Gezellig

Peter Breedveld

In this first of my new series of English-language blogs about the state of the Netherlands I would like to tackle a problem I have been thinking about for some time now. It is about the translation of the Dutch phrase ‘gewoon gezellig‘.

‘Gewoon gezellig‘, in my view, perfectly captures the essence of what The Netherlands is about. If you want to understand the Dutch and their culture, it is absolutely crucial to fathom the meaning of ‘gewoon gezellig‘.

Compulsory nature

I cannot think of a literal translation of ‘gewoon gezellig‘ that does its meaning justice. ‘Gewoon‘ means ‘usual’ or ‘common’ or ‘just’ but also ‘normal’, although there’s a Dutch word for ‘normal’: ‘normaal‘. ‘Gezellig‘ means ‘cozy’. Dutch people often say that ‘gezellig’ is a unique Dutch word, untranslatable in other languages but that is utter nonsense. What they mean is that no people on earth knows how to have fun, proper fun, like the Dutch do.

I am not a native English speaker, but it appears to me that people say ‘cozy’ when the atmosphere is pleasant, when everyone is in a good mood and feels comfortable in each others company. In Moroccan Arabic there is a similar word: nashaat, the Germans say gemütlich and the French chouette.

So I see no difference in meaning with ‘gezellig‘, but I do understand why Dutch still say there is no translation for the word in other languages. There is an aspect of Dutch coziness (‘gezelligheid‘) that I have never noticed in other cultures and that is the compulsory nature of it. ‘Gezellig‘ is inescapable, you may not excuse yourself from it. There is no freedom of choice when ‘gezellig‘ is involved. When a Dutchman says ‘gezellig‘ it means something is expected of you. You have to join in to avoid the risk of being considered a spoilsport, a party pooper, an antisocial.

Virus of xenophobia

Hence the phrase ‘gewoon gezellig‘ which literally could be translated as ‘just cozy’, but which in Dutch is almost a pleonasm. ‘Gewoon‘ is what everybody does, and which is therefore the right thing to do in Holland. Anything different from gewoon is the wrong way. The Dutch have a saying: ‘doe maar normaal, dan doe je al gek genoeg‘; act normal, which is crazy enough.

‘Gezellig‘ is also what everyone does and thus the right thing to do. Gewoon gezellig is to join in without nagging. Gewoon gezellig characterizes the Dutch ambivalence to foreigners and immigrants. The Dutch are very welcoming to foreigners, although lately they too have caught the virus of xenophobia that rages through Europe, but in general I think it cannot be denied that the Dutch really love foreigners. BUT. The foreigners have to adapt, they have to assimilate, they have to become Hollanders. But the Dutch will never admit to it. They will not easily say ‘assimilate’ because they don’t find that gezellig. They’ll tell you you have to join in the coziness, their coziness. You have to participate ‘gewoon gezellig‘.

Do as the Romans do

The Dutch cannot imagine how one would choose to do anything other than the Dutch way. They understand that you, as a foreigner, have learned to do things in another way, a not Dutch way. But that was before you learned about the Dutch way. Why would you not do things the Dutch way once you know there is a Dutch way? Everybody in The Netherlands does it the Dutch way! To not go the Dutch way is to exclude yourself from the rest and that is not gezellig.

Actually you are rejecting the way the Dutch do things, the way your welcoming hosts do things and that is almost an act of aggression.

Even when the Dutch visit other countries, they expect the foreigners, meaning the people who live in the countries visited by the Dutch, and who have been living there for centuries, millennia perhaps even but who are still foreigners because they are not Dutch, they expect these foreigners living in their own foreign country to quickly adapt to the Dutch way. The English say ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’ but to the Dutch that sounds like the ranting of a lobotomized peacock. When in Rome, make the Romans do as the Dutch have always done, because otherwise it is not gezellig.

The Dutch understand that Romans have always done things the Roman way, but that was because they had not heard yet of the Dutch way. Now that the Dutch have arrived, that will soon be a problem of the past.

Black Pete

‘Gewoon gezellig‘ has also dominated the controversy around Black Pete. Black Pete is a folkloric figure the Dutch have been enjoying for the last hundred and fifty years or so, never paying any attention to people protesting the racist aspects of it. But these past years, with the black part of the Dutch population growing more vocal and gaining more leverage, the debate about the racism of Black Pete could no longer be avoided, with even the United Nations interfering.

The Dutch were flabbergasted. They saw their beloved Black Pete compared to the American (banned) practice of blackface and the British (also banned) racist caricature Golliwog. “No! No!” they yelled, “Black Pete is not racist because we love Black Pete and how can a figure we, the tolerant Dutch who fought Nazism and Apartheid and who freed Indonesia from the Japanese, love so much, possibly be racist?”

And although Black Pete involves painting the faces of white Dutchmen black so they look like a caricature of a black person, a Dutch person will never accept Black Pete is the same as blackface simply because blackface is not Dutch but American and Black Pete is Dutch and the Dutch are not racists like the Americans so Black Pete is not racist either.

Civil war

The Dutch thought they had proof for Black Pete not being racist in the shape of black Dutchmen who had always joined in on the fun of Black Pete. “See, they have always participated gewoon gezellig“, they said. It dominated the debate about Black Pete for a while: ‘gewoon gezellig‘. They never nagged about Black Pete, so why would you? Black Pete is not racist, because he is a black figure who is friendly, so he is the opposite of racist. Now stop nagging about Black Pete and join us ‘gewoon gezellig‘.

By now it has become pretty clear to many Dutchmen that few black people ever gewoon gezellig joined the festivities around Black Pete. They just never said anything from fear of being considered antisocial, anti-Dutch, spoilsports. Being Dutch themselves, these black people know all too well the Dutch do not handle criticism gracefully. It is not gezellig and it means war, and that is the state the Netherlands seem to be in when you read the opeds and editorials in the newspapers and the talk shows on tv: that of a civil war or at least the eve of one.

Because a large group of young black people, allochtonen, as they are called in Dutch, decided to no longer do the gewoon gezellig thing.

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