So Apparently I look Dutch...

The other day, I met a Swedish friend of a friend. I introduced myself, and, about five or ten minutes later, the Swede asked me, “Are you Dutch?”.

I might have put this down to a minor anachronism, if this Swede hadn’t been the fourth person to think that I was Dutch. Here is a breakdown of nationalities people have guessed I am, as well as I can remember:

- Dutch (4)

- British (2)

- Canadian (2)

- American (1)

- French (1)

- “Rhodesian” (1, an elderly gentleman who later used the term “Red Indian”)

It makes sense to me that I’d get a rather inflated number of British guesses. Although I have an American accent, the vast majority of English-speaking expats in Stockholm, as far as I can tell, seem to be British. The Canadian guess makes sense because I think it is the default guess for speakers of North American English… because Americans seldom get miffed at being called Canadian, but sadly, I think the converse might not be true. The French guess came on the subway when I was carrying a French book, so that makes sense too. Rhodesian seems to be just a blip on the screen.

Dutch, however, I cannot explain. There does seem to be a fair amount of travel between the Netherlands and Sweden, both for business and for leisure, but that doesn’t seem to quite cover it.

So I thought that perhaps I remind people of some Dutch stereotypes. My stereotypes of Holland mostly have to do with windmills and clogs, neither of which figures significantly in my quotidian life. Fortunately, the magic of the internet was able to help. I was able to discover two main stereotypes (according to Wikipedia, anyway. I can’t say as I was familiar with either of them). Apparently, Dutchies (is that a word?) are seen as being both hardworking and rather thrifty. (Hence the expression, “going Dutch” on a date). True as those might or might not be about me, I don’t think that someone would be able to determine my industriousness or my thriftiness within five minutes of meeting me.

So with my most recent Swede, I decided to go ahead and ask why he thought I was Dutch. His answer?

“You obviously don’t speak Swedish, because you are talking to me in English. And your English is pretty good, but I don’t think it’s your native language. So I assumed you were Dutch.”

Ouch.

Maybe I’ll go back to Rhodesia.