Reading for Fun!

Belgium is complex in ways you cannot even begin to imagine.

1 Geography: Where is Belgium exactly?

Covering a total area of 30,528 square kilometres, Belgium is small: in fact, it’s the fifth smallest
country in the EU (ahead of Malta, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Slovenia). This may explain why
people abroad mistake Belgium for a city in France, but suggesting the same here will get you a
cornet of pommes frites in the face.

Belgium – very much a country – has a shoreline along the North Sea and for the rest
is huddled among France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. While this proved not
the most strategic position during wartime, Belgium’s location today puts you just a stone’s
throw from some major European cities, including London (320km), Paris (265km) and
Amsterdam (173km). This means your options for weekend city trips are enviable.

2 Language: Do you speak…Belgian?

Even better than one non-existent Belgian language, Belgium has three official real languages:
French, Dutch and German. Although you might not realise it if you live in Brussels, Dutch is the
country’s majority language.

“Dutch? I thought that was the language they spoke in the Netherlands.”

Correct, but it is also spoken in Belgium by Flemings – people from Belgium’s northern region,
which is called Flanders. Some (even the locals) say that these people speak “Flemish”, but
what they mean is that they speak a form of the Dutch language (often called Belgian Dutch)
that differs somewhat from the Netherlands’ Dutch, having its own expressions and
pronunciations (think of the differences between British and American English).

As for the term “Flemish”, it is properly used as an adjective meaning “from Flanders” and refers
to the people and the culture, not to the language.

French, meanwhile, is spoken by Walloons in Belgium’s southern region, Wallonia. Although

exact figures are hard to come by, with some Dutch speakers living in Wallonia and some
French speakers living in Flanders, some 57% of Belgium’s 11.3 million population live in
Flanders. That is why Dutch is considered the majority language.

The rest of the population speaks French, except for a little pocket of German speakers in an
area bordering Germany called the East Cantons, or East Belgium.

To sum up: People living in the northern half of Belgium (Flanders) speak Dutch, and people
living in the southern half (Wallonia) speak French. Brussels is officially bilingual, though French
is the majority spoken language.

But wait... there’s more

Now you are ready for the advanced section: The Brussels periphery. Many French speakers
and expats who work in Brussels live just outside of the capital-region’s borders. Because
Brussels is geographically located fully within the province of Flemish Brabant, that means that
those people live in Flanders.

As previously mentioned, Dutch is spoken in Flanders, but that’s not just about the habit: It’s the
law. All administrative and governmental communications must be delivered in Dutch. That
includes everything from campaign literature to your mobile phone bill. The same holds true for
French in Wallonia.

EXCEPT: There are six cities in the periphery that are called ‘facility municipalities’. That means
that residents can request official communications in French. (Not English, don’t even go there.)

Next to the six ‘facility municipalities’ are an additional 13 cities that make up what is referred to
as the Brussels periphery. But those cities do not have language facilities; everything is in
Dutch.

The ‘Frenchification’ of this area in general has created endless debate among French and
Dutch speakers and the Brussels and Flemish governments. A clue to the politicisation of the
periphery can be seen in the names given to it: It is the ‘Brussels periphery’ to French speakers
and the ‘Flemish periphery’ to Dutch speakers.

Parlez-vous anglais?

Before you break out your old language books in a worried frenzy, rest assured that, as the
capital of Europe, Brussels houses many Europeans and other internationals who speak
English as a common language. In fact, it’s rare to find waiters, shop owners or strangers on
the street who cannot give directions or offer helpful information in English.

Still, when moving to Belgium, you will discover that language, culture and politics are tightly
sewn together. Therefore, having a good basic understanding of who speaks what is a key
building block to understanding how the country functions (not to mention sparing you the
lecture from a local on the matter).

3 Politics: It’s complicated

As the preceding paragraph partially revealed, Belgium has a quite complicated governmental
system for such a small country. As once speculated in The Guardian, one could imagine the
country’s famous painter René Magritte having said: Ceci n’est pas une nation. And he wouldn’t
have been far off.

Belgium is divided up geographically and politically along its language borders. Flanders and
Wallonia: The two regions live in different, if parallel, universes. There is a common royal family,
national football team, army, justice system and a few federal institutions. But not a single
political party, TV station or university serves them both.

So: There is a federal government, three regional governments (because Brussels also counts
as a region) and three “community” governments - one for each language group (French, Dutch
and German).
A number of years ago, the Flemish regional government merged with the Dutch-language
community government and became one and the same. So the lucky Belgians are today ruled
by a mere six administrations rather than seven. For 11.3 million people.

And Brussels?

Brussels, or to call it by its full name, the Brussels-Capital Region, is made up of 19

municipalities. Called communes in French, they each have their own mayor, their own town
halls and their own city councils. So where you go to handle administration depends on where
you live.

Don’t necessarily expect that your administrative centre will handle things in the same way as
another municipality does. And don’t necessarily expect English to be spoken. It all depends on
who’s behind the counter. The good news is that in Brussels, you can choose French or Dutch
for official communications. That’s the law.

And yet it works ... mostly

One would think living within this intricate governmental system would spell out constant chaos,
but the reality is much less dramatic. Belgians live for the most part in harmony in spite of these
politically charged linguistic and governmental differences.

There is the occasional political crisis or heated cross-cultural debate, including that one time in
2011 when Belgium made international headlines by going 541 days without a federal
government. It was a world record, go Belgium!

But all those governmental levels kicked in to keep Belgium from collapsing. In fact, most
Belgians didn’t noticed the difference between the ‘caretaker’ federal government and the one
that finally formed.

Belgians are also pretty happy to poke fun at their country’s linguistic and governmental
intricacies, like with this video.