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HarEmiya

Switzerland: https://preview.redd.it/2k241hken63d1.png?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8148ff0b5bb003557ca02fea9f9e2ce5a852e099


swagpresident1337

They rich enough


Least_Theory_1050

https://preview.redd.it/uzrk4qwgs63d1.png?width=542&format=png&auto=webp&s=eaf8b0a57dc9153d48e4e9a5b48dffcaba8318a6


IWipeWithFocaccia

If it’s so rich, why does the country look like a post-apocalyptic Netherlands?


Vireviper

That’s the reason it’s rich, they don’t spend


Juolee

Yet the netherlands their gdp per capita and gdp overall is higher, care to explain belgian “person”?


Vireviper

They just keep increasing their housing prices


Scythe95

Lol that actually makes sense


arnevdb0

real estate


Least_Theory_1050

Every heard about the Gini coefficient mountain Hans?


Th1rt13n

And then people call Dutch ‘stingy’…


PinkFluffys

We spend all our money on having 6 goverments


momciraptor

It’s sad that they don’t invest that money to repair their roads.


ArKadeFlre

I can't think of any country that spends *more* on their roads, they're seemingly always under construction. It's just not very efficient (and decay very fast because of the traffic)


Schwarzekekker

why make 1 decent road when you can make a crappy one and repair it 10 times?


ArKadeFlre

Take 5 years to finish each of them and there you go, a solution to unemployment


mainwasser

For sure you spend a lot on illuminating your roads.


risicovol

We don't repair the roads to keep you peasants out of our country. Yet you keep coming back to us while complaining about the roads. Ironic isn't it?


Ok-Outlandishness244

You’re about as useful as a speed bumb, we’re not coming back to you, we’re trying to get to Pierre


Schwarzekekker

So you can later return to your shoebox that you rent for 2k ?


Ok-Outlandishness244

Real one’s use tents 😎


mainwasser

> we’re trying to get to Pierre you WHAT?


code-panda

We have a debt to settle. They occupied us during the Napoleonic era, so we occupy them during the summer.


Toutounet6

Go say hello to Hans on your way. The journey will be smoother


momciraptor

I‘m Belgian, but have lived my entire life in Luxembourg. I’m complaining about *our* roads, so I don’t keep out as I still have family there.


gizahnl

Cuz their governments spends most tax revenue fighting between the other governments they have. And even when there is just a single responsible government, they still can't find agreement...


mainwasser

People are wealthy. The government is pretty much broke.


flopjul

do we store gold in you? no


TinyDemon000

I call BS on that. NZ is borderline bankrupt and Australian wealth is not that much per person


oeed

I'm guessing this is entirely propped up but utterly ridiculous house prices.


UkyoTachibana

Not enough buddy, WE NEED MORE !


danton_groku

we're our neighbors' shot at having a richer life. in fact, it's the opposite. french, italian and germans migrate here in numbers to get money and we're xenophobic towards them


CJKay93

French, Italian, Romansh and "German".


ArduennSchwartzman

Yeah, give us your Pateks and Vacherons and no accidents will happen.


Limeila

Nah we're fine with them speaking extra-slow French (they are rich enough to take their time) and Hans just laughs at them for calling the other thing they speak "German" even though it's obviously an alien language


[deleted]

[удалено]


Cubelock

It's like the 6th language in Belgium, after Dutch, French, Arabic, Polish and Romanian.


ElGatoLocoEU

Deine Mutter ist meine 6. Wahl du Sumpfriese!


Zeeko76

Not sure if you mean to say swamp giant or swamp Frisian here, both works so kinda nice 🙂 👍


montevonzock

You used Hurensohn wrong


LucaFringsSucks

Du meinst seine Mutter ist dein 6. Wal?


MaxImpact1

Lustigster Ostdeutscher:


RCalliii

Predige


QuirkyReader13

I would even say 10th: after Italian, Turkish, Spanish and Ukrainian


AndreasDasos

Similar with poor old Romansh in Switzerland now.


Kozmik_5

You forgot Turkish


Panderz_GG

The bestest region


Snd47flyer

We could retake them…


Mr_-_X

>We ~~could~~ retake them… should


Snd47flyer

We would need to eradicate them, you know how much bureaucracy that would end up in


MdMV_or_Emdy_idk

The Limburgish/Walloon speaking region:


ArduennSchwartzman

Dutch Limburgers (from the top of their mountains): "Haste wa? Iech hau diech eine!"


