F.A.Q
Welcome to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ page). I’ll try to answer the most frequently asked questions from visitors to our Web site. If you find that your question is not answered here, then please email the web-editor. Suitable -yet missing- material and links will be included when submitted, the web-editor will also remove or amend any unsuitable or incorrect content and links.
Q: Can you tell me more about the people who become members of the Anglo-Netherlands Society?
A: With pleasure, although the best way to find out whether one feels at home with a Society is to join in our events and make up one’s mind at the end of the first year. We have included member profiles to give an indication of the diversity in our membership.
There is an approximately equal number of Dutch and British members, ranging from university students to retired people. Some work (or have worked) for one of several Anglo-Dutch concerns, other worked in the Netherlands for a while and like to keep in touch this way, and there are those who have come to work for a British company, and use the Society to learn more about their hosts and the country they live in.
Above all, people join the Society because it presents an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals. Geographically, members can be found all over the land, but the majority of our events are held in London, and perhaps half our members live within 50 miles of Hyde Park Corner.
Q: Where can I read / hear / see Dutch news?
A: Dutch newspapers are available from selected newsstands in many towns and cities. Many have an internet-based web-edition, either free or on a subscription basis. The Wereldomroep (World Service) can be received on both short wave and on medium wave. There are also some ‘regular’ Dutch radio stations on medium wave. Publicly funded broadcasters can be accessed -both live and from the archive- via the internet, at omroep.nl. Pick “Radio” in the centre of the page and click the little loudspeaker to hear almost-live radio broadcasts, or access the week’s TV news archive (“Uitzending Gemist”) and view back-issues of many other Dutch programmes.
Q: Can the Anglo-Netherlands Society help with financial support for : my study / our tour / to start my business?
A: The Society does not have funds to distribute, neither its own nor on behalf of others. A large part of the annual budget is covered by ‘benefits in kind’ from our Corporate Patrons, who have indicated that they would consider it inappropriate if the Society were to apply its membership income to anything but running the Society.
In historical times the Society organised the 1929 exhibition of paintings, London; the 1947 exhibition “Dutch Conversation Pieces of the 18th & 19th Centuries” (together with The Allied Circle), and in 1950 published “Diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, 1714-1721”, by Ragnhild Marie Hatton, professor of International History at the London School of Economics and "for a generation Britain's leading historian of 17th- and 18th century Europe....".
Q: Where can I learn Dutch?
A: Teaching Dutch - given the relatively small area where it is spoken - is seldom a priority. However, in the UK Dutch basics as a foreign language are taught at several schools, colleges of further education, and adult education centres. We do not usually receive details of these courses, but if you happen to live or work in London, then Floodlight will help you find a course nearby.
At university level, Dutch can be studied at University College London, at Sheffield University, and at Marylebone University. But in general students prefer to move to the Netherlands for a more total immersion in language and culture.
Q: Where can I buy ‘drop’ - or other Dutch delicacies?
A: We know of several shops in the UK, there is a list of UK- and web-based shops which deliver by mail order on www.anglo-dutch.org.uk > shops . And if you know them well enough, your Dutch friends will be happy to indulge your request to bring a small quantity upon their return from the Netherlands. There is also a large Dutch-oriented shop in Hereford’s ‘Left Bank Village’, linked to the Albert Heijn grocery chain in the Netherlands.
Q: Do you organise anything on the occasion of ‘The Royal Wedding’ / ‘Koninginnedag’ / ‘Sinterklaas’ / your-choice-of-typically-Dutch-event?
A: Usually not, one needs to book and pay for the venue well in advance, it takes a lot of time to actually organise the event, and prospective attendees seem reluctant to commit themselves to participate or bear any cost until the very last moment. Having said that, our companion ‘Neerlandia’ organises a ‘Koninginnedag borrel’, a ‘Leiden’s Ontzet’ celebratory meal, a ‘Sinterklaas markt’ and a ‘Sinterklaas viering’.
An excellent source of information about things Dutch in the UK is Anglo-Dutch.org.uk
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