> Benoît Poelvoorde
It looks like a very French first name and a very Dutch last name. Is that common in Belgium? Is there a significant overlap between the linguistic communities of Belgium?
It looks like a very French first name and a very Dutch last name. Is that common in Belgium? Is there a significant overlap between the linguistic communities of Belgium?
- There's rather limited contact between the linguistic communities of Belgium.
- Knowledge of nl is generally extremely limited in Wallonia. I have a feeling it's improving a bit, even if nl is not obligatory in education there.
- Knowledge of fr is clearly worsening with the youngest generation in Flanders, even if fr is obligatory in education there.
- Mixed nl/fr work environments used to be fr.
- Friends from outside Belgium often tell me they notice absurd humor as a common trait.
- Lots of interesting things to say about language community history too. Long story short, the language border hardly moved the last few hundred years, except for Brussels turning majority nl-> fr in the last ~100 years [0].
- Did you know Belgium has large ar, ber, de (official language!), it, ku, ln and tr communities too?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francization_of_Brussels
P.S. If you like Poelvoorde, watch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brand_New_Testament .
ln: Bantu Lingala
ku: Kurdish
Explains why you had some of the best surrealists back in the day
I theorise that neighbouring countries, especially those that fought a lot in the past evolve these odd language-language meaning issues. Some folks just start using a word from the neighbour country’s language, but use it in their language with a totally different meaning, often chosen to be hilariously different. Then if it turns into a sort of meme, eventually it ends up in the language.
Jean-Claude Van Varenberg (the real name of Jean-Claude Van Damme). It is incredibly common. I've got many several french speaking belgian friends, with a french name but a dutch family name.
> Is there a significant overlap between the linguistic communities of Belgium?
I would say not anywhere near what the name / family names may suggest. The north/south separation in Belgium is quite clear and although mixed french/flemish couples are by not means rare, I'd say the overlap is still not huge. Even in Brussels native flemish speaking people are only 6% of the population.
It does throw me when some documentary interviews a Frenchman with a very German last name. Until I find out he lives in Alsace. That area traded hands so many times. There are some French names on the other side of the border too, I’m told.
And isn’t “Austria” just a mistranslation of the German for “The outer lands”? But we don’t talk about that any more. Not since The War.
Ost - East
Öster - To the east, easter - relative to something
Reich - Empire
And yes, "we do not talk about that" since the war ended, the Myth that we were the "First Victim of the Nazis" still perpetuates, at least in the Generation of my Grandmother (who is 94).
The only austrian resistance when the nazis entered in 1938 was a Group of International Brigades that had returned from the spanish Civil War and they all got slaughtered. You likely will not find that in a lot of history books either, somehow the ~80.000 international Volunteers of the Civil War in Spain are rarely mentioned anywhere.
No Pasaran!
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%9... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine
Most people with FR first name and Dutch last name are Walloons who probably do not speak Flemish.
And even french have trouble understanding the Quebec language.
Some that learned it never use it, so they forget it though. But they don't need it professionally.
> but the compulsory classes don't get you anywhere near native proficiency.
And my proficiency is good enough work related and when I meet people. With no issues.
What more would i need?
I hope the original poster replies as well, it would be interesting to know if he knows the history behind his last name.
If that's the bar, then i reached it. No?
Being native doesn't matter. Plenty of people here learned English by classes, tv and online while not being a native English speaker and you wouldn't even notice it ( eg. me)
Some are noticable, like people from the netherlands have a certain accent while speaking and you still understand them perfectly.
Here's my point again: A native speaker has no single advantage over a non-native speaker, if they are at a certain level.
> compulsory classes don't get you anywhere near native proficiency.
It gets you good enough to explain yourself and speaking. You don't need native proficiency.
What you need is to practise it afterwards, if multiple years go by. Even native dutch speakers that went abroad don't speak dutch anymore well by lack of repetition over ( a lot of) years.
PS. My original reply was not on a question. But on the statement quoted above.
Having said that.. In an attempt to get me to learn Flemish, my parents placed me in a Flemish-speaking school. Most Flemish kids spoke decent French. The other way isn’t so true. Too many French-speaking Belgians don’t bother to learn Flemish.
Some old people in french speaking still speak dialect dutch. Not the "new" generation.
French Flanders: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Flanders
Additionally, Wallonië is also french speaking and not dutch.
So my guess is that it's pretty common ;)
His first album "Sacre Geranium" is a strange kind of masterpiece. Naive, comical, poetic, and strangely complex musically at the same time (all that mostly as a solo acoustic guitar voice act)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx4Au2Tchqw&list=OLAK5uy_kBI...