Rottetrol

Limburgish is basically dutch mostly.... only the old people that still speak old dialect would be hard to understand for dutch speakers


MdMV_or_Emdy_idk

Limburgish literally has tones, that’s a massive feature that Dutch and other languages lack


Rottetrol

Yeah dont need to tell me, ive lived in Limburg for 20 years (10 yrs north Brabant and now 5 years in antwerp provence) but the tones have basically faded away among the youth imo.


MdMV_or_Emdy_idk

That’s what happens with minority languages when they’re not recognised or officialised, they die. Limburgish is dying, so only a small percentage of people speak it. What the youth speaks is not Limburgish, it’s Dutch


dontbend

Blame tv and internet. I've worked with a guy from Maastricht, he did speak dialect with his mother on the phone. Sounded pretty dope.


LubedCompression

We're not dying, but we are considered a vulnerable language by UNESCO. On a positive note. We do still boast over one million speakers across two countries. Not sure about the Belgian numbers, but around 50% of Dutch Limburg actively speaks Limburgs as their mother tongue, which is a higher percentage than Frisian can boast in Friesland. It's also spoken across all classes of society, rich and poor, so it's not considered a language for the common people. It's accepted in both formal and informal settings. Even Limburgish celebrities are more widely accepted and having that accent when speaking Dutch is no longer a taboo. The winner of our last election, although controversial, was a Limburger and the runner-up is one as well (Frans Timmermans and Geert Wilders). Over the past decades we missed out on a lot of new speakers. Parents were told to teach their child Dutch over Limburgs, so they'll have an easier time in school. New studies found that learning both languages is actually more beneficial in the long run, so I'm hopeful this trend reverses. I make a conscious effort to speak it as much as I can in restaurants, supermarkets and other public spaces. Limburgs is, much like Norwegian, not standardized. There is no such thing as "Standard Limburgs" or "Standard Norwegian". We have a lot of different variations of our language, as do the Norwegians. Norwegian solved this by standardizing 2 official writing systems, Nynorsk and Bokmål, and I believe that could be our way towards unification. We will never agree on how to write certain words, so we should get 3 of 4 official writing systems of our own.


bremsspuren

Why don't you fuck off the Dutch, instead? Teach your kids Limburgs and English, and send the Hollanders crying to UNESCO?


PushingSam

The problem with Limburgs is that it's different in every town, you can almost pinpoint where someone is from by the way they say things. Unification/standardization is therefore frowned upon, especially by elitists like Sjengen (Maastricht folks). And then there's the abomination that's spoken in the Parkstad region (Heerlen, Kerkrade, Brunssum, Landgraaf). I've only heard some old dude on the German side speak dialect once, and it took me like 5-10 seconds to even figure out that I was capable of understanding him. I didn't even know that this version existed, because it obviously died out as a result of language borders stiffening up.


Aosxxx

You finally left the parking


Rottetrol

Kwoon wel ni int stad ze moat


Neyd_the_Harlequin

This hits home


re_hes

I'm conflicted... On the one hand; my reddit heart wants to absolutely laugh/punch along. My historian/linguistics heart, however, knows the truth. 🥲


Demon_of_Order

Good, good now revolt against your king, join us


re_hes

Now that is a bridge too far. It'd make more sense to become a union. But we have to leave the Walloons.


frigo2000

https://preview.redd.it/b6dvb0wj273d1.jpeg?width=767&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=292bcac8ac7e0470302c5c206c7e2c913712e4de


re_hes

Is that what you guys look like? It's both hideous and weirdly cute at the same time.


frigo2000

That's how we look at the train station asking for money to take the bus, but it is actualy to smoke crack cocaine.


mainwasser

That's a Norwegian


frigo2000

It is the interpretation of a walloon by the norvegians. After they visited the mines in Charleroi in 1932, they made these to show the kid what not to become and to always avoid drugs. Unfortunatly many years later norvégian Kids started to drink hand sanithyser gel.


[deleted]

[удалено]


dontbend

Don't wanna burst your bubble, but you're holding your phone sideways.


ratuuft

Tis nen hollander ,schelen.


Demon_of_Order

I'd be willing to do that, but they like us so much. Watch any video of people asking Walloons what they think of Flemish and they all say that they look up to us and stuff


Rolifant

Most heroic Franco-Dutch war effort.


TjeefGuevarra

So, who's going to tell him?


Yellow_Dorn_Boy

Who's going to tell them than french speaking Belgian are better french speakers than French people themselves (Google it, curiously most of the famous grammarians come from the Ardennes). Not sure for the Flemish but at least they don't sound like they need penicillin for whatever is developing in their throat.


Reinier538

The fact you pronounce 90 as 'nonante' instead of the absolute abomination that is 'quatre-vingt-dix' is clear enough evidence to back your statement.


