It is often said that asking a person to describe their own culture is like asking fish to describe water. How do you describe something that you have been surrounded by all your life, without being aware of the fact that it is different from other environments? It is only when you enter a new environment that you become aware of how different yours is, and are able, through comparison, to describe it. And to describe the new environment that you have entered.
So what are people aware of, when it comes to their environment; their culture, their customs and their quirks? That was the question behind a research published by the Sociaal en Cultureel Plan Bureau in the Netherlands this year; what do the Dutch see as being typically Dutch?
