(A post from Cecile’s Facebook)
Languages and cultures are always interesting. Mostly because of the differences. And it is easy to develop biases, that is just what we as humans do.
I hereby confess one of my personal disappointments. Afrikaans is so close to Dutch, for us it can be very special traveling so far into an unknown place, and you find a language that seems so familiar. Of course you want to try and find common ground, but in my limited experience, Dutch people have little patience for this. The Dutch people I have encountered (granted, not that many) immediately switched to English when they realised that I am not fluent. There does not seem to be an interest, a fascination.
Again – only my experience.
The Flemish? So different. The people I have met seemed to fascinated by the similarities and differences. I met a lovely woman on a pathway in a park, she was interested in my camera. I could not understand her initial questions, and asked if she could speak English. She shook her head, apologised. So I tried the Flemish I learned from listening to Freddie and his friends, and we had a slow but wonderful conversation. I learned where she lived and why she came to this forest, I talked about spiders, she asked about my camera, we connected.
Flanders – what an amazing place.
