Eigenwijs

Why typical of Dutch culture

The positive aspect of eigenwijs is related to critical thinking, which is important in Dutch culture. It is about, not just accepting what an other person says but always thinking and verifying the value of it, checking other possibilities, different ways of solving a problem, looking for different points of view. It allows for better evaluation of the value and reliability of the information received.

Important are the arguments used to select which part of the received advice and other information to use. When one has good arguments, one can come to different conclusions than those known or suggested and work with these alternative conclusions. This is how being eigenwijs, is about analysing available information in an attempt to synthesise a better solution.

One text I found talks about the positive aspects of eigenwijs is from the online Dutch etymology dictionary www.etymologiebank.nl . Basically it just mentions that eigenwijs is a very important and typical element of Dutch culture and that: The character of that word eigenwijs can't be translated to English, hence the Dutch word is maintained and said to even be adopted by Ford. (Het karakter van dat woord bleek niet naar het Engels te vertalen, dus is het Nederlandse woord behouden en naar verluidt zelfs overgenomen door Ford.) What this character of the word is or why it can't be translated isn't mentioned.

It seems that the concept of eigenwijs, the idea, the way of thinking and acting as well as how this is viewed, indeed is typical of Dutch culture. Maybe I'd better say Dutch language culture, to at least include the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. Almost all translations that I could find for eigenwijs, in dictionaries or otherwise, refer to the more negative meanings of eigenwijs. They all reflect rejection or negation of the opinions and suggestions of others. For the positive meaning it can have, I couldn't find a satisfactory translation.

To be precise, there is the English word maverick that seems to come rather close by referring to a person who is different from the group in lifestyle or opinion see www.thefreedictionary.com . It seems that this word neither has very negative nor really positive connotations.

Information from dictionaries

As a matter of fact even Dutch dictionaries don't do justice to the positive aspects of eigenwijs. Peculiarly, two non Dutch sources I came across do refer to a more positive meaning of eigenwijs. The German dictionary of PONS gives as possible translation 'originell' which, according to the same dictionary, has as possible translations to English 'original' and 'inventive'. The site wordhippo gives the translation 'in one's own way' which, at least partially, does cover the positive element eigenwijs.

Other sourses

The corpus of Dutch Corpus Hedendaags Nederlands has examples of the use of eigenwijs in the positive senses here described.

• … helder en direct. Eigenwijsheid wordt aangemoedigd; je moet vooral … 2016
• Eigenwijsheid is encouraged [...]
• … hiervan opsteken? Eigenwijsheid is wellicht haar grootste kwaliteit … 2014
• Eigenwijsheid is possibly her strongest kwality [...]

How can eigenwijs be positive

Being eigenwijs refers to a person's tendency to make up ones own mind, to decide for oneself. It doesn't really or much less necessarily mean that the person refuses to listen to or follow advice. An eigenwijs person normally actually does listen to advice and does take it serious but will do so in order to decide if or to which extent to accept or follow it. Doing so implies comparing the advise given with available or possible alternatives. It is about doing what one considers best, considering circumstances and possibilities instead of blindly following any advice. Who is eigenwijs will see the advice as part of the many possibilities or as part of the information to be used for deciding about what will be the best solution, about what is best to do.

Eigenwijs and names

People using the word eigenwijs as a name for their organisation or publication seems to be a clear indication that the word can have positive meanings. And I am not talking about names of punk bands or anything like that. There actually are quite a few organisations and publications having the word eigenwijs as or in the name. This indicates that I am not the only one who thinks it can have a positive meaning.

Below a few examples of organisations and publications with eigenwijs as or in the names. (There are a few more to add.) In some cases the word eigenwijs is just used, nothing more. In other cases where there are indications of (or hints at) why eigenwijs is used for the name. Several times the reason for using eigenwijs is clearly and explicitly explained.

Maverick and names

To be complete, I think I should state that the English word maverick mentioned above is also used in names. I came across two Ford cars called Maverick, a sedan from the seventies and a recent pickup (now is 2023). For both, the reference is to the meaning of an unbranded cow. Important difference is that maverick is not used to refer to evaluating received information and making decisions like eigenwijs is.

Eigenwijs, a compound word

Eigenwijs is a compound word consisting of eigen and wijs. The word eigen means self or in this context more meaningful , ones own and wijs has the meanings of wise, manner, way, tune or melody. From the meanings of the elements lead to definitions like constructing ones own wisdom, being wise in ones own way, doing things ones own way. Being wise includes listening to others. It also includes not taking for granted that what others say. It includes, getting available information, analysing it critically to come to a good conclusion. Even the meanings of tune and melody can be seen as metaphorically important to the meaning of eigenwijs. Sometimes Eigenwijs is used to more literally refer to tune, melody, music.

