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Locations fostering "native polyglots" | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Bart Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6962 days ago 155 posts - 159 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish | Message 9 of 46 02 May 2005 at 5:50am | IP Logged | ||
You may not know this, but more than half of the Belgians are Flemish and thus speak Dutch as their mother tongue, the last 2 years of elementary school up until the last year of high school the Flemish children learn French at school, and the last 3 years of high school they usually have German lessons (but in some schools they get to choose between German and Spanish) Most Flemish Belgians are thus fully trilingual after finishing highschool (Dutch, English and French) and sometimes even speak 4 languages fluently The French speaking Belgians (don't know what they're called in English) however ONLY speak French (although they do have Dutch at school, but more in a 'look at this funny language that is way too difficult for us to learn to speak' way.) I have never been to the German speaking part of Belgium (it's verrrrrrry small) but I know most people there speak both German and French, but no Dutch whatsoever PS: I just read the Dutch profile on this site and noticed that the writer states that they speak Dutch in South Africa. This is not true. Although Afrikaans sounds alot like Dutch, it's an entirely different language, and to native speakers of Dutch it sounds alot like baby talk with some added words we would consider rude. I'd also like to make sure everyone here knows that Flemish is non-existant. The people in Flanders speak Dutch, just like the people in the Netherlands. Our Dutch may sound a little different and we may sometimes use other words, but grammaticaly etc its the same language, Dutch people understand us, and we understand them without any problems whatsoever. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7120 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 46 02 May 2005 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Anybody feel free to double check on this, I'm not too sure about it: French-speaking Belgians come from Wallonie, and are "Wallons".
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| thinkbluecollar Newbie Joined 7000 days ago 13 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* | Message 11 of 46 02 May 2005 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | ||
Wallonia, I think it's called. But yes, they are the French speaking population of Belgium. Though several regional languages are spoken as well, if I am not confused. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bart Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6962 days ago 155 posts - 159 votes Speaks: Dutch*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish | Message 12 of 46 03 May 2005 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I thougt it was something like Wallons (as in Dutch it's called Wallonië and the people Walen :p) but as I said, I didn't really know how to spell it in English.
And victor, I think you're right ^^ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6669 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi | Message 13 of 46 05 February 2006 at 12:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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The little I have seen of written Walloon (li walon), I get the impression that it is another language than French. The difference seems to me to be at least as big as for example Dutch and German. Try Wiki.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6696 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 46 10 February 2006 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Since noone has mentioned us Finland-Swedes yet I guess I'll have to take it up.
Most of us who grow up in Finland with Swedish as our mother tongue pick up Finnish to native standards as well along the way (except in the case of some remote areas). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Eidolio Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6663 days ago 159 posts - 164 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, Flemish*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, Greek | Message 15 of 46 12 February 2006 at 6:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Trilinguism in Belgium is on its way back, I'm afraid, thanks to the "innovations" in our education programmes. There are many Flemish whose French is really bad. Their English is in general acceptable but their German is awful.
(I must admit that my German speaking and writing skills are gruesome too (my reading and listening skills however are quite good). I avoid speaking German with German people (I prefer English) because I'm simply too ashamed. And German people immediately start to talk in English because they think it's an easier way to communicate...) In Wallony the situation is even worse because of the education programmes. Wallon children only start learning a foreign language in the first year of secondary school and they have to choose between English and Dutch! Because most parents think that English is better for the future of their kids, there are few children who actually learn Dutch. But when these children grow up and search a job in Brussels, they find out that the best jobs require good skills in Dutch, which leads to big frustration. (Maybe this has to do with the fact that learning German languages is more difficult for Roman language speakers than learning Roman languages for German language speakers.) But I must admit that the situation in Belgium is still better than in most other countries. The higher educated Flemish people are usually quite good in English, French and Dutch. The ones who take Latin and Greek during secondary school get a good education in these ancient languages so that they have a good basis for learning other languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vinz Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 6685 days ago 55 posts - 56 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Vietnamese, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 16 of 46 11 March 2006 at 2:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know many friends who were born and raised in Lebanon. As there are two high school systems over there, they either start learning French or English at a young age. If they take the French route, they'll know at least French, Arabic, and English when they come here to the US. Given the difficulty of Arabic grammar (MSA) and its pronounciation, I think it is a good kickstart to become a polyglot. My friends told me that about 70% of Lebanon speaks French in addition to Arabic because of the Maronites (Christians) who are in power. Edited by vinz on 11 March 2006 at 2:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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