Flanders

From Imakoopedia

Flanders is the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium. It is wedged between the North Sea and the Netherlands in the North and Wallonia and France in the South. This region has an immense historical and cultural wealth which is made visible through its buildings, its works of art and its festivals. Every turn of a corner will bring you something new.

Table of contents

1 Regions

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Regions

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Cities and towns

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Understand

Nowadays, Flanders is one of the three federal regions of Belgium (the other two being Wallonia and Brussels). This means that it has its own government, a parliament and separate laws. Oddly enough the capital of Flanders is Brussels, lying in another federal region. But Flanders has travelled a long historic road before arriving at its present situation.

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Talk

The official language of Flanders is Dutch, although English, French and German are widely understood. A typical Fleming will go out of his way to try to communicate with foreigners in their native tongue. Flemish, as the variety of Dutch spoken in Flanders is usually called, differs slightly from Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. There are typical words, phrases and expressions that are not used in the North, and the accent is quite distinct too. (One of the most obvious is the soft g-sound as opposed to the harsh sound heard in the Netherlands.) Although it is the same language, you might be surprised to see Dutch television programs subtitled in Flanders and vice versa. Generally the older generation speaks better French (long time ago only French was used in administration and industry), and the younger generation better English (there is more contact with the English language through music, computers and internet).

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