Netherlands - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

Having just returned from the Netherlands, we found this book to be very helpful and also an icebreaker with new Dutch friends, who thought some of the observations about their national character and customs were spot-on while others were amusing. Also, citizens were surprised that I knew a fair bit of history as well as more contemporary information about national politics etc. This was a handy guide to the basics of functioning in this wonderful country. I would recommend this to travellers. Very handy.

This book is clear and concise.The format makes it very easy to read from cover to cover or to select a couple of chapters. I have lived in the Netherlands for 10yrs and enjoyed it immensely. I have also sent the book to my relatives in the UK and they found it an enlightening read. I highly recommend it to anyone planning a stay in the Netherlands.

Of all the travel books about The Netherlands that I used in the 10 years of living there, this was the best. It was up-to-date, concise and informative. It makes a great gift for anyone planning a trip to the Netherlands and has useful information for locals and travellers alike. The size of the book makes for easy carring around.

I have lived in The Netherlands for only four months. I have looked at several sources of information about the country: its culture, customs, language, history, climate, geography, tourist attractions etc.. I found Mr. Janin's brief (167pp) volume to have been very well-done. I believe his 25 years as a U.S. diplomat (but not in The Netherlands) have taught him what an outsider needs, to begin to understand a culture. He combines the personal experience of others--in this case, his Dutch wife, her family and many of their friends and acquaintances--with pofessional writings. He even includes an 18-item english-language reading list. The range of topics covered is broad--geography, climate, history, language, customs, principal attractions, even a "culture-quiz" to help the reader understand what s/he has learned about the culture at the end of the book. The coverage is also balanced: he includes both pluses (egs.respect for others, language ability) and minuses (egs.drug use, immigrants and asylum seekers). He readily recognizes that, however helpful it might be to understanding the society, the Dutch view of themselves--which he capsulizes--is not likely to be objective. I wish he had included information on regional differences in the Dutch language, customs and attitudes. But, that minor quibble aside, I think Mr. Janin's goal in writing this small book ("to help [the reader] become [a] well-briefed foreigner." (p.10)) has been achieved in an admirable fashion. I think it is an informative, easy-to-read--even entertaining--book that is well worth reading.