Britney Spears said:
I see.
From <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium#Demographics.2C_language_and_literacy>Wikipedia:</a>
Historically, Belgium has three ethnic communities: Flemings, Walloons and German-speakers, which belonged to Germany until 1918, and three official languages, one for each community, Dutch, French and German. About 60 percent of the country is Dutch-speaking, French is the second most-spoken language (by about 40 percent) and German is spoken by less than 1 percent of the population.
But these figures must be taken with care because the most-recent linguistic census was before 1960, and the mother tongue is not always the same as the language used in public, or in official life. This applies especially to the many minority goups who more or less kept their ethnic identity, the oldest being the Jews, established in Antwerp since the Middle Ages, and various more recent-migrant communites as Italians, Spaniards, Poles, Turks or Moroccans. Within each of those communities, language use varies widely, with parts of each community maintaining their language of origin over generations, other parts moving towards the language of the city of residence. Percentages differ widely between the various migrant groups.
Both the Dutch spoken in Belgium and the Belgian French have small vocabulary differences from the varieties spoken in the Netherlands and France, but are mutually intelligible with their respective neighbouring dialects. Many speak Flemish or Walloon dialects which are often difficult to understand for people from other areas. Other regional languages officially recognised (in Wallonia only) are Champenois, Gaumais, and Picard.
Brussels, the capital, is mostly French-speaking, but officially French-Dutch bilingual. It evolved from a Dutch-speaking place when the Belgian state became independent in 1830 to its current dominantly French character being the capital of the central administration of the federal country.
More than 98 percent of the adult population is literate. Education is required from the age of 6 until the age of 18, but most Belgian students keep on studying until the age of 23. This makes Belgium's education system the second most intensive in Europe, after the United Kingdom's. Nevertheless, in recent years concern is rising over certain forms of illiteracy as 'functional illiteracy'.
You now more about Belgium than I do ! ;D
The history corect !
Flemish = Dutch , but with a litle differend accent then the Netherlands , like Canadian french is differend from French french .
And yes , we Flemish do not come along with the wallons , they have another kind of mentality (if its the right word) than we do ! And we (1PARA) got the most bad luck , we're the only unit with Flemish and wallon !
We're really 2 differend kind of people ! It's not that worst that we can kill each other , but when possible , we avoid each other !
You even notice it in Belgium politics ! Specialy in Brussels (the capital) , there are a lot of problems ! Some areas are Flemish , but most of the people who live there are Frensh talking , but they have to vote in Flemish elections , it's a difficult situation , to dificult to explane (in English) !
And as you say , 60% in Belgium is Flemish , but the Frensh part has the right for half of the belgium mony , and they got less jobs (so they don't bring in as much as we do ) , ...
In the Flemish part we got much more (trafic)police controle , over 370 Gatso's (fixed speedcamera's) , French part got 12 , so we pay a lot more speeding tickets , ... And the French part get half of it ! And so on ... !
It's just not fair !
They got a good life here !
But for the rest it's a good country to live in , for axample , when we go to the dokter , we get payed most of the bill back (national health service, or how you call it?) , everybody is obliged to pay insurance (for everything) , ... !
In other European country's (and I believe also in America , ...) they don't have those things , you got to be rich there to go to the hospital for an operation ?!
How is it in Canada to live ?