Expat Harem Guest Post - Rude Honesty: When Politeness is Cultural

Living in the Netherlands has forced me to be a little less sensitive about the things people say to me. This is because the Dutch tell it as it is and as a Brit that really is an alien concept. Us Brits like to bumble along putting things in a polite way so as not to hurt someone's feelings. It often means the real message is lost somewhere in the middle of the conversation. The Dutch see it differently - why waste time saying things in an indirect, insincere manner? When politeness is culturally ingrained it can certainly present a cultural conundrum for some expats......

I wrote a guest post for Expat Harem on this topic - what do you think? Polite lying or rude honesty?

Are you an Expat Type Two? Or is it Just me?

Tying into my Dutch Decade theme, I have written a guest blog post for Expat Harem entitled 'Expat Type Two'. When I was thinking about the fact that I have been in the Netherlands now for ten years, have a family here, have no plans to return to England and actually love my life here, I asked myself if I actually considered myself as an expat.

The answer was no. And then I realised that while the official definition of an expat fits me, I have never really felt like I was an expat as such. There are different types of expat. I'm an expat type two, or not an expat at all.....

"When I first moved overseas I was struck that some expats are more equal than others. We all live in countries and cultures other than where we were brought up, or have legal residence. The difference lies in the “temporarily or permanently residing” part of the definition.........." Read more over at Expat Harem.