How to feel at home in The Hague
There are a wide range of activities to help you feel at home as you live in The Hague and the area. Here are a few things to do to ensure you dive into a real ‘feel-at-home’ experience to make the most out of living in The Hague.
Practice speaking Dutch
Living in The Hague, speaking English gets you a long way. But speaking Dutch is an advantage for your social and professional life in the Netherlands. It helps you to make needed contacts with Dutch locals and help you get more familiar and comfortable with understanding Dutch comments and gestures.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Dutch appreciate it when you put in the effort to learn the Dutch language. A good way to practice Dutch is to actively speak Dutch in public areas like at a café restaurant (or on a terrasje), supermarkets or at your public transport service points. It’s possible that while you interact with a local a response would follow in English. But if you openly share that you prefer Dutch for good practice, you’ll be most likely to invite a smile and a response in Dutch to help you practice as much as possible.
Join a community club or volunteer
Taking part in local and community activities helps you to interact with Dutch locals. The city holds hundreds of clubs, networks and organizations that are open to receive new members. Whether you are a student living in The Hague and you’re seeking for a club to express your musical skills you are looking for a sports club for your kids.
Many local activities in The Hague are initiated by non-profit organizations, known as stichtingen, which often seek for volunteers. Volunteering at a student association, sports club, or an organization dedicated to culture can also be a good way to explore the city of The Hague and interact with people from all ages and other cultural backgrounds. You can sign up to volunteer via their online channels or you can contact our partners [insert link to volunteerthehague.nl] to connect with non-profit organizations that suit your interests or skills.
Visit the Dutch library
In The Hague region, you will find a list of public libraries open to the general public. To ensure balance between learning the Dutch language and engaging with Dutch locals, visiting a Dutch library can be a way to interact with people, read about Dutch culture and history and discover local meetup events. Here is a fun fact, you don’t have to be a member of a library to work there.
Join our connect events
The Hague International Centre wants to help you settle in to living in our region and so we arrange a series of events each year that are intended to help new and not-so-new internationals feel at home in The Hague region. We aim to help people build their own community and networking during our events, and throughout the year we try to provide plenty of opportunities for networking and socializing.
We also provide a monthly New in The Hague Webinar which details all of the important steps you need to take to settle in and feel at home in The Hague. The webinar takes place twice each month, in different time slots (lunch time and evening).
Our Welcome to The Hague event is all of our expertise and ideas compressed into one fun-filled day, whilst with the Feel at Home in The Hague Fair we want to help people make friends, expand their social network, and get to know all of the wonderful happenings in our region. All of our events are free to attend!
There are many engaging ways to ensure that you feel at home in The Hague. Being assertive and staying curious are the best ingredients to explore the Dutch culture and connect with locals. And if you need some one-on-one tips, feel free to visit us at our welcome centre.
