Language Politics in Belgium

[ugly_boy]

Just read an interesting article in the International Herald Tribune: "Belgium teeters on a linguistic edge." It's a little long to post the full text, but it makes for an interesting read.

Liedekerke has only 12,000 inhabitants, but its elected council has caused a stir by insisting on the "Flemish nature" of the town. Not only must all city

Comments

[conuly]

By punishing the children?

[conuly]

Yeah, you know what? The children have no say in where they live, nor what language their parents speak at home. If you've just moved to an area, I think it's not unreasonable to have a few months to learn the language.

[bolboreta]

They do have "a few months" to learn the language, the Flemish government will do anything to help them learn Dutch. But asking them to learn the only official language of the place isn't such an unreasonable request either.

They're talking about extracurricular activities. I know I wouldn't want to be in charge of a group of children who don't understand me, but maybe I'm weird. The Flemish are pretty annoyed with the fact that some of the areas close to Brussels have been forced to have French speaking facilities because people (who work in Brussels) move there with no intention of ever learning their language. Theoretically, those facilities should eventually disappear (as their children learn Dutch and grow up), but the French speakers want them to stay, and the Flemish feel that they're being colonized.

[rfk]

Children are the ones who will be deciding what language is spoken in the future.

I saw this documentary and they were interviewing people on this remote Scottish island. They said when they were little they used to speak Gaelic in school, but then when one child enters the class who only spoke English, they all end up switching to English so as not to exclude him/her, and now having grown up they only speak English amongst themselves.