What continental European country is most like England? (Germans, Scandinavians, culture)

[Trimac20]

Linguistically, Netherlands, Germany and France.

Culturally, Denmark and Germany (moreso the north) then the Netherlands.

[the troubadour]

Originally Posted by iPwn

Linguistically, I know it is the Netherlands. However I find Dutch culture very different from English culture. What do you think?

Depends on the measurement. Denmark....Netherlands...Germany...Norway...Austri a....as they say in Thailand,same,same but different. With temperment the Northern nations do have a certain understanding. But i say long may our differences remain and long may we appreciate it for being so.

[iPwn]

I guess England is somewhere in between the Celtic and Germanic worlds.

[kerouac2]

Since the British are by far the most attracted to France and Spain, I think that you can immediately eliminate all of the other countries. And since they are attracted to Spain because the weather and the attitudes are the total opposite of what it's like at home, that leaves just France as the place where they feel the most at home on the continent.

Nevertheless, 800,000 British live in Spain and only 250,000 in France.

[french user]

That's clearly Netherlands, far away any other on almost avery point of view:

- Language: Dutch is the closer national continental language to English
- Geography: Netherlands are situated along the north sea, in line with England, just the other side of the north sea.
- Climate: being at similar latitudes and surrounding the same sea, the climate of netherlands is very similar to England's. Actually Dutch climate is more similar to English than to most of Germany (exepted northern Germany)
- Architecture: the traditional (but also modern) architectures in both countries are very similar: majority of brick architectures. The majority of the urban places in both countries could actually be confused for being in the other to a non-specialist traveller. The main different in that point of view is that Dutch cities are much cleaner most of than English ones.
- the foods found: traditional foods are pretty similar, both countries have a lot of "modern-style" international fast foods, and both countries shows a very high levels of "multicultural" and "fusion foods"
- Both are old monarchies
- Both are of beer-drinking culture
- Both are predominantly protestant

France is the least similar of all England's neighbours. Even in Normandy, a region that is often said to have similarities to England; Normandy's relation to England is too old (dates back in the 1000's) and tenous to really have an impact on the comparision with today's England. Normandy's similarity is limited to landscape and climate which are somehow alike with south-western English ones, a bit warmer. Nord-Pas-de-Calais, situated just over the channel is in many ways the only area of France that stand the comparision with Modern England (red brick architecture, 19th century heavy industry heritage, similar climate and similar traditional foods (and also beer-culture). The rest of France is nothing like England in almost all points:
-Language: French is a romance language like Italian and Spanish, English part of Germanic family like Dutch, German and Scandinavian languages.
-Geography: France is completly situated more south then England; which has of course a lots of impacts in contryside and climates in most areas.
-Climate: warmer all year long in the areas of the mediterranean, the south west. Warmer in summer in the northern half excepted Normandy, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Britanny.
- Architecture; french architecture is very diverse following the areas and regions, but almost the huge majority of the areas doesn't look more or less like English architecture (when Benelux countries and Northern Germany does a lot). Just have to compares Paris and London which seem to hev been build on two completly opposite urban and architectural models (Paris is a big an densily populated city made of continous blocks of flats like southern European cities, when London's more or less a CDB surrounded by lined-houses suburbian areas. Paris is a stone city/ London is brick-dominant... etc.
-Politics: England is not implicated in European union like France is.
England is part of a kingdom when France is a republic.
-Economy/finances: England has its own currency, when France has Euro. England is oriented towards free-market when France is reluctant to it.
- France is a "laic" country that have been traditionally catholic, when England Anglicanism (form of Protestantism) is state religion
- England is a country of beer/pub culture when France is a country of "wine with meal" culture
- etc.

[french user]

Linguistically France is part of the romance family, like the rest of south-western Europe. When English is part of the Germanic family, like the rest of north-western Europe: Dutch, German, Scandinavian, but definilty not French, which is similar to Italian or Spanish.

[paull805]

without a doubt the netherlands

[ben86]

I haven't spent enough time in Holland to comment if that's even more like England but I've spent time in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium and it felt more like England than anywhere else on the continent I've seen. For example: people watching BBC television, a similar language to English, Spar shops (I know they are actually Dutch, but you see a lot of them in England and I'd never seen them on the continent before I went there), Greggs bakers, a rivalry against the French, a North Sea coast where I saw people sitting in deckchairs and bathing in a cold sea, and I even saw people playing cricket in a park in Antwerp.

[french user]

Well, Belgium also looks like a lot to England, in my opinion, especially the Flemish part. That said I think netherlands is even more like England since Belgium in in many ways some sort of transition between romance/catholic culture (french one actually) and Germanic/protestant culture of North-western Europe: Netherlands, England, northern Germany and Scandinavia.

[ABQConvict]

I would say the Netherlands, Frisia, and to a lesser extent, Denmark.