No waffling when it comes to language.
For our next story, we head to that hotbed of controversy and racial and ethnic trouble. That’s right, we’re heading to Belgium.
As part of a continuing divide in the waffle country between francophones (people who speak French) and Dutch speakers (why don’t they have some single word?), a football club has been put on notice to cease coaching players in French.
If you’re a typical American who knows little or nothing about other countries and couldn’t point out Canada on a map, then let’s have a little geography lesson. Belgium — and by the way, the waffles made in this country are not all like what we would consider a “Belgian” waffle, but that’s a Food Network post — is the country between France and Holland. The Flemish areas (generally in the North) speak Dutch, the Walloon areas speak French (or German in the Eastern area) and the capital of Brussels is bilingual.
The country held elections in June but still hasn’t been able to form a government because the seven political parties all have French and Dutch speakers who can’t agree on things, making it like having 14 parties trying to form a coalition. Good luck with that.
But back to soccer. Coaches for KFC Strombeek, which is in the Flemish town of Grimbergen, were heard instructing francophile youth players in their native French. A petition was started to order the club to coach only in Dutch. As the petition starter, Robert Timmermans, put it, ”They must be coached in Dutch. This is our soccer field. (Dutch-speakers) paid for it. It is our tax money. Grimbergen is a Dutch-speaking town.”
The club, which is in the lowest levels of Belgian football and has a volunteer president, will obey the order.
This issue is funny to me when we have had similar discussions and arguments in the United States for years. In Belgium, there are three official languages — French, Dutch and German. What happens is each language becomes a de facto catalyst of racism. The same happens in Southern California with Spanish, as I’m sure it does with other languages in other parts of the country.
If the coaches were instructing players in Spanish, then the town might have a beef because it’s not an official language. But since French is OK in Belgium, these people need to chill out and be more tolerant. If they can’t, then I guess this Monty Python sketch totally fits.
I think you mean “francophones”. “Francophiles” are people who like the French. So mythical creatures, in other words.
I believe the Belgian socio-political system is divided tripartite based on linguistics/culture. There has yet to be formed a coalition govt after the most recent elections that produced a surprise in the rise of Flemish Nationalists. Right now, the Flemish are asserting their socio-political muscle, even down to 4th division football, but this type of thing happens in Belgium after every election cycle. They’ll all be eating Belgian waffles and french fries with mayonnaise soon enough.
no surprise, there has been a huge rise in nationalism in Europe in the last ten years, and they kind of have a history of this sort of thing as well.
note: US is more tolerant than bascially everywhere else
the new KFC Strombeek sounds delicious. i hope it can match the artery-clogging goodness of the epic Double Down.
Actually, “strombeek” is Dutch for “totally greased up chicken mess”. In a stunning turn of form, the Dutch is actually shorter than the English. Turns out KFC bought the team in the offseason and renamed it just to facilitate this sort of viral promotion. Fat Belgian bastards, indeed!