retired_nini59

oh yeah massive Jewish community in Antwerp.

retired_daungst110

Questions

1.Have you ever been to Belgium?

Yes.

2.Do you know any Belgian people?

Yes.

3.Give three words that you connect with Belgium

Brussels Chocolate Stella

4.Give three characteristics of a Belgian

Too close to being French for my liking so funny facial features, stupid accents and probably a politician

5.Which is/are the official language(s) in Belgium?

French and Flemish iirc

6.What are the colours of the Belgian flag?
Black, yellow and red

7.Do you think Belgium is a republic or a monarchy?

Republic surely?

8.Which religion is predominant in Belgium?

Catholic I'd guess

9.If you would visit Belgium, where would you go and why?

No desire to go again.

10.Do you know any famous Belgians (everyone that comes to mind…)

Enzo Scifo. Even then, he was Italian wasn't he?

11.Do you know a big Belgian company?

Stella?

retired_evacavender

1.Have you ever been to Belgium? No
2.Do you know any Belgian people? No
3.Give three words that you connect with Belgium - Chocolate, Small, Brussels
4.Give three characteristics of a Belgian - absolutely no idea
5.Which is/are the official language(s) in Belgium? - French?
6.What are the colours of the Belgian flag? - Black Red Yellow
7.Do you think Belgium is a republic or a monarchy? Monarchy
8.Which religion is predominant in Belgium? Christianity
9.If you would visit Belgium, where would you go and why? Probably wouldnt bother, nothing to do
10.Do you know any famous Belgians (everyone that comes to mind…) Bart Goor
11.Do you know a big Belgian company? No

retired_euluis

1. Have you ever been to Belgium? No
2. Do you know any Belgian people? No
3. Give three words that you connect with Belgium Chocolate, Benelux, more chocolate
4. Give three characteristics of a Belgian N/A
5. Which is/are the official language(s) in Belgium? Flemish, Belgian, French
6. What are the colours of the Belgian flag? Red, yellow, black
7. Do you think Belgium is a republic or a monarchy? Monarchy
8. Which religion is predominant in Belgium? Christian, protestant
9. If you would visit Belgium, where would you go and why? Brussles, or the nearest chocolate outlet, because of something
10. Do you know any famous Belgians (everyone that comes to mind…) Van Damme, surely? And all those footballers, could count a couple dozen..
11. Do you know a big Belgian company? Lindor?

retired_janellt

hi all,

i'm delighted with the response for my humble research, so ty all!

To conclude the topic, i'll post the correct answers and reply to some answers.

here we go:

1 & 2 obviously don't require answers.

3 & 4)
- chocolate and beer are Belgium's best known products (rightfully I would say) and to a lesser extent Brussels sprouts and waffles.
Not many people wrote French fries, a belgian delicatesse which was falsely named after the French...
Also the 'Westhoek' is widely known from the wars, many British visitors every year.

- I don't know where many people get the idea we are dull people . Was quite surprised to read this several times.
Average footballers and bureaucratic are unfortunately true, excluding some exceptions (kompany in particular).

- finally big ups to all beer lovers on this forum. Personally I prefer leffe or westmalle and jupiler, but there are many many others to choose from.

-Also a big up to the festival lovers, although dour/pukkelpop/werchter are not accurate reflections of life in Belgium

- cycling & cobblers

- I'll shut up about our national football team

- the association with europe is logic as Brussels is the EU capital

- (comic) books and cartoonstin tin/kuifje, hercule poirot although he's fictional, asterix, the smurfs,... are all belgian)

ok, for these questions those were the most striking answers for me, I'll continue the other questions in a new post so I can at least try to maintain some structure :cool:

beater97

1. Have you ever been to Belgium? No

2. Do you know any Belgian people? No

3. Give three words that you connect with Belgium - Chocolate, Poirot, Stella Artois

4. Give three characteristics of a Belgian - Not sure

5. Which is/are the official language(s) in Belgium? Belgian, French?

6. What are the colours of the Belgian flag? Red, Black, Yellow

7. Do you think Belgium is a republic or a monarchy? Monarchy

8. Which religion is predominant in Belgium? Christian

9. If you would visit Belgium, where would you go and why? Lierse (football)

10. Do you know any famous Belgians (everyone that comes to mind…) Jonathan Blondel

11. Do you know a big Belgian company? Stella Artois

retired_rukia-chan

Blondel :*************)

retired_janellt

question 5: the language issue

this has been the most interesting read for me, being a language student.

there are THREE official languages in Belgium:

1) Flemish: this is a variant of Dutch, spoken in the northern part of Belgium (Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven,...).
It is absolutely NOT a dialect language (although there exist many local dialects).

2) Walloon /French: Walloon is basically French with some minor differences (i.e. in France 70= soixante-dix, in Wallonia its 'septante').
Spoken in the southern part of Belgium (Liege, Spa, Ardennes,...)

3) German: apparently very few people knew this. German is spoken in the eastern part of Belgium (which we got from Germany after WWI). I admit, it's a very small part of our country, probably smaller than most English counties.

The language issue was probably the most interesting part of the research, although other questions received funnier replies

6. Belgian flag

Black, yellow and red; vertical stripes. Widely known, big ups to all

7. form of government

Belgium is a parliamentary monarchy. the king is Albert 2. Our first king Leopold was related to the English king George, to mention some trivial facts.
Also a generally known fact, apparently.

8. the religious question

Catholicism.

In contrast with what most believe however, it is not protestantism which is/was predominant. The difference in religion (roman catholic in Belgium, protestantism in Holland) was one of the main reasons for the separation of Belgium from Holland in 1830.

-Nowadays religion is very divided, with Islam rising sharply. I also think that the number of people who actively go to church every week and practise religion is going down.

- FatherSenegal: rastafarianism is not the predominant religion, although it would be great if it was

In my last post I'll give you the long-awaited name of our big beer brewer company...

retired_janellt

... but first some famous belgians:

i'll exclude the footballers, which most of you know rather well (Nilis would have scored some great goals for Villa if he hadn't been injured so badly ). Oh and Gerald Sibon is a Dutchman

Van Damme (' the muscles from brussels')
J. Brel (singer)
R. Magritte ( illusionist painter)
Hergé (Tintin/kuifje author)
Bosman (-rule)
eddy merckx (world's best cyclist ever, hehe)
Tom Boonen (world's future best cyclist ever )
Rubens (painter)
Soulwax & Deus (2 popular belgian music bands)
Jacky Ickx (former formula 1 driver)
Justine Henin (current nr 1 in women tennis)

then famous belgians i've never heard of ( ... i know):
Nico Claesens (several ppl mentioned him?)
Alan Hanson
Remy Belvaux

if anyone could tell me who they are it'd be great...

Then finally: the Belgian companies

the beer company used to be Interbrew, but after they merged with the Brazilian Ambev company, the name was changed to Inbev. It is still largely in Belgian hands and most beers are / were brewed in Belgium. it is among the biggest (if not thé biggest) beer company in the world, and I'm quite proud of that

I think Gitanes cigs are French, Gav Stone.

congratulations to Pete! for this question, although it's probably not a coincidence that they are all cycling sponsors

To finish, again thank you all for being so helpful with this research and for giving me many laughs and a view on how Belgium is seen through foreign eyes.

Cheers!

DebSchiff

Soulwax :cool: