Most of the people in Belgium do not really care about these language issues, B-H-V, and other related issues. Ask 100 people in Belgium what the B-H-V issue is, and if you’re lucky there will be one who can actually explain this. Language issues ? In daily life most of the people never have to use the other language except for those working in certain regions.

Media and some political parties seem eager to make a big deal of it thou. Perception seems to dominate the discussion I have the impression.

I would be more interested in knowing why there seems to be such a big difference between what is reported in the media or by politicians and ordinary people in the street. Till now no serious effort has been made to investigate this.

Also it would be interesting to analyse why the knowledge of French by Flemish and vice versa is rapidly declining.

And to end, when telling my Spanish friends that apparently some people seem to want to split Belgium in two, they started laughing : “Such a small country ? If you split it in two, nothing will be left…”.

@Ingrid : I suppose you worked with Prof Schokkaert at the KUL ? I used to study Economics there as well :-)

I am going to bed, sorry.

This is certainly part of it. The Flemish had to fight for the recognition of their language. On the other hand, by them time they got their recognition another problem surfaced: “What kind of Dutch do we want to speak?” It shouldn’t be too Dutch and neither should it have too many French influences. For instance. The Dutch word for umbrella is “paraplu”. Some Flemish purists at the time rejected this word for its Frenchness and invented the word “regenscherm” (rainshield), which is still in use. At the same time there is still much resistance against the use of the typical Dutch (as in Netherlands) word “leuk”, roughly “cool”.

To make it even more complicated. Even the respected Hugo Claus was chastised by some of his fellow countrymen, as late as 1983, for his master piece The Sorrow of Belgium because… there was too much dialect in it. It was, in other words, too Flemish.

I discussed this often with Flemish friends and one reason they suggested for Flemish people being more “correct” in their use of Dutch is this: (over)compensation for insecurity about how they should speak and write. That is why Flemish people, not all of them, tend to be less spontaneous and “fluent” than the careless Dutch who never really had to consider these questions.

When I speak of “fluency” and “fluent”, I mean creativity and wit in speaking “Algemeen Nederlands” (the Beschaafd has been dropped some time ago). A Flemish person is as fluent in his own language (very often a mixture of dialect and Algemeen Nederlands) as any Dutch person.

But it is much more complex, really.

The Dutch government does no such thing. The Taalunie (language union) is responsible for that.

As far as language proficiency goes, I used to find Flemish people to be much more careful in their use of grammar and spelling. However, when it comes to “fluency” the Dutch, in general, win hands down. This has of course nothing to do with intricate qualities, much of it is history.

Ingrid, if you need back-up for your post, I have been thinking to do something on AFOE with this. I only hesitate because I have no idea to explain to a non-Belgian audience the hot iron of the splitting of Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde. Also, I haven’t followed every single detail of the “crisis” too closely. I live in France now and, frankly, I did not have the stomach for it this time around. It is very complex (one of the solutions they will possibly come up with is some sort of interim government for two year, since there are plans to have local, national and European elections coincide).

Anyhow, my credentials (always relative, of course): Dutch guy with 28 years of life in Flanders behind him (from the age of 8) with a degree in translation. The translation part is interesting because Dutch is my working language and I have been working 17 years now for a Flemish company and for a Flemish audience. I know their sensibilities.

>Sure, I understand that people can hate each >other because of different religions, but a >friggin language? I dunno, it just seems that >there must be something more substantial, >tangible behind it; it’s just too silly.

Sure, it’s not just the language. The language is symbolic of the political/ economic tensions. In Quebec, the “Quiet Revolution” came with the slogan “maitre chez nous”—masters of our own house. The desire to control political and economic life is manifested in the desire to conduct political and economic life in French.

Even without political/ economic struggles, to be prohibited from using one’s own language is to be silenced. That’s a profound assault on what it means to be human.

Perhaps this is because the federal government has relatively little power, so much having devolved to Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia.

No wonder no one notices.

The reason there is no government is that the two regions vote separately. There were three major parties but nowadays each has a Wallonian and a Flemish version. So there are six major parties.

Flemish premier Yves Leterme, who failed to put together enough parties to have a majority in Parliament, is still likely to win as prime minister.

But he is having trouble winning support from any party in Wallonia, where he is much disliked because he wants to further increase the power of the regions.

That likely means less tax money going from rich Flanders to relatively poor Wallonia, although in Flanders the amount of the cross-region flow tends to be exaggerated.