Official Languages: French, Dutch and German. Wallon, the local variant of French, is used by 33% of population. Flemish is used by more than 60% of the population, and is spoken in the northern part of the country. The languages learned at school are officially labelled French and Dutch.
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Does Belgium have its own language?
In Belgium you can speak any language you want. For contacts with the authorities three official languages can be used: Dutch, French and German.Each federated state has its own official language. Only the Brussels-Capital Region is bilingual.
Do all Belgium speak French?
French is spoken by around 40% of Belgians as their primary tongue, while just 1% of the population speaks German as their first language. Many Belgians also speak one or more second languages. 16% speak Flemish Dutch as a second language, 49% speak French and 22% speak German.
Is Belgian the same as French?
There are other ways that the dialects differ as well. Just as Canadian French is different from Standard French, Belgian French is also different. There are actually three official languages in Belgium – Dutch, French, and German.Even though both countries speak French, the French is not always the same.
Do they speak English in Belgium?
Even though English isn’t an official language of Belgium, it is still spoken by 55% of its people. When visiting Brussels, you can see by their bilingual street signs that both Dutch and French are widely used, therefore there is no risk of offending someone when opening a conversation in either language.
Is Belgium more German or French?
The Kingdom of Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French, and German.
| Languages of Belgium | |
|---|---|
| Official | Dutch (1st: ~55%, 2nd: 16%, total: ~71%) French (1st: ~39%, 2nd: ~49%, total: ~88%) German (1st: 0.4%, 2nd: 22%, total: 22.4%) |
How do you say hello in Belgium?
Most people in Belgium speak French, with a small portion of the Belgian population speaking Dutch (Flemish).
Belgian Phrases.
| Hello: Salut | Pronounced: Sal oo |
|---|---|
| Good Evening: Bonsoir | Pronounced: Bon swar |
| Good Morning/Afternoon: Bonjor | Pronounced: Bon jor |
| Thank You: Merci | Pronounced: Mer see |
Are Belgians Dutch?
The majority of Belgians, however, belong to two distinct ethnic groups or communities (Dutch: gemeenschap or French: communauté) native to the country, i.e. its historical regions: Flemings in Flanders, who speak Dutch, and Walloons in Wallonia, who speak French or Walloon.
What language is spoken by 80 cents in Brussels?
French
French is the language spoken by 80 percent of the population in Brussels and consider it to be their first language.
What language is spoken in Iceland?
Icelandic
Do they speak Flemish in Belgium?
Flemish is spoken by approximately 5.5 million people in Belgium and by a few thousand people in France. Flemish is spoken by about 55% of the population of Belgium. There are also several thousand Flemish speakers in France. Flemish uses the Latin alphabet.
Why are Belgians French?
Belgian French (French: français de Belgique) is the variety of French spoken mainly among the French Community of Belgium, alongside related Oïl languages of the region such as Walloon, Picard, Champenois and Lorrain (Gaumais).French is one of the three official languages of Belgium alongside Dutch and German.
Who is Belgian but speaks French?
Belgium is divided into three regions: Flanders in the north, the Brussels-Capital Region in the middle, and Wallonia in the south. To make matters a little more confusing, the Flemish speak Dutch but do not consider themselves Dutch, and the Walloons speak French but do not consider themselves French.
Can you survive in Belgium with English?
It isn’t practical to move to Belgium if you don’t want to learn another language. You won’t get very far only speaking English here. If you are English speaking and you are willing to learn another language to live and work here then I would say give it a go.
How safe is Belgium?
OVERALL RISK : MEDIUM. Overall, Belgium is a safe country to travel to. Crime rates are low and anything happening to you on the streets of Belgium is unlikely. The only issue to keep an eye on, apart from being vigilant for terrorist attacks, is petty theft and picpocketing.
Why does Belgium speak 3 languages?
Historically speaking, the country has had quite a wide variety of rulers, influencing how multilingual and multicultural Belgians are today. Due to their close proximity to these three countries, they have three official languages that divide Belgium into three main regions.
Is Belgium poor?
Between 2008 and 2018, roughly 15 percent of the Belgium population was at risk of poverty, defined by Statistics Belgium as 60 percent of the average disposable income in the country. People with an income lower than this are considered poor. In 2018, this definition matched nearly 16 percent of the Belgians.
Are fries from France or Belgium?
The origin story
Despite its name and popularity, the French fries are not French. The origins can be found in Belgium, where historians claim potatoes were being fried in the late-1600s. According to Belgian lore, poor villagers living in Meuse Valley would often ate small fried fish they caught in the river.
Can a Dutch understand Afrikaans?
Although Afrikaans is a daughter of Dutch, Dutch speakers might take some time to understand the language but they can understand Afrikaans.The spelling is also different from the Dutch standard. The mutual intelligibility is more apparent in the written rather than the spoken form of Afrikaans and Dutch.
Is Belgium closer to France or Netherlands?
Belgium shares borders with France (620 km), Germany (167 km), Luxembourg (148 km) and the Netherlands (450 km). Its total surface, including water area, is 30,689 km2 (11,849 sq mi). Before 2018, its total area was believed to be 30,528 km2 (11,787 sq mi).
Do the Netherlands and Belgium speak the same language?
Although speakers of English usually call the language of the Netherlands “Dutch” and the language of Belgium “Flemish,” they are actually the same language.
