So, there's a Flemish town that's got a ban on speaking French in schools.

[conuly]

(Outside of French classes, I assume.)

I'm not sure it's going to work...

I have a few thoughts related to this article:

1. My mom keeps saying that sooner or later there's going to be a war in Belgium. Having not been there since I was a kid (I need to get back in touch with my family!), I have no clue on how accurate this information is. What say you?

2. On the argument of whether or not it's Dutch or Flemish, I offer proof positive that it's Flemish. Even 2-year-old Elliot told me, when finding out that I have family in Belgium, that this means "You speak Flemish!" Of course, I don't - my family speaks French - but that's not the point. Even two year olds are taught that the language they're kinda bilingual in is Flemish and not Dutch.

Comments

[deceptica]

I don't really want to have this discussion again, so I'll just ignore your second point and just note that even the Belgian commenters on the BBC website call it Dutch and not Flemish. 0:-)

As for point one - I sure hope not! You can say a lot of things about the European Union, but I dare say that none of its countries are anywhere close to becoming war zones. That's not to say that the Belgians don't have an identity problem... IIRC our professor of Belgian studies was in favour of a European super state in which Flanders and Wallonia become independent regions, since "the only true Belgian is the king anyway".

[conuly]

0. Not all of them do! But we're not talking about this.

1. My mom also says that the king isn't really Belgian, that the entire royal family is really British. ("So long to get a Belgian princess, and she's Flemish!" were, I believe, her exact words.)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Hm. This is the first time I hear that the Belgians are considered Dutch-speaking, really; I always learned that the Belgians speak French, German, Flemish and/or Walloon. Huh. There is a lot of friction between the latter two language groups for economical and other reasons, but I sure hope there isn't going to be a civil war about this soon, living right next door (and trusting at least a little bit in the European Union, it luckily isn't too likely - student revolts or such things are more likely). I know that they refrained from any writing on the Belgian Euro coins (except for the "1 Euro/ 50 Cent/ whatever" bit, which is the same for every country anyway) because they didn't want to have the whole fuss about which language to use. So they just have the face of King Albert II without any text whatsoever. I think he's more German than British, though - Saxon, not Anglo-Saxon. Not that it matters much because all the European royal houses are interrelated anyway...

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Except we've not had a British royal family for centuries. We ran out and had to nick them from the Germans.

[deceptica]

I don't really want to have this discussion again, so I'll just ignore your second point and just note that even the Belgian commenters on the BBC website call it Dutch and not Flemish. 0:-)

As for point one - I sure hope not! You can say a lot of things about the European Union, but I dare say that none of its countries are anywhere close to becoming war zones. That's not to say that the Belgians don't have an identity problem... IIRC our professor of Belgian studies was in favour of a European super state in which Flanders and Wallonia become independent regions, since "the only true Belgian is the king anyway".

[conuly]

0. Not all of them do! But we're not talking about this.

1. My mom also says that the king isn't really Belgian, that the entire royal family is really British. ("So long to get a Belgian princess, and she's Flemish!" were, I believe, her exact words.)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Hm. This is the first time I hear that the Belgians are considered Dutch-speaking, really; I always learned that the Belgians speak French, German, Flemish and/or Walloon. Huh. There is a lot of friction between the latter two language groups for economical and other reasons, but I sure hope there isn't going to be a civil war about this soon, living right next door (and trusting at least a little bit in the European Union, it luckily isn't too likely - student revolts or such things are more likely). I know that they refrained from any writing on the Belgian Euro coins (except for the "1 Euro/ 50 Cent/ whatever" bit, which is the same for every country anyway) because they didn't want to have the whole fuss about which language to use. So they just have the face of King Albert II without any text whatsoever. I think he's more German than British, though - Saxon, not Anglo-Saxon. Not that it matters much because all the European royal houses are interrelated anyway...

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Except we've not had a British royal family for centuries. We ran out and had to nick them from the Germans.