LL-L "Language use" 2004.07.01 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 01.JUL.2004 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L "Language use" 2004.07.01 (01) [E]

> From: denis dujardin <dujardin at pandora.be>
> Subject: LL-L "Language use" 2004.06.30 (05) [E]
>
> The suddenly a generally more wealthy class comes to live in the rural
> settings of your village and they do not want to adapt to the local
> language, because they take it for granted that their language has to be
> understood everywhere
> We as Flemish are
> generally bi-lingual. The Walloon or Brussels French spoken people (the
> latter is changing) considered dutch as an ugly useless language, so why
> would they learn it?

Hello,

I have a different perception of this. Let me start saying that I do
projects all over Belgium, Northern France and in the South of the
Netherlands. Momentarily I'm involved for several months in a reorganization
project for a company at Brussels airport. Before I did a project in the
headquarters of Belgian Mail (downtown Brussels) and last year I did the
start-up of the TDS plant at the Southern outskirt of Brussels for supplying
preassembled parts to the Volkswagen Brussels plant. I have no formation in
sociology, nor in political science, but I have been recruiting, training
and helping to develop hundreds of people in this area as part of new
start-ups or change projects. My humble perception is a bit different.

A Over time

In the mid seventies I regularly participated in commission work for
standardization of gear wheel and belt transmissions at the offices of the
Belgian Standardization Commission BIN-IBN. (I was member as delegate of
Volvo Car Sint Truiden, and I represented Belgium at the ISO standardization
meetings in Bad Dürkheim, in 1978 I think it was). At that time, when
holding a meeting in Brussels, it was judged polite to hold the meeting in
French, since Walloons did not understand Dutch. So one could have meetings
fully in French with 19 Dutch speakers and one 1 French speaker. I remember
that at one of these meetings we realized we were holding the meeting in
French with Dutch speakers only.

Things have changed though:

In larger organizations and companies in the Brussels area, staff has to be
bilingual while operators may be monolingual French or Dutch speaking. It
practically means we have a downward pull in choice of the spoken language.
The supervisor adjusts to the language of the operator and not vice versa.

Between equals, people speak their own language each.

When taking for example the mechanics at Brussels airport, I'm working with:
while each mechanic speaks his own language, technical vocabulary is shared.
- For car parts one generally uses, as in the dialects, French terminology:
"jante" and not "velg", "embrayage" and not "koppeling".
- For airport equipment one generally uses English terminology "push back
tractor, towing bar, shear bolt" etc. or trademarks as "Goldhofer" for a
German nose-lifter-tower.
This works very well, technical support intervention teams on the tarmac
generally consists of a pair mechanics, and quite often the two belong to
different language groups.

Walloon mechanics I'm familiar with come from as far East a the Waremme area
and as far West as the Tournai area. Dutch speaking mechanics I'm familiar
with come from East Flanders, Flemish Brabant and Limburg.
When I talk to these folks I speak Belgian Dutch and Belgian French:
They would find it extremely strange me using "jij / je" in stead of "gij /
ge".
They would find it extremely strange me saying "soixante douze" and not
"septante deux".
I guess in both cases I would not really be part of the group, but some kind
of a snob.

I never heard these Walloon people speak Walloon or Picard in Brussels.

Our mechanics of Flemish Brabant switch to a strong Brabantish coloration
when talking to each other, but this variant is easily understandable by
others. I heard a Limburgish mechanic suddenly switch from Dutch to
Limburgish yesterday when arguing emotionally with an aircraft engineer
around a mechanical problem when lifting a plane with separate hydraulical
jacks. Emotion clearly can provoke a language switch.

B – Families

Since the North and the Brussels area are doing economically better than
parts of Wallonia, we have a drain of some Walloon people to the North.
People who migrated to the Brussels outskirts I’m familiar with speak French
and French only except for a few words of Dutch. I never had a feeling they
had a negative stance versus Dutch. They just do not understand the
political hassle. All Walloon immigrants I know, and it is quite some, send
their kids to the Dutch language schools in the municipalities in Flemish
Brabant where they live. As a rule they are quite proud their kids are
fluent in Dutch. This sending to Dutch language schools I even see happening
downtown Brussels with Italian, Armenian, … immigration families, often
having some small business, and judging it is better for their kids to be
sent to Dutch language schools. I guess quite some people in the Brussels
still think the Dutch language system is better in forming bilingual people
than the French language education net is.

It is my opinion that the votes political defenders of French in the suburbs
of Brussels get, come to a large extent, not from people who resist speaking
Dutch, but from people refusing to loose the freedom of choosing their
language in private life. Over-killing in imposing Dutch hurts sentiments of
personal freedom and may have adverse effects.

C – Immigrants

I’m personally more worried with the integration of immigrants in the
Brussels area.

Since they have quite some difficulties in finding decent jobs, they are
drained to low salary jobs as e.g. in distribution and logistics, often with
part-time contracts for reinforcing material handling crews at peak moments.
So one finds them e.g. in airport turnaround handling, e.g. stowing (often
overweight) luggage of passengers etc.

These kids (security screened for airport access) are often third generation
immigrants, born in Belgium and eventually have Belgian citizenship. What I
didn’t see before, but what’s rising rapidly, is their desire to affirm
their identity. Arabic language newspapers have been becoming quite popular
in the refreshment areas. The internal communication language in the groups
is becoming openly Arabic (or Berber language?)

I don’t know whether this is just a reaction to international events, or a
development into focused groups, with persistence of the language of their
grand parents.

Regards,

Roger

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