Comments on Faoiseamh: Thin Lines

I think it is very very difficult to integrate int...

2009-06-17T14:01:50.446+02:00

I think it is very very difficult to integrate into Dutch society for foreigners becuase the Dutch, in general, do not allow foreigners the chance to learn the language. The hit back English at most attempts even when English is not the mother tongue of the foreigner. Most people will only put up with that for so long before being so disheartened they give up. I believe the Dutch people's attitude to their own language is a gigantic problem here.

Also for foreigners from the west life can seem so similar to what we're used to that it is easy to forget that it's a totally different country - this can mean that differences can seem greater than they really are. In other far away places we expect more and bigger differences so are inclined to 'tolerate' them more easily. Just my opinions :-)

Yes they generally all speak fluent English, but t...

2009-06-06T22:42:01.055+02:00

Yes they generally all speak fluent English, but the accents are quite different. the anglo-SA accent is like an upper class English accent with a slight New Zealand influence, whereas the Afrikaaner accent is like a bastardised Dutch-Australian hybrid.

There are quite a few Afrikaners about, even in my...

2009-06-06T21:25:39.934+02:00

There are quite a few Afrikaners about, even in my company but you never know until somebody tells you as their Dutch is always fluent given the fact that the two languages are so alike. There are far more Afrikaners in the UK, they even have an Afrikaans language newspaper there. Again though I am not so sure that it is easy to tell the difference between Afrikaners and English speakers unless they explicitly tell you since they all speak fluent English.

Out of interest, do you have many South Africans i...

2009-06-06T17:56:01.612+02:00

Out of interest, do you have many South Africans in the Netherlands? I know that many white South Africans have emigrated to the UK, USA and Australia, mostly the English speakers though. The Netherlands would be culturally, ancestrally and linguistically compatible with the experiences of an Afrikaaner however. Have you noticed any significant trend in this direction?

I think that many expats do actually think that th...

2009-06-03T20:53:59.331+02:00

I think that many expats do actually think that they are better than their hosts and that sometimes that there is a pure superiority complex at play. This behaviour would be quite common when the rich westerner is posted to a poor developing country and lives in his complex away from the locals. My family in the oil industry would have been part of that expat experience.
Expats in an advanced western country are in a more complex situation as there justifications for feeling above the local culture are undermined by the fact that the country around them might well be more advanced in many ways than their home country.
Of course my own view is that you should try to meet the host culture half way in so far as possible. Many cultures are so complex that you cannot be expected to integrate and the locals may not want that anyway. However, I think the word respect can be translated into just about any language.

I'm with Nick on the superiority aspect, but I als...

2009-06-03T19:43:24.146+02:00

I'm with Nick on the superiority aspect, but I also think that this can often stem from a sense of identity. Some people will arrive keen to integrate in order to garner value within the new society, personal/cultural identity can be traded off in this context, the good aspect of the new home assimilated, others brushed asside with little fuss. Whereas if you arrive having "made it" as the expats do, the desire to maintain their own identity would colour their views, the good aspects would be incidental and any downsides to be sneered at.

I think an air of superiority is always a compensa...

2009-06-03T14:44:51.247+02:00

I think an air of superiority is always a compensation (or over-compensation) for a feeling of inferiority. I imagine most people settling in another country will easily feel inferior because of their lack of knowledge of the country, its customs, its culture, its language etc. The natural reaction is to realise you are an equal, just another human being with the same needs and desires as the locals, but it's easy to go further and act superior to make the locals deferential and less threatening.