LL-L "Demographics" 2003.03.23 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 23.MAR.2003 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: Multilinguism

De Standaard of March 12 gave some statistics about Brussels schools of the
Dutch language school network.

The sample of the poll covered 10300 pupils (primary school, aged below 12),
considered to be able to speak Dutch in a decent way, and tested for
multi-linguism..

just 16% speaks Dutch only

for additional languages "actively" spoken (at home or elswhere)
1th: French: 7720 pupils
2d: Arabic: 1714 pupils
3d. English: 719 pupils
4th: Turkish: 656 pupils
others: unspecified in the article

The surprise was that only 16% of the kids speak Dutch only.

In the past multilinguism in Brussels was considered to be a threath to
Dutch, as the "weak" language in a multi-language portofolio.

I guess people nowadays consider Dutch not as weak anymore, since its social
status improved:
- it is the mother tongue of 60% of the Belgians
- the North of Belgium got a "Dutch-only" administration
- the North is (for the moment still) economically more prosperous than the
South
- the quality of spoken Dutch in the North constantly improved
(unfortunately at the expense of the survival of the dialects)
- during daytime at working days there is a strong presence of Dutch
speaking employees at various offices downtown Brussels.

Dutch speakers living in Brussels (the 19 municipalities of the capital
district) are generally estimated at 10 to 15%. Censi are forbidden, so
these estimates are based on e.g. language preference Dutch v/ French for
some forms as e.g. income tax declaration and others.

Regards,
Roger

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Demographics

Roger:

> Censi are forbidden, ...

What the ...?!  Excuse me ... but how is such a prohibition being publicly
justified?

Puzzled ...
Reinhard/Ron

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