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Language use in Belgian TV shows | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5114 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes  Speaks: German*, English | Message 1 of 5 11 February 2014 at 12:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've recently stumbled upon the Belgian TV show "Salamander" broadcast by Dutch-language TV station Eén and I've noticed that in many scenes a character would ask questions in French (even when everyone else around them was discussing a topic in Dutch) and a Dutch speaking character would invariably code-switch to French when answering the question.
I'm wondering why the producers didn't have all characters speak Dutch. Is it because: a) The French speaking character supposedly spoke better French than Dutch or preferred to speak French for another reason. b) The French speaking character was just a token French speaking character added for variety or the benefit of native French speakers. c) Not everyone in Belgium speaks both languages equally well, and the show wanted to be somewhat realistic and had some people only speak French. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4501 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 5 11 February 2014 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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The story is set in Brussels. In Brussels code-switching is very normal among Belgians
- many people there speak both languages. The Flemish who live in Brussels probably speak French almost equally well, so if someone speaks French then they switch to that (although if they are not Bruxellois then they will hate doing it). I haven't seen the show or the specific characters, but in Brussels the code-switching rules for bilinguals apply, not those for monolinguals with a second language far weaker than their first, especially for Flemish who have to speak French in the capital. In Brussels there is almost no way to tell (unless the accent is very strong either way when speaking) if someone is a native Dutch or French speaker. Often the surname doesn't help you any further either - a Wilmots can be a native francophone and Mignolet can be a native Flemish speaker. Furthermore, police officers in Brussels are required to be bilingual. Edited by tarvos on 11 February 2014 at 5:35pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4622 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 3 of 5 16 February 2014 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Salamander is currently being shown on BBC4 in the UK, and very good it is too, IMHO.
Someone on a Guardian TV-related blog, who seemed very knowledgeable about Belgium, said it was made specifically for the Flemish speaking TV market in Belgium, and hence is primarily in Flemish, although there is some language-switching. It seems that TV programming in Belgium is divided along linguistic boundaries. Apart from actual code-switching, it's interesting to see how many French words the Flemish speakers drop into their sentences. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5114 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 4 of 5 16 February 2014 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | ||
IMHO, it's an OK show. The actors are pretty good, but, IMHO, they overdid it with the villains, who often behave almost like cartoon characters, and the plot tropes were mostly recycled from countless other similarly themed TV shows. They only difference was the location and the language. But it is a good show for brushing up Dutch. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4501 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 5 of 5 17 February 2014 at 3:00pm | IP Logged | ||
It is, and the French words in common speech are usual in Belgium. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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