I love learning about American culture and the English language. It not only helps me communicate in the English-dominated online world, but it helps me reflect on our own Belgian culture. I’ve been posting short blurbs about the quirks of our country on my Twitter feed lately, but I’ve decided I want to write a series of blog posts about it as well.

We start today with our three official languages, geography and laws. I plan to do another article about media and technology at some point in the future. Update: find part 2 here.

Language

  • Bilingual street signs in Brussels (credit: Ejk81)Our lovely little country has three official languages: Dutch, French and German. Flanders, which is where I live, is the Dutch-language region of Belgium. In Wallonia, French is spoken. However, after the first World War we received a small slice of land from Germany. We call that region the East Cantons. Technically it is part of Wallonia, but people living there still speak German.
  • Our capital Brussels and a few neighboring towns have bilingual (Dutch/French) status, but people there usually resort to French when talking to other members of the public.
  • Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels share the same federal government and their love of Belgian beer, chocolate and fries… but that covers just about everything we have common. We don’t speak to each other very much because of the language barrier.
  • In Flanders, French classes are mandatory from the 5th year of primary school (age 10/11) up to the last year of secondary school (age 17/18). English is mandatory from the 2nd year of secondary school. From what I’ve heard, Walloons can choose to attend either Dutch or English classes, or in some cases both.
  • Most Flemish people know enough French to get around in Wallonia. According to a Walloon report from their public broadcaster I’ve seen, Walloons’ knowledge of Dutch is rusty.Charmander (source: Nintendo) To be fair, there are much more French speakers than Dutch speakers in the world.
  • Many multilingual sites erroneously redirect me to their French site because I live in Belgium. I’m looking at you, MySpace!
  • English is a lot more dominant in Flemish culture than Wallonian culture. I was listening to a Flemish Top 100 of Belgian music a while ago. Funny thing… the majority of artists in that list sung in English instead of Dutch/French. By comparison, when I listen to Walloon radio, I hear a lot more French songs. Also: Pokémon is sold in English in Flanders, while Walloons get a French version. They even changed all the Pokémon’s names! I can’t imagine calling Charmander "Salamèche"…

Geography, culture and laws

  • Belgium is, along with Australia, one of few countries where voting is mandatory. You can choose not to vote, but you have to show up at your local polling booth and can be fined if you don’t. We don’t use the American “winner-takes-it-all” election system, so coalition governments are common practice. Political parties cater to one side of the language barrier, so we have at least 5 major parties in both Flanders and Wallonia.
  • Our highest point is 694 meters above sea level. Needless to say, you shouldn’t bother looking for mountains here. Flanders is mostly flat and densely populated, Wallonia less so. There is no American-style middle of nowhere in Belgium.
  • Because of language barriers, dense population and the small size of our country, most of your friends and relatives live within a 100km (62mi) radius.
  • We have the following American imports: Coca-Cola, Pepsi (not as popular), McDonald’s, Citibank, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Subway and Good Humor — although we call it Ola. Things we don’t have: Best Buy, Wendy’s, KFC, Captain Crunch, Burger King and Cheerios.
  • A "frituur/friterie" (credit: Wouter Hagens)Still, there’s no shortage of fast food in this country. We love our Belgian fries. Yes, I said Belgian fries. The French stole the idea from us. It says so on Wikipedia so it must be true! We usually eat fries at a “frituur” (Dutch) or “friterie” (French). Unlike fast food joints, they’re often small businesses run by locals.
  • We can start drinking beer at 16, but can’t get our definitive driver’s license until we’re 18. School attendance is mandatory, but home schooling is a legal alternative. Mandatory military service has been abolished long ago.
  • Map of the Schengen Area (credit: Ssolbergj)You can travel freely between Belgium and neighboring countries. No border checks! This free travel zone includes many European countries and is formally known as the Schengen Area. Like much of Europe, we’re in the Eurozone.
  • Smoking in bars has been illegal since July 2011.
  • We have set periods during which shops are allowed to advertise discounted goods: during the month of July and during much of January. If I recall correctly, this measure was taken to prevent big retail stores to out-discount smaller stores into bankruptcy.
  • In the province of Antwerp, there is a town called Baarle that is partially Belgian and partially Dutch. (As in “from The Netherlands”, not the language. Yes, it is confusing as hell.) So your bedroom could be located in Belgium while your living room is in The Netherlands! Similarly, there’s a Belgian town on the Luxembourgian border called Martelange where everyone buys their gas and tobacco on the Luxembourgian side of the village because we tax the hell out of these commodities.
  • In many cases our wages rise automatically when prices of essential goods go up. Apparently no one else is doing this. While this sounds neat at first, it could potentially accelerate inflation because an increase in wages raises production costs so not everyone thinks it’s a good idea.
  • We don't tip our waiters.Unlike Americans, we don’t tip our waiters. Service fees are included in the price of your drinks. We think it’s more convenient, but on the other hand we can’t lower the tip if the food is bad or if the waiter is grumpy.
  • A year in one of our Flemish universities will cost you about €500 ($682) in tuition fees. This is mere cents compared to American and British universities. But here’s the real kicker: low-income families can even get in for €80 ($109). If I’m not mistaken, that’s less than the price of the average American course book. Walloon universities are a bit more expensive, but still cost less than €1000.
  • Shops aren’t allowed to be opened 24/7 due to labor laws. They’re required to close for at least one day a week, with a few exceptions. I believe this is supposed to protect small businesses that often don’t have the resources to compete with big box retailers that stay open day and night.

My thanks go out to everyone on /r/belgium who contributed suggestions and corrections to this article!