One thing though, the Dutch grammar system is a mishmash of exceptions. Learning Dutch is like learning French, learn the basics, the exceptions to rules and then you are fine to learn everything else.

Between "Hollands", "Brabants", "Limburgs" and Flemish there are some dialects. Frysian dialects are a unique remnant of Dutch-German tribes in the Northern part of the Netherlands.

To understand the "hard G" practice pronouncing "godverdomme" where the "G" becomes a semi-voiced K. "Godverdomme" means "God damn it/me for this situation" which is sometimes shortened to "Godver." Almost shout it but control the "G" and end with a weak "-e."

I just had a good coffee so I feel like sharing a basic lesson in Dutch cursing. Learn this one and the rest becomes really easy     

One thing though, the Dutch grammar system is a mishmash of exceptions. Learning Dutch is like learning French, learn the basics, the exceptions to rules and then you are fine to learn everything else.

Between "Hollands", "Brabants", "Limburgs" and Flemish there are some dialects. Frysian dialects are a unique remnant of Dutch-German tribes in the Northern part of the Netherlands.

To understand the "hard G" practice pronouncing "godverdomme" where the "G" becomes a semi-voiced K. "Godverdomme" means "God damn it/me for this situation" which is sometimes shortened to "Godver." Almost shout it but control the "G" and end with a weak "-e."

I just had a good coffee so I feel like sharing a basic lesson in Dutch cursing. Learn this one and the rest becomes really easy     

This gave me flashbacks to my three years of high-school German.

Dutch sounds a lot like English

I'm (southern) English.  My impression of Dutch after a flight on KLM (from London but not to Holland) where the captain did his obligatory announcements first in Dutch and then in English was that there is a similarity beyond some shared words or words with obviously common roots.  The really striking thing is the almost identical rhythm, cadence and intonation - very unlike French or German but some commonality with Swedish to my ear.

More worrying is just how tall the Dutch are and that so many Dutch men have great big long faces like a horse.

Back to the subject of "whiter is better", I heard an interesting CBC Radio podcast on Haiti, the first half of which discussed how the power of the lighter skinned colonial (French) rulers affected local values, to the extent that even foreign imported foods are now valued over local foods.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/ideas-from-the-trenches-just-trying-to-help-1.3227693
@19:42 "... the epidermalization of inferiority."

The second half is mainly about how foreign aid has fucked up Haiti more than it has helped.

Until you look like an albino or a corpse a light skin is assumed to symbolise something.

Imported produce replacing local produce was part of the Western scheme to add import taxes which resulted in higher prices, higher revenues for the exploiter and advertisers could say "expensive is good" and "from the mainland is good" to then rub in colonial inferiority. More money for the treasury and the colony was exploited again.

Nowadays previous colonisators say "we did not mean it that way" but we all know they did because European equalled superior for centuries and the cultural traces that has left are sometimes like scars. In the Netherlands Surinam is still hardly spoken about because the Dutch government is still ashamed of the sub-human treatment of workers there even after the abolition of slavery.

Leopold of Belgium was cruel but he had learnt from the Dutch.