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Same for me (I'm Italian).

Sometimes I wonder if this directness thing isn't just a myth started by the British, for whom the norm is politeness often verging on pure and simple hypocrisy.

I don't think it is necessarily hypocrisy, there are several ways to tell the truth.

When one cannot be polite, soft spoken, considerate, or just lacks tact, one can always go the Dutch way. Why bother?

I can only point you to the famous British English - rest of the world conversion table:

https://bridgesandtangents.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/engli...

good theory!

Go to the huisarts (general practicioner) and chat with him/her in the same way as you would with a doctor in the US.

You're going to experience the dutch directness firsthand.

Amsterdam is as Dutch as Paris is French.

Currently living in Amsterdam, and the experience is much different than what you get in/with people from the Hague, Utrecht, Bossem...