like Japan much (although this is changing ^^)

[jogumpie]

I was also wondering about this... If you would check out a penpal website, you would see that most Japanese (14-16yo) are interested in either the USA or the UK, but I haven't seen anyone being interested in The Netherlands.
I hope the Japanese like Holland.

[Shibakoen]

Himawarino nioi suru osamuraisan sagashiteimasu -- Fuu

Check out Samurai Champloo. I think you guys would find it entertaining since you're looking for any cultural history shared between the two countries. Anyway, I think van Gogh went to Japan to study their traditional art (ukiyo-e). I haven't read much about it because I'm not a big art person, but you may want to check it out.

[keatonatron]

Well, sorry to say not a lot of people are interested in the Netherlands. How many American High School students study Dutch? How many of them want to visit the Netherlands??

Japan is the same... You will find a lot of people who visit the Netherlands as part of their vacation throughout Europe, but not many people focus on it as an interest.

[natemb]

I agree that the Netherlands don't get as much attention here in Japan as bigger European countries like the UK, France, Italy, etc., but based on watching a lot of Japanese TV and seeing all the travel programs, it seems to me that overall Japanese interest and awareness in foreign countries is a bit higher than in the US at least.

Also, I have found people here to be knowledgeable about or interested in the Netherlands for two reasons: One is, as was mentioned, the shared history and all the Japanese words of Dutch origin (although not all Japanese care about where their words came from and people often assume that any word in katakana comes from English). A second, more modern reason is that there are many good Dutch fighters in the martial arts tournaments that are so popular here (like K-1 and Pride).

As for an overall opinion towards Dutch people, I agree with keatonatron that there doesn't seem to be enough universal interest here that you could say the Japanese generally like or dislike the Dutch.

[keatonatron]

When I was first learning Japanese, my friends were surprised that I didn't know what アルバイト meant. Turns out it's German.

[natemb]

yeah. My girlfriend, who speaks English fluently, has a couple of times said something to me in English that I didn't understand at all, and it turned out she was using a katakana word with a non-English origin and converting it "back" to English! I suppose it's pretty natural, because the vast majority of modern loan words are from English.

[coco]

オランダの方、ありがとう＾＾
http://www.hollandforjapan.jp/

[Reno]

w000t The Netherlands are cool lol but too small to notice for a lot of ppl. And thats a big `duh`, do we dutch ppl think of going on vacation to Bosnia? Or learning the bosnian language? Thats pretty much the same.

Keaton-san, as for the overall popularity of the Netherlands (especially Amsterdam, my hometown ) is pretty big since it has legal whores and u are "sort-of" allowed to smoke weed. Believe me a lot of ppl come just because of that. How shallow is that?!:D!

[keatonatron]

I know all about Amsterdam. It is well-known, but not really a common tourist destination for anyone older than a college-student.

[nihongogakusei]

How many American High School students study Dutch? How many of them want to visit the Netherlands??

Mijn Nederlands is niet zo goed, maar Ik kan een beetje spreken.

I'm a highschool student living in the U.S. and I study Dutch as well as Japanese (whatever languages I can manage to learn, really). Of course, it isn't exactly common for people living in the U.S. to know Dutch...

[Reno]

Dat is waar, maar je doet het al best goed! Er zat maar 1 foutje in je zin

To keep it brief here is the translation: That's true, but you're pretty good at it already! You just made one mistake in your sentence:D

[two_heads_talking]

nihongogakusei wrote:

How many American High School students study Dutch? How many of them want to visit the Netherlands??

Mijn Nederlands is niet zo goed, maar Ik kan een beetje spreken.

I'm a highschool student living in the U.S. and I study Dutch as well as Japanese (whatever languages I can manage to learn, really). Of course, it isn't exactly common for people living in the U.S. to know Dutch...

unfortunately the people i meet think Dutch = German. nope not even close..

my knowledge of the netherlands is very little. i do like many of the dishes that are prepared in the netherlands..