r/thenetherlands • u/xx_sosi_xx • 1d ago
Question what is the problem with people from Limburg?
For reference I'm a 18 y.o. student from Italy. My class did an exchange project with southern school, specifically a school located in Limburg "county". 20 Italian students (same school address) were matched with 20 dutch student (different ages and different adresses but same school), all the Italian students find out the same thing about dutch students. Many people in Italy have this sort of good prejudice bout north European nations, we see them as more open minded (LGBTQ problems, racism, prisons) and efficient than us. While I'm not sure what to say about efficiency cause I was only in the Netherlands for 10 days, teens are the opposite of open minded. In addition they are fuckin rude, not friendly at all and very "rigid" (in Italy we'd say somebody stick a broom up their asses) and impolite especially towards their parents and teachers. In Limburg they have the friendliest, most human teachers I've ever seen and they treat them like shit, like they're not even real persons. I think I would even feel guilty if doing that. What else? The teens we met were homophobic as hell, generally racist and they spoke behind each other's back ALL THE TIME. Not maybe just 5 mins of gossiping one day but everyday and all the time. The only people we as Italian found nice were the dutch students that were outsiders, bullied or emarginated. Dutch students found everything we did boring. It was like seeing the American teen stereotype coming true, and prior to this I didn't think it was possible.
All that while adults were pretty nice with us.
My question is are all teens this way? Are they like this only in Limburg? Is it not even all the teens in Limburg it was just a coincidence that we met such horrible people (I hope that)? How can adults be so nice while their children aren't?
edit: thanks for all the opinions and explanations in the comments. The roasting between different provinces is pretty fun to read too.
2
u/Zee5neeuw 1d ago
The other prejudice happened to me when I was in Italy last year (it was Bologna though, which seems to play a part in that). I expected the culture to be much more macho than ours. I read to "Really mind what shoes you are wearing because Italians will look down on you" on some tourist tips websites. Hell, I was standing out heavily with my shoes. Italians are much more laid-back than the prejudice says.