Comments by "Christian Baune" (@programaths) on "Radical Living" channel.

In Belgium, we have communes which strictly forbid speaking French and even English (e.g. Overijs). Safest bet is Brussels where most people speak at least French/Dutch + English.
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@PVMe1967 I never really understood why we were forced to learn French/Dutch (I means the "other" language -- Excluding German) when English works very well. If we gave even more hours for English, then we would be greater speakers. As Belgian we are mocked for the way the country is organized and the weird rules. We end up doing what is called worldwide as "Belgian compromise". The Belgian is also known to be very adaptive, blend everywhere, friendly but a bit hard to get intimate.
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@PVMe1967 English is spoken all around the western world. So, we should prioritize it. Having curriculum in the two languages will hurt (hence why bilingual school are closing and almost extinct at that point). Students were failing because of segmentation of matters which was still an issue in monolingual teaching, but unavoidable in multilingual teaching. A Belgian compromise is not the best compromise, it's a compromise where only party does. It's more or less how our government work. People elect and other ones get to command. I am part of a non lucrative organization and language was a big issue. Walls and most people of Brussels went for English while Dutch went for Dutch for local and Dutch + English for general. (i.e. No French) The reason being that Dutch is very rich and should not be erased (French can, though). English and mandarin are simply the most spoken languages. Dutch is one of the least spoken. French is in between (spoken in Africa and Asia, even more than English at times). Also, the Dutch that was taught in French schools was the ABN which is seldom spoken and to which some Dutch reacted with disdain. Never heard of that with English, beside rare occasions of tribalism. The fix is not to push Dutch/French forward, but a more widespread language like English. Ideally, something like Lojban. That would even enable us to write "smart contracts" in plain text instead of writing code.
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In some cities in Belgium (Bruissels, Namur) we can't drink alcohol outside! The worse is that it is relatively new (one or two decades) and I didn't even knew. I was told by the bar tender who came to me... It's a bit sad, because it shows too much people couldn't behave, so it had to became a law.
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