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One-third of de Rand residents can’t speak Dutch
One-third of people living in the Flemish municipalities that ring Brussels, known in Dutch as de Rand, are unable to speak Dutch, minister Ben Weyts told the Flemish Parliament yesterday.
Weyts (N-VA) is the minister responsible for issues concerning de Rand, an area that includes cities popular with both French-speaking Belgians and expats such as Tervuren (pictured), Drogenbos and Sint-Genesius-Rode.
Weyts was presenting the latest findings of the Taalbarometer, a survey that measures language competence in the region. He described the current situation as “disturbing”, saying that it was about more than just language. “The basic problem is a social one,” he said. “It goes to the heart of the social fabric in de Rand.”
The report found that Dutch was the language most spoken at home, with 45% of people using it, but that French was understood by the largest percentage of people. The survey also showed that 67% of those who spoke French at home sent their children to a French-speaking school, while just 19% went to a Dutch-language school.
Weyts was also concerned by the report’s findings that 82% of French speakers wanted de Rand, which is geographically located in Flanders and officially Dutch-speaking, to become a bilingual entity.
Comments
Easy for me to say as a virtually monolingual Brit living in Belgium, but why on earth has the federal government not insisted that all schools teach French and Flemish, so that all future generations will become fluently bilingual? It seems so obvious!
I seem to recall that French speaking schools require all students to study Dutch (usually from grade 1) and the reverse. However, and here is where it is truly sad, the Dutch teachers in a French speaking school are actually French speakers who teach Dutch (so not always the best accent) and the Dutch teachers in a French speaking school are native French speakers teaching Dutch (so not a good accent). Everyone covering their turf -- typically Belgian.