The Dutch are crazy about their waterkokers (literally:  "water boilers").  From a Dutch perspective, it is the only way to make hot water for tea.  For the first several years that we lived in the Netherlands, our family did not own a waterkoker.  Our family doesn't drink tea all that much to begin with -- but if we ever needed it, we figured we could just heat water up in the microwave.  It really wasn't that hard, and we felt like we got by just fine -- even being able to offer hot tea to our guests -- without the waterkoker.  But our Dutch friends were completely baffled by our ability to live in a home without a waterkoker.  We'd get the strangest looks when doing our microwave method of water-heating, and just about every Dutch babysitter we had stay with the kids would call us at some point in the evening to ask where we kept our waterkoker.  It really is considered to be a standard piece of equipment in any kitchen.

But what's strange is that waterkokers are not very common at all in the United States of America.  As far as I'm aware, there's not even a commonly accepted English term for such a device (which is why I keep going back to the Dutch word, "waterkoker" instead of any kind of English equivalent).  It's not standard at all.  Millions of Americans live the entirety of their lives without ever knowing about the marvels of a waterkoker.  What the Dutch consider indispensible is obviously not indispensible for everyone.

I have to admit that I felt very critical towards what I perceived to be the Dutch lack of creativity in heating their water... until I realized that the Americans are equally hung up on their own cultural biases when it comes to kitchen appliances.  The best point of comparison that comes to mind is the garbage disposal.  A large percentage of American homes are equipped with a garbage disposal -- installed underneath the kitchen sink, able to pulverize and puree any sort of food waste that gets (either intentionally or unintentionally) pushed down the drain, to be flushed out with the sewage.  Like the Dutch with their waterkokers, most Americans consider their garbage disposals to be essential and think it's weird or gross if they have to handle their waste products any other way.

However, garbage disposals are completely unheard of in the Netherlands.  Garbage disposals in the Netherlands are probably even less common waterkokers in the USA.  In fact, Dutch people would probably consider garbage disposals to be wasteful and environmentally unsound (I read a book recently, in Olivia's classroom, which talked about the harmful effects of putting anything other than water down the drain).  So clearly, garbage disposals are not anywhere near as necessary as the American public seems to think they are.  Millions of Dutch people live the entirety of their lives without ever knowing the marvels of a garbage disposal.  What the Americans consider indispensible is obviously not indispensible for everyone.

I'm not pointing all of this out to make any kind of value judgment (i.e. that labels of "right" and "wrong" need to be affixed to either culture).  I just think it's fascinating to notice the differences.  It goes far beyond waterkokers and garbage disposals, too.  I had a long conversation yesterday with a Dutch friend of mine who insisted that it's impossible to use what I would call a "cordless drill" for drilling holes in walls -- because his understanding is that the cordless devices are merely electronic screwdrivers and that all corded devices are drills.  They're two completely separate things, in his mind.  And while he's right that some jobs do require a heavy-duty corded drill (particularly if trying to drill through heavy concrete), I also pointed out that most jobs (drilling through wood, metal, drywall, and brick) are entirely possible to do with a cordless "screwdriver!" (since I've spent the last year doing many of these types of drilling jobs with just such a device).

One culture's "impossible" is another culture's "of course."  I don't know why it works that way.  But it does.  We stand to learn a lot if we can pick and choose from a smorgasbord of cultures, rather than entrenching ourselves in one particular point of view.  Easier said than done, I'm sure.  Still it's definitely worth the effort...