The Languages in Belgium - by Thomas

In Belgium, we have three different languages – we do not have only one official language. Belgium is divided into three parts: in the north of the country we speak Flemish, the same as in the Netherlands, in the south we speak French, the same as in France, and on the east side we speak German, the same as in Germany. Moreover, we have plenty of different dialects for the three languages.

In Europe, no matter which country, we write from the left to the right. French is a “Romance” language, as are Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Romanian.

German and Flemish are called “Germanic languages”. Germanic languages include Flemish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish etc. In the European alphabet we just have 26 different basic letters.

In Brussels people speak French and Flemish. For the government French people speak French, Flemish people speak Flemish and German people speak German. However in the European Commission, people speak their own languages or English. The road signs are just a little bit different, only when something is written.

Many people say, “I speak French because I live in Wallonie” It's the same with the Flemish people but because they live in Flanders. In Belgium we do not have many bilingual people. I'm not bilingual because I can't speak more than one language very well, even though my mother speaks French and my stepfather speaks Flemish, I would say that French is my mother tongue.