- Student , Campus
- 24/04/2017
Which typically Dutch dish originates from Rotterdam? (1) How many cities in the Netherlands have a metro? (2) Did Philips and Sony collaborate in developing the cassette or the CD? (3) And what is the nickname of the Rotterdam artwork Santa Claus? (4) Amid hilarity, triggered mainly by the answer to this last question, some hundred students and staff spent Sunday afternoon racking their brains to answer a series of questions like these during the ‘I Love Holland - Dutch Culture Quiz’.
The quiz, whose format was based on the popular RTL TV show Ik Hou van Holland, was organized by the Student Sports Center and Cosmos, the international student association. The two had already worked together during the Introduction Week for internationals; that was when the idea arose for a larger event. Eindhoven Student City and the municipality of Eindhoven provided the sponsorship. “The aim is get Dutch people more interested in internationals and vice versa,” says Niels de Jong of Cosmos.
Because the last-mentioned is still not a matter of course. Adheesh Saritha Rao of team 21, for example, still finds it difficult to make contact with Dutch people despite having spent the past 18 months in Eindhoven. “I feel like I'm hitting a brick wall,” says the Indian Master's student of Sustainable Energy Technology. “Cosmos is fantastic and of course some of its members are Dutch, but internationals rarely manage to join Dutch associations.”
His teammates Kilian van Berlo and Sybrand Wildeboer (both students of Psychology & Technology) are also aware of the sparse contact between Dutch and international students: “We don't go to the same parties, for example.”
Nonetheless, the French-Indian-Dutch collaboration within team 21 goes surprisingly smoothly. Kilian and Sybrand effortlessly complete a couplet of Brabant by Dutch singer Guus Meeuwis. For their part, Adheesh and Hugo Bezombes (Sustainable Innovation) can answer the general knowledge questions like the date when gay marriage became legal (2001) and the minimum age at which a customer can visit a prostitute (16 years old).
Seventy per cent of which worldwide product comes from the Netherlands? (5) prompts discussion within the team. Adheesh is convinced this is about models. His Dutch teammates opt for bacon. A bet ensues with a plate of carrots as the stake. “The Dutch are attractive people,” says Kilian, “but I don't think there are that many Dutch models.”
Chinese medicine
Team 21 eventually wins second place. Their drawing of Starry Night by Van Gogh might not deserve a talent prize but they compensate with a strong performance during the beer and cheese tasting. After all, Dutch culture would not be complete without - not only tulips, John de Bever and the Cuban Salsa group that brought out a modern version of the clog dance, but also - Dutch food, including bitterballen bar snacks, raw herring, liquorice and stroopwafel cookies.
Juan Wang (Built Environment PhD candidate), just a month in the Netherlands, is especially enthusiastic about bitterballen, less so about liquorice. “It takes like a Chinese medicine.”
Discussion