'Why Expatica readers go abroad'

Dear editor,

I read your site with interest - having a long association with Holland. However, I feel compelled to react to your recent survey ending with the conclusion that the majority of ex-pats moving to Holland are 'driven to travel by a quest for adventure, a desire to improve their language skills and to broaden their horizons'.     
 
You make it sound as though they've moved to Outer Mongolia, or the Caucasus region.  It's Holland for goodness sake where virtually every Dutch person speaks English; a hop and a skip across the North Sea. As for improving their language skills - learning Dutch is about as useful as learning Urdu. Only other countries where it might be useful are Indonesia and Suriname.  One of course could also use it in Curacao, Aruba, say - if they didn't insist on speaking Papiamento.   
 

Photo: Beethovenstraat Amsterdam 1967.Copyright Ed van der Elsken/ Nederlands Fotomuseum, Courtesy Annet Geelink Gallery.

I moved to Holland in the 1960's as a young graduate.  I got a job as an English correspondent with a large shipping company.  Part of my brief was to improve their English correspondence - it was somewhat stuck in the 'Dickens' age at the time.  I was the sole foreigner in this very large company. When I went every 6 months to the 'sign on' with the ‘Buitenlandse Afdeling’ of the 'Vreemdelingen Politie' I was the only female and the only Brit (they told me this). After a few years of being found OK (i.e. in steady employment and not causing a 'nuisance' I got my 'leave to remain' for, effectively ever.
 
The Dutch clasped me to their bosom - in the nicest way.   I was hardly ever at home in the evenings due to endless invites to go to their houses/or a restaurant for dinner. These invites came from colleagues, Directors of the company, neighbours - the list is endless.   I was invited on sailing trips in Friesland, outings all over the country.   I attribute my popularity, not only to my agreeable character, but, more to the point, the fact that I learned to speak Dutch in 6 months.

I had taken a tiny room with two aged Mokumers (Amsterdammers) - neither of whom spoke a word of English.   This was very tough going in the beginning - the lady of the house - who I was told to call 'Oma' (grandmother), used to just say things over and over again, and louder.  I got myself a dictionary immediately and vowed to learn 20 words a day.  Oma had never used a dictionary so in the beginning it was tough, not to mention tedious.
 
I also watched every English-speaking film I could.  They were all sub-titled in those days - so one could hear the English and see the jumble of words which would make things apparent to the Dutch viewers - truly excellent method to learn.  It also helped enormously with reading the language.   
 
After several years I was at a party on the Keizersgracht with old friends.   There I met a woman from a top (American) management consultancy firm. She was amazed at my Dutch - gave me her card and asked me to call her.   I did, and ended up with a great job with this company - travelling all over Europe to work on various studies.   I thus learnt German (a posting in Hamburg for 6 months on a large study) - and so it went on.
 
I was of course in those days 'unique'. There were so few Brits in Holland.
 
So, in effect, what I am saying is that in this day and age I find it hardly 'adventurous' to go and live/work in Holland and 'moan a lot' - something I've noticed on your website. [See 'The Dutch disease']
 
Holland has deteriorated over time - as have all countries of course.  For decades, studies by the World Bank and other such bodies placed Holland as one of the top 5 countries in the world to live - together with Denmark, Sweden etc.  It's now dropped down that list.  Corruption, (bouw schandalen), and organised crime have contributed to this fall.  Schooling is not what it was and high taxes are also a disincentive. 

I married an American who I met whilst working in NYC.   He was a top earner - and we did go back to Holland where he worked for McKinsey as a partner.   Due to the high taxes high-performing foreigners were given a 5-year tax break (for obvious reasons otherwise they could not persuade any top foreigner to go and live there).   We lived in a beautiful house on the Keizersgracht.   We had a wonderful time there.

However, a few months before the tax break ran out we moved - neither of us willing to contribute 40 percent plus to the Dutch exchequer who were busy funding drug addicts, the contra-prestatie (BKR (stopped in 1987) – an arrangement whereby so-called 'artists' were given quite substantial monthly payments just for handing in a piece of their 'art':  there are aircraft hangers in Holland still full of the 'junk' they handed in) and other such barmy schemes.  (Editor's note: Now there is the Wwyk – Wet werk en inkomen kunstenaars.)
 
Since then we've lived in many different countries:  Sweden (Stockholm), Japan, NYC - it's quite a list. Anyway, I just wanted to make the point.  The best days to be a 'foreigner' in Holland, in my opinion, were then. 

Regards,
Barbara Black

12 June 2007

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