The aspect of deciding for oneself about what one thinks is best to do instead of just following advice of others, leads to translations like stubborn, blockheaded, obstinate or against the grain. Such translations however do injustice to the the above mentioned important aspect of deciding for oneself. One listens to others, considers their suggestions, their advice, compares it to ones own ideas and critically analysing all of this in order to come to a conclusion of what is best.

Eigenwijsheid, teamwork, science

Eigenwijsheid, the noun derived from the adjective or adverb eigenwijs, can also be beneficial in teamwork. Each team member defending ones own opinion regarding available solutions and suggestions as well as opinions of the other members contributes to a thorough critical analyses of which suggestions and solutions are usable to which extent. When the available is not satisfactory, the work should continue in order to find out what needs to be added to come to a set of solutions that appears to be satisfactory. Putting it to the test the same eigenwijs attitude can be used to evaluate the results and find out if further improvements are needed.

Critical thinking is what one is expected to do in Empirical science. An important atitude in science is to always beware if presently used explanations for observations remain satisfactory or whether one can come up with alternative explanations which do better. This can lead to new hypotheses which through scientific testing can gain the status theories. If so they can replace previous theories or add to the complex set of available theories to better explain the observation. Looking at it like that one could argue that Empirical science is the institutionalisation of eigenwijsheid.

Why I am as eigenwijs as I am

Temporarily at Montessori school

The following anecdote from my youth is about something that happened when I was young that contributed a lot to me being as who is eigenwijs as I am. It must have been when I was about nine or ten years old. Medisch Opvoedkundig Bureau a center for educational problems. As a temporary solution I was placed on a Montessori school because the normal parish school where I was, wasn't fit for me and they were still trying to find out which one was.

During a lesson of text interpretation, the answer I had was different from the teacher's. Being at Montessorischool the teacher asked the pupils who had a different answer and to give it. Me being from a normal parish school, with big classes, I just said, "No, my answer is wrong." She insisted, I repeated. After about three times, I gave my answer. ... She looked at me ... she looked at the answer key ... she looked at me ... she looked at the answer key again ... again at me ... then she said, that I was right, that the book was wrong. That was quite a surprising event for me and apparently for the teacher as well. At a later occasion, pretty much the same happened. I said my answer was wrong, was very reluctant to give it, the teacher insisted, I kept hesitating, teacher kept insisting. When I finally gave my answer, she looked at me, at the answer key, at me, at the key and said that I was right and that the book was wrong.

One of the effects this had on me was that, since then, I normally don't accept it when people tell me I am wrong without trying to convince me why I am wrong. This child experience is also one of the reasons why I insist with my pupils that they give or try to give an answer, even if they are totally convinced they must be wrong. More about this on the page Right Answer, Wrong Answer, Possibly Partially Right Answer (In preparation).

From as long as I remember until being about 10

As long as I remember, whenever my father was in his workshed behind the house, making furniture or repairing things, I was there watching him, observing. My mother told me I probably started doing that from about the moment I could walk. Of course I always wanted to know why he was doing things like this and less often asking why not like that. It is not very surprising that my father frequently lost his patience and used several expressions, some rather poetic, to ask me to stop.

Maybe I was around 10 when my father with some of my elder brothers and the boyfriend of one of my sisters were placing wooden planks on doors for central heating boiler rooms. And of course I was watching them. After nailing the first plank on a door, they were placing the others, one plank at a time, hammering it snug and tight to the previous one nailing it in place to then place the next one and so on. They were continuing like that and I was watching them doing this ... one plank at a time. They were continuing and I was watching them, holding on to myself to not bother them with my remarks.

After a pretty long while, I really couldn't hold myself any more. So, despite me already hearing the emotionally decorated expressions with which they would ask me to not bother them with my remarks while they were doing important work, I asked: "Why don't you put a few planks, three or five at one time, hammer them in place together and then nail them down?" After a short silence, me already wondering how they would be going to tell me to not bother them, they said with illustrative intonation: "Why didn't you say that before? ... We are working here like this, all that time. ... If you had told us earlier, we could have saved a lot of time." ... Well now.

My wooden briefcase

When I was making myself a wooden briefcase and showed it to my father, he asked why I had made the dovetails in the shortest direction and not in the longest, as is usual. It is he who taught me the craft of cabinetmaking. I answered that the forces on the briefcase go down, in the shortest direction. Then he said, yea, when you do something different from what is usual you normally have a good reason for it.

It is designed to be storm-proof. I used it in several rain and wind storms, walking, on my bicycle. Never a drop of water came in. That is, except a few times, when not taking enough care on opening it.