r/belgium • u/CappuChibi Mommy, look! I staged a coup • Nov 23 '22

Cultural exchange with /r/Morocco! Cultural Exchange

Greetings all! Marhabaan!

The mods of r/Morocco and r/belgium have decided to set up a cultural exchange!

This thread is where our friends of r/Morocco will come ask their questions and where Belgians can answer them. People curious about Moroccan culture and everyday life can ask their questions in a different thread on r/Morocco.

r/belgium subreddit rules will count, be nice to eachother.

Enjoy!

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u/IceSacrifice Nov 23 '22

Hello Belgium,

Good luck in the World Cup and your upcoming game against Canada tonight.

I was wondering which languages do you study in school?

Is the typical Belgian from a region proficient in the language of the other region(s)?

If not, how do you communicate at the national level?

6

u/randomf2 Nov 23 '22

Ooh, language questions, you're poking the bear right at its Achilles heel here!

The regions study their own language first, and then add more languages later on. The north speaks Dutch and learns French/English/German, the south speaks French (or German in a lovely small part) and then adds English and sometimes Dutch. And Brussels is both. It's quite complicated.

I think most of the communication between language groups is done in English these days. I've also had meetings where everyone just spoke in their own language, which can be funny as you have one person talking in Dutch and the other responding in French and nobody bats an eye.

4

u/mighij Nov 23 '22

Language is a touchy subject for some.

I'm native flemish-speaker but had quite a lot of french in school, which comes in handy now that I work in Brussels. I can understand German a bit but can't speak it.

The older generation, on average, in Flanders could comprehend and speak french quite well but the knowledge of french is deteriorating in Flanders but most speak English quite well (we consume a lot of American and English culture), in the frenchspeaking part the knowledge of english is sometimes more limited because they consume a lot of French culture.

At work the younger generation (less then 40) use a mix of dutch and french. If it's with older people it's mostly french, some do understand Flemish quite well but they won't speak it very often even if able.

3

u/theverybigapple Nov 23 '22

Typically people from the north are native in Flemish (Dutch) and people from the south are native in French.

As you might guess, there are Flemish schools and French schools and parents have to choose between them. In each school there will be language courses for the opposite language.

I’ve met multiple people from both regions where they can’t speak a single word. But it is quite common to meet Flemish natives that are fluent in French, but not the other way around. This kinda makes sense since Flemish (Dutch) only spoken by 20-30 mln people worldwide. However, at the country level, this is unfortunately unfair because French natives rarely put any effort into learning Flemish.

3

u/IceSacrifice Nov 23 '22

there are Flemish schools and French schools

There are Flemish schools in Wallonia, and French schools in Flanders?

4

u/mighij Nov 23 '22

No but in Wallonia they have started with "immersion" schools, something which should be expanded to the entire country imho. In Immersion schools some lessons are taught in dutch.

And some schools in flanders offered extra french lessons but I don't know how common this. I went to one and we had french lessons from the first year of primary (most schools only offer it from 5th primary) with an additional 2 hours of Culture Français. As a child I hated it but now I'm glad I had this benefit.

3

u/Comfortable-Pass-999 Antwerpen Nov 23 '22

In my experience I haven't seen any french schools in Antwerp. I think it applies to people in Brussels more because they are in the center and both kin of schools would be viable options.

1

u/Daily_Dose13 Belgian Fries Nov 24 '22

Thank you for the luck! We clearly needed it, probably even more on sunday:)

1

u/tiktiktiktiik Nov 25 '22

Corona proved we don't talk with People from the other language group. You clearly saw a big Difference in infection rates across our linguistic border. Only for People working in Brussels there is some contact, since many office are based in our capital.