Why the Flemish are not going Dutch

As far as I know, it is easy to distort stereotypes by simply showing that the more you dig into the selected population, the more you find sub-stereotypes, and finally an incredible diversity of people. The French often see Belgians as one and the same entity, as a blend of Belgian stereotypes. You will often hear them refer to us as the "fat Belgians", make nonsense jokes about us showing that we are stupid, our accent is funny/ugly and we basically spend our life eating "French" fries... Also some people in the world think of us as deceitful and arrogant, like Hercules Poirot... The following video is a compilation of anti-Belgian jokes, which someone made on Youtube:

This is why I decided to write articles on my blog about... more stereotypes. This time, instead of looking at what the world thinks of Belgium, we'll see what all parts of Belgium think of each other and the rest of the world. Even in a small and peaceful country, you can get so many distensions... In these articles, I will focus on Flanders, how it distinguishes from the Netherlands and the rest of the country, and I will also explain how each place in Flanders has its own stereotypes.

Just because they speak Dutch (or a dialect related to it) doesn't mean they're Dutch. All of them will tell you that! Also, even when they speak Dutch, the difference between those two people is clear... Just listen to them talking and you'll notice that in Netherlandic Dutch, the G/CH are pronounced rough and coarse, as if it was Arabic. Rather, Flemish Dutch has a softer sound for those letters, which may approximate a plain English H. This is one of the differences (there are a lot more actually) between the languages of these two communities. I will also mention the fact that orally Flemish Dutch contains much more French expressions, which you will hear over and over. 

But the distinction is not just linguistic, it is also cultural (at first, Belgium separated from the Netherlands because it was the Catholic part of it, while the Netherlands were Protestant). The two will get along easily like cousins, but they will never be twins. In general, Flemish culture is about acting with restraint. When something goes wrong, you can't say it in a straightforward manner, because it might sound rude. On the contrary, Dutch people say directly what the trouble is and they feel the need to be sincere, even when the truth can hurt the other person. That's why in general, the Flemish are considered by the Dutch as cold-hearted and shy, while the Dutch are considered as rude and too direct. 

Another recurrent stereotype sees the Dutch are as stingy (they spare money), in other words, they are like the Scots for the English! This is probably because the Dutch state didn't give much space for housing in order to protect the naturalness of the country (which Flanders didn't do). This encouraged a culture of caravan-driver, the easiest and cheapest way to get more space and freedom by travelling with a low budget (we do find a lot of Dutch caravans in the world at all seasons). Finally, although Belgium and the Netherlands are two modern monarchies, in which gay marriage and adoption are legal, the Dutch are slightly more liberal and have legalized weed. Then, every time someone goes to the Netherlands, someone in Belgium says "oh you're gonna smoke pot?"

Just a regular Dutch caravan...