To make things more complex. There is a third language in Belgium, German.

To add to the confusion they speak Ripuarish its a germanic language but it's not German, to communicate with all the ost-belgiers they use high-german

Ripuarish is a German dialect mainly spoken in the Northern part of the Rhine valley. In Belgium it is spoken around Eupen. In the Southern part of the German speaking community the dialects are Mosel-Franconian which is also spoken in neighbouring parts of Germany and Luxemburg.

@Hanno franz The Netherlands has Kerkraaads, also Ripuarian. So we have our own German community haha

Ik weet het

Although people in Wallonia speak French, their original language is Walloon (almost nobody nowadays speak it) which is different from French. Napoleon outlawed Walloon in modern day Belgium as he did Dutch for instance in Northern France. Besides that their is a third official language in German and a fourth language that is spoken in the biggest province of Luxembourg that is Luxembourgish which has about the same or even more native speakers in Belgium than German.

I so admire Belgians and Dutch for their mastery of language.

waouwwww. they managed to stretch the equivalent of 15 / 20 lines of text over a 7 minutes video ! quite impressive. as much as I admire the beauty of the message, the great positivity contained in these 15 / 20 lines, reality is (sadly) not always as amazing as it sounds.

Correction, per Rene Grönhof, Ostbelgien is one of the three federal communities of Belgium, with an area of 854 km2 where we speak German,,,,bitte schön.

Small wonder that a dutch/french pidgin has still not been created, really... c'est un petit miracle ~ het is een klein wonder 😁

Haha totally true! You would expect that there would be some sort of mixure or dialect created between the two.

​@W-Factorythere is

Really? Does it have a name? Or it is just a dialect?

@W-Factory Wow, there is indeed, just found it on Wikipedia: "Brusselian (also known as Busseleer, Brusselair, Brusseleir, Marols or Marollien) is a near-extinct dialect native to Brussels, Belgium. It is essentially a heavily-Francisized Brabantian Dutch dialect that incorporates a sprinkle of Spanish loanwords dating back to the rule of the Low Countries by the Habsburgs (1519–1713).

@W-Factory I speak Brabants it's a mix between farmers and Netherlands

2:40 it's definitely not Lepper. It's Ieper. With capital i. Pronounced Eaper or Eeper :)

The language in the Senate is in both Dutch and French!

In flanders all children learn French but in wallonie they don't learn Dutch :(

A new law was voted this year in the French-speaking community; children will now have to learn Dutch in school. As a French speaker I fully approve this new legislation.

Your sentence isn't right: "in Wallonistan they don't want to learn Flemish; they only want Flemish money to squander"

@JACQUES MIARD Wow, Belgium almost exists for 200(!!) years, and only NOW you are starting to learn Dutch (the majority language). Absolutely scandalous and a lack of respect towards your Dutch-speaking countrymen.

Well, actually only all German-speaking Belgians are really bilingual (German and French), while most Wallones and Flanders are basically monolingual, or only have rudimentary knowledge of the other main language. Most younger ones in Flanders and Wallonia actually speak English much better then the other main language. I think the glue that holds Belgium together is that the Flanders don't see themselves as Dutch and the Wallones don't see themselves as French, while the German-speaking don't see themselves as Germans. And so they are together in opposing another dominant group in their language. That's also the glue that holds Switzerland together.

@Ingo Zachos Not right. In Flanders all students between 12 and 18 years old get atleast 3 hours of French/week. Most Wallonistan students between 12 and 18 years old get 0 hours of Dutch/week.

I'm afraid this video is not correct. I've lived in Belgium so I know a lot about the linguistic situation. Belgium is not a 'multilingual' society where everyone knows Dutch & French. On the contrary! Only Brussels is officially bilingual while Flanders and Wallonia are monolingual (Flanders: Dutch, Wallonia:French). Flemish people have always learned French in schools, while Wallonia has always refused to learn Dutch. This is why Belgium is basically falling apart: the arrogance of the French-speakers (who's surprised, right?).

Why don’t the Netherlands and France just divide it between themselves

Flemish people haha lol 🤣 walloons so we aren't belgian anymore 😅 Flanders is the northern belgian region and walloonia Southern Belgian region, The inhabitants remain Belgians 😄 for God's sake, the regions are artificial regions that paints this pseudo identity, underneath those fake region we have real cultural territories like The duchy of Brabant whom symbol and color's are Belgiums 🇧🇪 current flag and coat of arms, We also have Limbourg, the county of Flanders, duchy of Luxembourg, Namur, Hainaut and the brussels capital region. Flemish isn't right its Dutch who in our language means diets = Nederlands. Yes the Southern Lower-Countries Dutch is different to that of the north its Better to say Belgian or you could even say lowlandic, Because Flemish is a dialect or the old language spoken in the borders of the former county of flanders

West-Vlaams?

Belgians don’t fight over language? Yeah right…