When I moved here almost 3 years ago I felt I slipped into Amsterdam so effortlessly that at times I wondered if I had lived here my entire life. I found the locals easy to understand and easy to deal with, I loved the sense of community that I felt all around me and I loved that women were completely liberated, independent and confident.
And recently this all made sense when I learnt a little about Hofstede and his Cultural Dimension Theory, Hofstede identified several values (dimensions) that differentiate a country's culture and society form another; Masculinity, Power Distance, Individualism, and Uncertainty Avoidance.
So I ranked my home culture(s) using a really cool cultural differentiation tool I found online, and this is what happened:
Masculinity MA - The Degree to which a country’s society supports the traditional male/female roles. Power Distance PDI - the extent of equality and inequality between people in a country’s society, low PDI scores point toward more social equality while a high PDI indicates inequalities of wealth and power. Individualism IDV - the degree to which a country’s culture values and supports the value of the individual over the group. Uncertainty Avoidance UAI - the degree of which a country’s culture accepts uncertainly and ambiguity. A low VAI indicates a societies willingness to accept change and consider new ideas whereas high Vai Cultures try to minimize the amount of unknown situations, high VAI cultures also tend to be more emotional. |
All the things I hated and loved about growing up as a Greek in Australia were either toned down or toned up in the Netherlands; annoying, stifling gender stereotypes and crazy emotional reactions, gone, replaced by a better sense of community.
In fact the only thing I really struggled with in the Netherlands compared to Australia was power distance differences that I picked up on here in the work force, kudos to my fellow Aussies on that one!