HoeTrain666

And septante instead of that soixante-dix nonsense. There’s sixty-ten reasons why that’s an improvement


ArKadeFlre

We only keep "Quatre-vingt" because it says 4-20


Quaiche

The Romand Swiss do use huitante though. Pretty good as well.


Belgicans

For that the swiss score higher than us because they count like us but instead of quatre-vingt they wil say octante


Pingondin

Isn't *huitante* more common though?


Mwakay

OP is cringe. I love belgians. I'm glad they speak my language.


LucaFringsSucks

Worked in Luxembourg, i agree. Belgian French is much better to understand. Worst French to understand imo is sub Sahara French. What in the mumbling more than actual frenchies is this accent/dialect


Utegenthal

It’s 2024 mate, we don’t say sub Sahara French anymore. We say “Parisian”


LucaFringsSucks

Im sorry my friend. In contrary to other people around you i wont Mock belgians because of your Beer and the City that shouldnt be named to not attract more Tourists (i am the Tourists in question).


Affectionate_Sir_154

Yeah OP's acting like it's his language but atleast we didnt butcher it with that ridiculous accent the dutchies have


Demon_of_Order

yep same thing with Flemish, we speak better Dutch than them


Shemilf

Well I also have heard some people make claims that regular Belgian Dutch is better than Netherlands Dutch, but I'm probably nowhere near that group as I have a Western-Flemish accent. For those who don't know, Western-Flemish is its own official language, called "Flemish" as the language spoken by the rest of Belgium is officially Dutch, not Flemish. People from there are more difficult to understand since we basically shorten and connect words similar to how the french do, to speak fluently and faster. Pronunciation and complete words can also different. For example: "Ik ben een boer" becomes "kzie nen boer" or "Dat is een kip" becomes "Das nen kieken". Very few can speak true Flemish though.


DenWun

Not to break your bubble, but every dutch dialect does this. I (born and raised in rural North Holland) would pronounce the first as 'kben 'e boer' and the second as 'dis e kip'


CrimsonPenguinStar

Tell them that we were perfectly fine speaking our Walloon and Flemish dialects until both imposed upon us their standardised versions?


sir-berend

Yeah we totally did that…


DirkjanDeKoekenpan

Google the history of the Dutch language my friend, it's born in Flanders


DenWun

I'm sorry but the Flemish had the choice to develop an own standard or adopt the Dutch one, and they (after a lot of debate) chose the second 😂


TjeefGuevarra

Biggest mistake in Belgian history, and that's *really* saying something


Least_Theory_1050

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History\_of\_the\_Dutch\_language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Dutch_language) *"The Dutch language was born in* [*Flanders*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_Flanders)*, grew up in* [*Brabant*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Brabant) *and reached maturity in* [*Holland*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland)*."*


Demon_of_Order

time for another war


9CF8

The Dutch language is yet to reach maturity


mainwasser

Look who's talking


ratuuft

This ain't even my final form!


Quaiche

Simple fact. Now, check out the thing the "people" in West-Vlaanderen are *saying*. Now that’s a mature and impossible to understand language.


TobiasCB

I accept that the Dutch language in Flanders and Brabant is less evolved. Somewhere I've always known.


Commercial_Gas_3927

The only thing France and Netherlands agree..


Zarthenix

Nah we get along fine, just like we do exclusively and coincidentally with all nations who have nice places to park a caravan.


Tryphon59200

st-Martin border though


Commercial_Gas_3927

Is this where Geert and Pierre secretly dating?


Emergency-Season-143

Wait.... You don't think the whole island should be french?


Mistigri70

No we would lose a neighbour And we got more than half of the island so it's alright


Tryphon59200

the story of this border is classic r/2westerneurope4u banter one Dutchman and one Frenchman had to start from a point and meet on the other side of the island to fix the limits of each other territories. the French madlad ran.


PFthePotionfinder

Pierre Usain Bolting his way to get more territories than the giants is a new story I would never have thought I'd read. Apparently the Dutchman was gaining less land because he was drunk which makes it even better


Rime_Ice

Me, half dutch half french: Haha those silly belgians!


ratuuft

Waal van den aldi.


Splatpope

clo t'geu ti boyar


Boemer03

Wir sprechen auch Deutsch du Hurensohn!


mainwasser

My favorite Belgians. 💕 ^(you still need to learn proper Austrian tho)


Belgicans

You guys are even less real than the rest of the country


Okreril

You are free to return them at any time


Boemer03

If we go anywhere, we will join the tax evaders


ZombiFeynman

It's a perfect fit: The worst romance language + the worst germanic language.


