Of High Tea and Blogging Honors

Wow. Two posts in one day. What is this blog coming too?

Yesterday was a good day. Dan and I visited Atomic comics in Sittard; the closest comic book store to Maastricht, followed by high tea at John Mullins. After our late “lunch”, I got some good blogging done and then we went out for drinks with a couple from our language class.

After dinner I discovered that Dave, a fellow Maastricht-based blogger from Random Walks in the Low Country, had recognized Maastricht Minutiae with the Beautiful Blogger Award. I’ve never received a blogging award nomination before and I’m very honored. I read Random Walks and really enjoy how Dave sounds so natural living here. His photos are always tipping me off to things that I’ve missed.

The award comes with some required actions, including writing seven things about myself and nominating up to 7 additional bloggers. So without further ado…

5 Nominated Bloggers

1. Invading Holland: Very funny.
2. 24 Oranges: The first expat blog I started following when we move to the Netherlands.
3. Crossroads Magazine: Great for Maastricht-related stories.
4. Franco Phoney: Whose blog about living in France I discovered via Absolute Write.
5. PlagiarismToday: Which isn’t about expats at all, but has great information about plagerism, copyright, and other similar issues.

(more…)

Episode 19 of Maastricht Minutiae

Welcome to another episode of Maastricht Minutiae! In Episode 19 with dive into the struggles we’ve been having over starting a business in Maastricht; mostly brought on by a combination of poor language skills and confusing governmental agencies. Click here to listen to episode 19 or download it to you favorite podcatcher.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Topics this week include:

• Starting our business/Part one
• Expatriate Archive Centre
• Sittard Comics
• A train toilet that opens straight to the tracks

Kun ik Nederlands spreken?

Er…no. Nog niet…

When Dan & I first moved to the Netherlands, we wanted to learn Dutch but we were naive about just how important it really was. “Oh you don’t need to learn Dutch” people (not just non-Dutch people) would say to us, “Everyone speaks English in the Netherlands”. “Oh they speak something different in Limburg” was another one (true, but still not an excuse). We even had individuals advise us to learn French or German instead; purported that it would be “more useful” since the Netherlands is a small country and one of the few in the world that speaks their tongue.

We said, “No, no. Learning Dutch is the right thing to do if we’re going to live there.” We understood that it would matter for finding work, making friends, and joining clubs. But honestly we didn’t try very hard. But everyone speaks English in the Netherlands. No problem right?

Wrong! Maybe if you live in Amsterdam, in a community of all expats, and never want to connect with someone cross-culturally you don’t have to learn Dutch. But if you can’t stand being functionally illiterate and live anywhere else you better get yourself enrolled in a course ASAP. Because that is exactly what it is like to live in a country without speaking the language: like being illiterate. And I’ve got it easy.

I think what people really mean is “you can get by”. That’s true. I’ve been getting by for nearly a year now, but its embarrassing to order poorly in a restaurant and sad to miss out on conversations with colleagues and friends. I don’t have an office to go too, but it would be nearly impossible to engage with your coworkers without making the effort to speak their language. While everyone is friendly about speaking to me in English (and stares at me funny when I try to speak Dutch), I feel guilty and separate from the people around me. It’s a very foreign feeling and not a pleasant one.

So what’s taking so long? Well, honestly I’m not very good with languages and scheduling conflicts kept us out of the Dutch for Expats course for longer than intended. Poor excuses I know, but there you go.

We are now enrolled in Maastricht University’s Dutch for Expats second module and struggling through homework on a nightly basis to get a handle on all aspects of this new language. The first module was taught more or less in English, but this one is exclusively being taught in Dutch. While that’s good for my ear, I feel like I’m falling further behind every week.

Despite its apparent similarities to English, Dutch is actually quite different and difficult to learn, but I still believe it is worth learning. After a module and a half my reading comprehension has shot way up (long articles wear me out) and my writing and speaking is slowly improving. My listening comprehension remains terrible; probably because I don’t get forced into Dutch conversations or situations very often and it is easy to miss things when you’re not prepared to be spoken to.

I’m still extremely nervous about testing out my measly skills even in simple situations because while I’m sure I can say what I want to, I’m not sure I’ll comprehend the response. Hopefully by the end of the three modules I’ll be more confident and will be able to at least do simple things freely. I’ve got two more years to get it right.

Moral of the Story: Learn Dutch. Please. Seriously. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Places Around Maastricht: Gadjah Mas

Type of Place: Indonesian Restaurant
Location: Rechtstraat 47; 6221 EK Maastricht
Website

Indonesian food is to the Netherlands, what Chinese food (and Mexican food) is to the United States. It is the most popular ethnic cuisine, with many restaurants ranging from small mom-and-pop take-away to high-end sit-down restaurant. There is even an Indonesian take-away/grocers across from Gadjah Mas. The flavors are varied, but tend to be spicy and contain coconut milk. Peanut sauce also plays a big role in Indonesian cuisine (in the Netherlands anyway) in sate dishes such as chicken sate.

