I really appreciated this post, so thank you for sharing your experience! I am from the Netherlands but also recognized some elements (e.g., my feelings about moving for work or caring about the status/ranking of a university).
Something else I have experienced in the Netherlands is that people are very suspicious of organizations handing out freebies, like EA local groups giving away free books to attract people. Maybe that’s just the Dutch cheapskate mentality, but I have noticed people become skeptical of your approach when they feel you’re not careful about how you spend your money. I think it’s worth considering that this could put some people off and might actually be counterproductive.
Sometimes I also feel kind of uncomfortable about how people from the US can, in my experience, be very “jovial”/outgoing and “give out” hugs much more easily. Something else is that they tend to ask “how are you doing?” as a conversation starter all the time, but the answer is always “I’m good, how are you” and then the conversation turns to what they really want to talk about. Maybe it’s a bit cynical, but if I feel like asking how someone is doing is made such a casual thing and there is not a lot of empathy involved, I become kind of disconcerted (especially if I am feeling kind of low that day but think it would be inappropriate to mention) and wish the other person never asked the question in the first place. I think people in the Netherlands tend to reserve these kinds of questions for when they are closer to someone and when they really have the time to actually listen to the answer, whatever it might be.
All in all, I hope that, as EA grows, people outside of the US/UK might find their own approach to EA and it might feel less like all the other “cool” things that blow over from the US/UK but are not really part of our own culture, and more like something that feels welcoming to everyone.
I really appreciated this post, so thank you for sharing your experience! I am from the Netherlands but also recognized some elements (e.g., my feelings about moving for work or caring about the status/ranking of a university).
Something else I have experienced in the Netherlands is that people are very suspicious of organizations handing out freebies, like EA local groups giving away free books to attract people. Maybe that’s just the Dutch cheapskate mentality, but I have noticed people become skeptical of your approach when they feel you’re not careful about how you spend your money. I think it’s worth considering that this could put some people off and might actually be counterproductive.
Sometimes I also feel kind of uncomfortable about how people from the US can, in my experience, be very “jovial”/outgoing and “give out” hugs much more easily. Something else is that they tend to ask “how are you doing?” as a conversation starter all the time, but the answer is always “I’m good, how are you” and then the conversation turns to what they really want to talk about. Maybe it’s a bit cynical, but if I feel like asking how someone is doing is made such a casual thing and there is not a lot of empathy involved, I become kind of disconcerted (especially if I am feeling kind of low that day but think it would be inappropriate to mention) and wish the other person never asked the question in the first place. I think people in the Netherlands tend to reserve these kinds of questions for when they are closer to someone and when they really have the time to actually listen to the answer, whatever it might be.
All in all, I hope that, as EA grows, people outside of the US/UK might find their own approach to EA and it might feel less like all the other “cool” things that blow over from the US/UK but are not really part of our own culture, and more like something that feels welcoming to everyone.