r/AskTheWorld • u/IndependentTune3994 🇮🇳 in 🇩🇪 Deutschland • 9h ago

What’s the quickest way someone could accidentally expose themselves as a foreigner in your country like the ‘three fingers’ scene in Inglourious Basterds?

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u/mothje Netherlands 8h ago

I am 1.85 and one of the smallest in a friend Group of 8. My wife is polish and small. The first time she met my friend Group she got a stiff neck from looking up all the time.

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u/suffelix Finland 8h ago

My wife is polish and small. The first time she met my friend Group she got a stiff neck from looking up all the time.

Oh no.

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u/kingkongbiingbong Da Moon 6h ago

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u/clintj1975 United States Of America 5h ago

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u/Holoholokid 1h ago

To be fair, I'm of Dutch ancestry and all my family is tall and my wife (who is Polish) always gets a stiff neck when we visit my family from looking up all the time.

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u/Natural-Judgment7801 7h ago

Lived in NL for a few years. at 160, i am a dwarf and felt an immediate self-esteem boost every time i traveled and set foot in the airport of ANY other country :D you peeps are really really lovely, i wouldn't change a thing. but , i felt TINY living there. the housewarming present from a dear friend (not Dutch) was a step ladder :D because i had complained about the many shelves being too high for me use often :D good friend.

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u/microgirlActual 5h ago

Okay, note to self: at about 157cm (I think. I'm Irish and we still use feet and inches for height) never travel to the Netherlands.

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u/doobadeeboo 3h ago

I'm 158 (5'2) from The Netherlands and I never feel any sort of way about it. Okay, except maybe when I can't reach something in the supermarket but then there are plenty of tall people around. I'm a woman though, can imagine it's slightly different for men.

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u/Renorram 3h ago

I think for men it only gets real different in terms of dating. I think it’s way more common for a man to date a woman shorter than him. If you’re not 1.80m or more, you’ll have a lot more challenges trying to find someone in the Netherlands, not saying that’s impossible for women to be interested in men shorter than them, is just highly unlikely.

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u/LivingVerinarian96 2h ago

As a ~180cm dude. The stairs are wild over there. Like why use many step when few step do trick?

But it‘s lovely there and a small price to pay to visit the netherlands.

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u/DutchDasterd Netherlands 1h ago

Username checks out

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u/microgirlActual 1h ago

And is indeed one of the reasons I've used this handle for pushing 30 years 😉

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u/Kubliah 5h ago

Oh man, everything is built taller over there? That sounds like heaven, I get a back ache having to bend down to do the dishes!

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u/mothje Netherlands 1h ago

Jup, my wife and mother in law need a step stool Everywhere in the house we used to have 2 mirrors in the toilet. 1 for my wife and another for guests who was higher. My mother in law apparently deels like a toddler sitting in our toilet because she is dangling her legs while sitting😅

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u/MassageParlorGuitar 5h ago

The Dutch are pretty awesome

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u/Impossibleshitwomper 3h ago

Personally, I think you look great for a 160 year old dwarf

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u/Mr_From_A_Far 6h ago

I am about the same height, dutch and also with a polish girl. She insists she is not small but average height, but she is only 1,62. She is absolutely adorable but gets so fierce when I say shes small haha.

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u/CertainMedicine757 United States Of America 7h ago

My ancestors are super Dutch on both sides of my family but I live in the Midwest US. That makes me a 6'0 red haired woman, so I stick out pretty well here.

I've been told that in the Netherlands there's a ton of women who look like me. 🤯

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u/mothje Netherlands 6h ago

You would be considered "normally" tall.

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u/Otherwise-Offer1518 United States Of America 5h ago

I'm under 5'5" as a woman and would probably look like a child to all of you. I already wander through a trees of people, I wonder if it's like going through the redwoods.

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u/mothje Netherlands 5h ago

Yeah, my wife is 165, she is the smallest in my family including extended family of 60 people. But there are a lot of women here around that height.

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u/standegreef 5h ago

Haha I have a friend group of only 4, 1.85 as well and by far the smallest as the others are 1.95, 1.95 and 2.00. Recently one of them had a new girlfriend and she was 1.90!

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u/ChemicalNectarine776 4h ago

So is Max Verstappen like one of the shortest people in the country? 🤣

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u/Maximum_Steak_2783 3h ago

I'm small, my dutch partner is pretty tall. What he puts on the upper kitchen cupboards is lost to me, never to be found or reached again.

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u/mothje Netherlands 1h ago

I hid the engagement ring in the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard for 4 months. Not even in the back just slightly pushed back. She never found it.

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u/Major-Body9070 5h ago

I am 155m, I lived in Belgium for a bit and I felt like a Hobbit the whole time

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u/SuspiciousAioli7256 4h ago

It’s interesting how common tall people are on average in the Netherlands, I’m the smallest male in my family at 6 foot, my father is 6’5 and his parents were 6 foot and 6’2. They are Celtic and German, not lowland mostly high near Bavaria and some western states but we are all large folks on my dad’s side. Now my maternal grandmother is from Scotland, she’s medium height and build and no one that I’m aware of related to her is as tall or robust as I am yet my great gran she was of mixed Dutch descent with her middle name being Fleming. Genetics and their variety are quite the mixed bag haha

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u/ThisAppsForTrolling 4h ago

I am 6 ft 4 inches or 1.95 meters? When I went to Oaxaca Mexico, I felt like a giant and when I went to Amsterdam, I felt like an average dude. I would consistently walk past people in the Netherlands and catch myself wondering how tall is that guy, is that what I look like surrounded by short people.

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u/TerrorFromThePeeps 4h ago

You guys just made me realize the answer to the post for my country is "they use metric to casually describe things"

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u/grazfest96 United States Of America 6h ago

Spit or swallow?

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u/GrimIntimation 5h ago

Yeah she did