Writing for Atlas Obscura, Dan Nosowitz deep-dives Dutch profanity, which turns out to be laden with wishing upon others one disease or another—“Get the corona!” having already entered the local lexicon. That said, I really do need to just sort of pass along one paragraph without comment.
“The Dutch people are very straightforward and blunt, we have a reputation of this, and that’s also in the cursing,” says Sanders. But for those who aren’t Dutch, some of this can seem wildly inappropriate. “You’re talking about a culture that celebrates Santa with slaves,” says Hines. “So there’s a certain level of what might seem like outright racism or homophobia or a lack of general graciousness to people who are not like you.” The Netherlands is more than three-quarters Dutch, and the Dutch are, like people in most European countries, grappling with how to speak to people who don’t look or act like them, but who are now part of their nation.