<div style="text-align: center"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">====================================================</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> L O W L A N D S - L - 06 July 2011 - Volume 02</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><a href="mailto:lowlands.list@gmail.com">lowlands.list@gmail.com</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> Posting: <a href="mailto:lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org">lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org</a></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> Archive: <a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html">http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html</a></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
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</font></div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <a href="mailto:roger.thijs@euro-support.be">roger.thijs@euro-support.be</a></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><div>
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Subject: LL-L Language poficiency</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font></div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The Dutch Railways get fines because they allow Belgan trains operated by monolingual walloon engineers on the Dutch rail network.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">It concerns the short connection Liège-Maastricht, crossing the border.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Apparently (some) walloon operators do not speak/understand Dutch and create a safety risk on the Dutch network.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">With German operators they do not have a similar problem.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">(They can always communicate in Limburgish or a Low German variant I guess)</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Cf. article from “De Standaard” annexed below.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Regards,</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Roger</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Waalse machinisten leveren Nederlandse Spoorwegen boetes op </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">woensdag 06 juli 2011, 10u02Bron: anp Auteur: hrt </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">De Nederlandse Spoorwegen kreeg dit jaar twee boetes opgelegd, omdat Franstalige Belgische machinisten op de lijn Luik-Maastricht geen Nederlands bleken te spreken. </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Dat leidt volgens de Inspectie Verkeer en Waterstaat tot gevaarlijke situaties, omdat de Franstalige machinisten geen normaal gesprek kunnen voeren met de Nederlandse treindienstleiding.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">De IVW kondigt voor dit jaar meer controles aan.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Al in 2006 legde de IVW een dwangsom op vanwege de Franstalige machinisten, en de Nederlandse Spoorwegen beloofde toen beterschap. Controles eind vorig jaar leerden dat de Franstalige machinisten nog steeds geen Nederlands spraken.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">De hoogte van de boete is gelijk aan de kosten van een extra persoon in de cabine die de taal wel kan spreken. De boetes werden dit voorjaar geïnd.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Duitse machinisten die op Nederland rijden, kennen hun talen volgens de inspectie wel.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Source: <a href="http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20110706_026">http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20110706_026</a></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font></div><div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">----------</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Subject: Language politics</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Thanks, dear Roger, as always.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">I simply don't understand why Belgium does not introduce Dutch and French bilingualism as mandatory in all schools. In this model, primarily Dutch-speaking students would be required to study French and English as foreign languages, and </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">primarily</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">French-speaking students would </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">be required to study </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Dutch and English as foreign languages. This would be similar to the Finnish education model, where everyone learns both Finnish and Swedish, aside from English as a foreign language. What's so hard about this concept? </font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">You, Roger, are a shining example of a Belgian in this regard: your native language is Limburgish, and you are fully proficient in Dutch and French, aside from knowing German and English well. OK ... so this may be a bit intimidating to the average Jan/Jean. But studying Dutch and French from childhood (even if your native language is Limburgish, Luxemburgish, Ripuarian, Walloon, Picard ...) shouldn't be that big of a deal. Am I being naive?</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Aside from this, I would love to see schools in Lower Saxony and North-Rhine Westphalia (if not also in other North German states) to promote Dutch as a more prominent foreign language. I could see this having several benefits, such as closer neighborly ties, and greater employment chances for German youth. Aside from this, it might well help rekindle the old Lowlands flame: awareness of a Dutch-Saxon continuum, resulting in renewed interest in the linguistic and cultural continuum.</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Regards,</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Reinhard/Ron</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Seattle, USA</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: center"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">=========================================================</font><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
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