Gahjah Mas is an attractive, richly-appointed restaurant with an excellent menu. One of the most common ways to eat Indonesian food is to order a rijsttafel (rice table); a sampler like set of small plates with different types of meat, vegetables, and sauces. Gahjah Mas offers 4 different variations at varying price points including a vegetarian one, however you will need to have at least two people to order one. We’ve had rijstaffel before, so Dan and I explored other parts of the menu. Gahjah also has several individual dishes including a variety of stewed meat and sates. Dan ordered the kip (chicken) sate and enjoyed it a lot. I had a lontong compleet: a bowl of “cubed” rice with chicken, lamb, and pork and three different sauces topped with a hard boiled egg. It was also delicious and lots of food.

Gahjah Mas also has a take-away option and a good wine menu. The prices are average for Indonesian food in my limited experience, with regular plates running between 15-25 euros and the rijsttafels starting at about 20 euros. Visit their website for a full menu.

Starting my Business in the Netherlands Part 1

I really wanted to hold off on writing this article until I had officially registered with the Kamer van Koophandel (KvK; Chamber of Commerce), but I’ve been so invested in the process over the last week or so that it is short-circuiting my brain’s ability to write about anything else. So here is Part One of “Starting my Business in the Netherlands”.

Step One: Find a need, Fill it.
So the basics of starting a business in the Netherlands is more or less the same as starting a business anywhere else. You need to identify a need in a market and then determine to to fill that need with a service or product. The KvK offers the Starters Center, a Dutch-language website to help new entrepreneurs, but I found that the Small Business Association‘s resources for the USA were just as helpful for the conceptual stage.
(Update/Caution: I took a closer look at the Starters Center and found a lot of broken links.)

I sort of fell into the services I’m offering based on my archivist background and writing this blog actually. I am providing copyright research to publishers and writing/administrative services to other organizations. I want to help clients take control of the information around them, and I can do that best through writing, organizing resources, and website building. My business website will be ready as soon as I complete the registration process since I don’t want to inaccurately represent my business name without knowing if it is available.

Step Two: Write a business plan
Business plans are a pain to write, but there are a lot of resources out there for it and English resources will get you through many of the sections. I checked the KvK’s section on writing a Business Plan to make sure I could answer the questions most pertinent to them:

• What am I marketing and why?
• Who are my clients?
• How will I connect with them?
• What are my costs?
• What are the anticipated outcomes?

“What” you are selling is also important for zoning. Some residences cannot be used to start a businesses. We spoke with the Bedrijfscontactpunt (Business Contact Point) office at the Gemeente and they said there should be no problem for me as a freelancer. Apparently some people try to start clothing stores or chocolate shops out of their apartments.

Step Three: Be sure you can get at least 3 customers.
I’ve been toying with starting a business for months, but it wasn’t until a got a second client lined up that it stopped being so scary for me. As a freelancer service provider in the Netherlands, its important to always have a minimum of three clients per year. Otherwise the tax office could deem you the employee of one of your clients and create a whole mess of employee taxes, pension payments, benefits, and so on. The advice I received from another local freelancer is to define my freelance activities broadly. The economy hasn’t been good to freelancers in the past year or so, so a breadth of services helps keep your options open.

Step Four: Identify a business structure.
I’m still working on this step and will be visiting the KvK in person this week in hopes of nailing it down. For my current circumstance there are three possibilities:

• A ZZP’r or Freelancer: This is probably the structure I’ll go with since it is the simplest and only requires me to submit taxes once per year. However, I cannot have employees.
• A Sole Trader: Is a one-person business that can hire on help when needed. It requires more frequent submission of taxes, but otherwise is similar to a zzp (or rather, a zzp is similar to a sole trader).
• Partnership: This is where things get a bit complex for us. Dan also has a new project that needs to be registered as a business. I think it would be easier if we could register our businesses as one partnership, but I’m not sure if that’s an option since my info services and Dan’s webcomic are very different.

There are also Limited Liability structures available, but for my needs they are off the table for now.

Steps Five – ??: Register your business.
I still need to go through these steps, but they are very important since unlike in the US you shouldn’t start freelancing without registration in the Netherlands. There is a minimum income required for taxation, but the state wants to be able to track your obligation (and theirs). You may also be eligible for monetary start-up assistance. Registration involves registering with the Trade Register and the tax authorities to receive a VAT number. Your business name is checked against others in the database to make sure there are no conflicts.

My best advise is to try and talk to people at the KvK directly. While there is basic information on their website in English, it isn’t really enough to make final decisions about your own circumstances. Or at least is hasn’t been for me. All the legal forms are in Dutch so I’ll also be needing assistance filling those out.

More on starting my business and a proper soup-to-nuts post or three on the subject coming soon!

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