by Willem van Hoorn | Apr 1, 2026 | Dutch Culture, Expats Netherlands, Life in Netherlands, Settling In
Several years ago, I once sat in an airplane, on a homeward-bound flight to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The man in the window seat next to me was a first-time visitor to the Netherlands. As the plane descended towards the airport, and the landscape below became more...
by Willem van Hoorn | Mar 1, 2026 | Dutch Culture, cross culture communication, Expats Netherlands, Life in Netherlands, Settling In
In several earlier editions of my blogs, we already noticed: when you talk about cultural differences, you talk about ‘comparison’. The characteristics of a particular culture are usually not defined in absolute terms. They are rather described in relation to other...
by Willem van Hoorn | Sep 8, 2025 | Life in Netherlands, Dutch Culture, Expats Netherlands
If, in the last weeks, you have spent any time at all in Eindhoven during the evenings, it can barely have escaped you: the many hundreds of light objects along many streets, that together make-up the yearly ‘Lichtjesroute’ through Eindhoven. In this edition of my...
by Willem van Hoorn | Jun 8, 2025 | Life in Netherlands, Dutch Culture, Expats Netherlands, Settling In
Decoding the Dutch Family Names Ever wonder what a particular Dutch family name means? Or where it comes from? The Origin and Meaning of the Dutch Family names The early 1800’s laid the foundations of today’s Dutch civic administration. At that time, the...
by Willem van Hoorn | May 1, 2025 | Dutch Culture, Expats Netherlands, Life in Netherlands, Settling In
May 4th and May 5th – Commemorate and celebrate The unconditional surrender by the Nazi’s, on the fifth of May 1945, marked the end of almost 5 years of occupation of the Netherlands. Till this date, the Dutch celebrate ‘Liberation Day’, on the fifth of May. And on...
