BBC News reports on the recent furore in Belgium - it's not the governmental issues but those regarding the "Miss Belgium" contest.
The newly crowned Miss Belgium, Alizee Poulicek, doesn't speak Dutch. She does speak French, through living in a Francophone region of Belgium, Czech through parentage and English. This, though, was not acceptable for the audience in Antwerp, who booed Miss Poulicek at her crowning ceremony.
While Dutch speakers make up 60% of the population, is it reasonable to shun someone who doesn't speak the language. French is still an official language of the country, as well as of other world nations. It is an official language of the EU. It is the second language of a large proportion of school learners in the UK.
When I spent time in a Dutch speaking area of Belgium a number of years ago, a Francophone friend entered the reception of the place we were staying and asked a question in French. The receptionist then asked if he spoke English and, if he did, would he use that instead.
How does the political (as it ultimately is) situation get so bad that a member of staff at a tourist location would decline to speak an official language of their country for the sake of what would be a foreign language? Equally, how does it get so bad that it can have repercussions on a national beauty contest?
Timmy "Magique/Magie" Magic
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I guess people just thought that someone representing the whole of Belgium should be able to hold a basic conversation in the country's other language... But as she'd spent a lot of her life in the Czech Republic, it was a little unfair of the audience to boo her!
I think it was just a result of the current political situation - the country hadn't had a government for months (until this week) because of the language divide.
Post a Comment