To live in the Netherlands is one thing. To know the land, the culture, the people and the language is another question. For me as an immigrant I want to know as much as possible about the Netherlands. Therefore I make myself familiar with the Dutch facts step by step. In this article I will take a closer look on the different provinces of the Netherlands.
In complete the Netherlands consists of 12 provinces. Thereby six of these provinces are located on the coastal line of the Netherlands. Three provinces are located next to the Belgium border, while five provinces are located next to the German border. These 12 provinces are:
- Zeeland
- Noord-Brabant
- Limburg
- Zuid-Holland
- Noord-Holland
- Utrecht
- Gelderland
- Flevoland
- Overijssel
- Friesland
- Drenthe
- Groningen
Each province has its own specials as well as its own dialect. Even if the Netherlands are a very small country people from the northern territories have problems to understand people from the southern territories. The funny things is for me as a foreigner I understand both of them good (or bad). Because I have to pay more attention on the meaning as well as the body language most of the time I’ll understand people from Noord-Brabant very well as people from Groningen. In contrast people from Groninge do have problems to understand people from Noord-Brabant as well as the other was round. Nevertheless both of them are very funny. It’s not a question where you’re coming from as long as you’re from the Netherlands. The way of living and their humor is still the same, regardless of northern or southern inhabitant.
The original graphic of the Dutch provinces can be found on Wikipedia and was released under the GNU Free DocumentationLicense.
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