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| *Travel Tips>>>Belgium Travel Tips |
What's it like living in multi-lingual countries such as Belgium & Luxembourg!!!? |
Travel Info I am interested to know...on television does it switch between French and German or Dutch or Luxembourgish? Are there biases between certain language groups? In schools, are the children taught primarily in one language? when speaking to people on the street, or shop assistants, which language do you use? I'm just very interested to know about these things and how multi-lingual countries work! any onformation or personal experiences would be appreciated! Thanks! Travel Tips it's confusing... lol... I am American and live in Brussels, which is primarily French-speaking but with pockets of Dutch communities. In the city center, you have to speak at least basic French to get by, because the French population is generally pretty bad at other languages (there are lots of exceptions, of course). In the Dutch communes, you can speak French, Dutch, or even English or German, as the Dutch seem to be much more proficient in the language department-- in some Dutch neighborhoods, though, the shopkeepers will get upset if you try to speak French to them. Brussels is a very multi-cultural city, however, so English is also a very common language. My daughter is 8 and attends a Dutch-speaking school. Her class is already studying French as a second language, and that will continue through the end of middle school at least. The school is being VERY nice, and instead of making her study French, they give her private tutorials in Dutch while the class learns French, since Dutch is still a bit of a challenge for her. The TV channels are again primarily French and Dutch, and there are separate stations dedicated to each language. There are also channels in German, Portuguese, English, and Spanish. All channels show language-specific shows plus popular English or American programs (like Lost, for example), but most channels will dub the program into its own language. The Dutch stations, though, just run the program in English and throw down some Dutch subtitles... maybe because there are so many different dialects here? Or maybe just because it's cheaper? Don't know. The German-speaking population in Belgium is just a small percentage of the population, located near the German-Belgian border, and they mostly just pick up TV from Germany to get by. Their accent is quite distinct from the German accent, though... kind of like the difference between a Texas accent and NY accent. I have some business dealings with a few companies in Luxembourg, and they seem to speak perfect French and German, but English is not as common. That's all I know... sorry! Like I said, it's all pretty confusing when you first arrive, but it's good because you are forced to learn a bit about the country's history and how it evolved into what it is today. So far I have really enjoyed it here, despite the language challenges!! Others Most citites in Switzerland use either French, German, or Italian. My Uni town (Fribourg, Switzerland) was multi-lingual. About 70% German and 30% French. Children are taught the language of their village first and then the primary 2nd language. In Switzerland it's mostly either German/French or French/German. Then everybody learns English as a 3rd language and it's often used as a kinda of lingua franca. In Lugano, naturally, kids are taught Italian first. On the street you use the predominant language of the region. Where I lived it was normal to use French unless you were in the older (German-speaking) quarter of the city. I wouldn't say there is a bias, but most German-speaking Swiss feel that the French speakers don't make as much effort to learn or speak German even though it's the most used language. Many conversations between German and English speakers ended up in French or even English. There are different TV stations for each language. As most of the multi-lingual countries are quite small, it's often possible to get signals from neighboring countries as well. Lived in a multilingual city In Luxembourg, yes, all of the tv channels are a mix of French, German, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Portugese and sometimes English. For example, you can watch an English channel (like CNN) but all the commercials will be in different languages. There are most definitley biases between the language groups; in my experience, mostly by the native Luxembourgers. They can be a bit xenophobic. People most often speak French or Luxembourgish in the streets, in shops, etc. However, German is used by the media and the church. I would say though, that all one needs to know if travelling to Lux is some basic French. From Wikipedia: "In addition to the three native languages, English is taught from a young age (mostly 2nd grade, i.e. at the age of 13 to 14 years), and most of the population of Luxembourg is proficient in English." It's common for the kids in Lux to usually know 3 - 5 languages, which never ceases to amaze me. Hope this answer helps. My boyfriend has lived in Luxembourg for 8 years, and I have been there. Hi, your first point : television : you have access here to all of the european channels, so you can watch french channels, german, dutch, italian, english, etc ... biases between language groups : I'd rather say yes in Belgium, between th 2 main communities : Flemish (dutch speakers) and Wallons (french speakers) - not really in Luxemburg. School : in Belgium children are taught in the language of their community (dutch in the north, french in the south), but learning second language becomes quite mandatory when they reach a certain age + we see more and more bi-lingual school appearing teaching in both laguages from the age of 6. In luxembourg, they start with Luxemburgish, then on a later stage, lessons are given in both german and french (german being used for all scientific lessons, like maths, physics, etc... french being more for the litterate subjects, eg: history, geography, etc..) + learning other languages like english or italian/spanish. A part from luxemburgish natives, people in the street mainly speaks french or german or english (expat's community is very important due to bank industry in Lux.) In Belgium, depending if you're in the north or the south, you will use either dutch or french, both + english in brussels A belgian working in Luxembourg |
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