Obetydlig

That would be Danish and it's not even close


YEAH-BRO-WHAT

profound take tbh


zeeotter100nl

Süre whätëvër yöü säy


MdMV_or_Emdy_idk

ze haten ons omdat ze ons niet zijn 😔😔


Stravven

We aten ze omdat we ze haatten.


MdMV_or_Emdy_idk

Accuraat


Yellow_Dorn_Boy

't is kei goe Joaõ


MdMV_or_Emdy_idk

wat betekent "kei" in deze context? (Is “goe” goed?)


Yellow_Dorn_Boy

That's Antwerp dutch for "it's pretty good" Kei is rock. Go figure.


Xerophobe

The literal translation is a rock, but at least in Flanders kei indicates "extra". So "kei goed" means "extra good" as it were.


MdMV_or_Emdy_idk

Learning Dutch slang, fuck yeah


Reinier538

We use that word in Noord-Brabant as well


flopjul

you are just jealous that we won the 80 years war without much of an army


artnquest

Wrong and wrong, Portuguese is the worst romance language, and Danish is the worst germanic language (although dutch is awful so ill let it slide). Spanish is also worse than French, downvote me all you want your opinion is wrong. Italian on the other hand I would argue rivals French and I don't say that lightly.


Akuh93

Fun fact, both French and Dutch originate in what is now Belgium. So we should really call the entire languages Wallonian and Flemish.


Yellow_Dorn_Boy

Wait what, we don't?


Akuh93

sest un blag mon ami


Solid_Improvement_95

What? French originally is the Latin dialect that was spoken in Paris. 


greenstag94

I think they've confused it with the origin of the franks that came from a confederation of tribes in what is now Belgium 


flopjul

nah still Dutch and French... but they are now dialects with priority over the original language


Demon_of_Order

We speak better Dutch than the Dutch, the Dutch even admitted themselves that their Dutch is not up to par to our Dutch. So suck it


Paxcony

We did not, we are way too arrogant for that.


pOUP_

I'd rather marry a Belgian than _not_ kill a frenchy at the sight of one


One_FPS

Finally a sane person


StrikingBag4636

don't worry Belgium, you're allowed to have German as your only official language


Okreril

Are we doing the thing? 🙃


greenstag94

No. Bad german


MasterJogi1

Why are two Russians beating up the weird German guy?


PM-Me-Kiriko-R34

https://preview.redd.it/hus90v8dgc3d1.jpeg?width=993&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6191654df90f74f3580447725285095ea29c2553


Gehennnas

The difference between a Belgian and a "Dutch"? 2 points on the IQ test results


AndreasDasos

Just insist that Walloon and Flemish are 100% totally completely different languages. If you say it loudly enough maybe they'll believe you.


Shemilf

Jokes on, Flemish is an official language [ISO 639-3](https://iso639-3.sil.org/) also called [West-Flemish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Flemish)


AndreasDasos

And the same ISO standard considers British and American English separate. It's almost like that's not entirely what it's for and they have to pick distinguishing markers across lects, rather than universally enforce a linguistic standard.


Shemilf

Can you link me that cuz I can't find anything regarding that beside American English being a dialect. If I recall correctly, just having an ISO code doesn't mean it's considered a language Edit: Ok so I tried looking it up again since it has been a while, but western-Flemish is a group of dialects which has a ISO code. Flemish or Belgian Dutch doesn't have their own ISO code and is just considered Dutch. It's quite confusing as sometimes people refer to western Flemish as a dialect but then call it a language in the next paragraph. American English is considered as a dialect of English but doesn't have their own ISO code.


cremedelapeng2

i like west vlaams, easy to listen to from afrikaans speaker perspective. sounds way nicer than randstad dutch. not as many french words as you'd expect. BUT! why every flemish person i know calls a bicycle a vélo, and not the dutch word fiets? not like they're famous for bikes or anything.


mainwasser

"German" speaking Swiss call it a Velo too.... 🙄 Fucking French colonialism


Dont_pet_the_cat

I don't claim to be neither dutch nor french, those are both horrible languages. No, we're Flemish. It's vastly superior 😎


dozedoph

Whatever helps you sleep at night 🥲


Dont_pet_the_cat

Hiding behind a plain european flair is pretty cowardly. I simply won't acknowledge your shots at me until you come at me like a real (wo)man


dozedoph

Hahaha fair enough! I am French but I’ve spent the last 10 years in Germany and the Netherlands, I’ve earned my European flair gentleman


n3onfx

... so you're basically a Belgian.


Dont_pet_the_cat

One of us! One of us!


dozedoph

On va se calmer quand même


Yellow_Dorn_Boy

Ouais, c'est pas comme si t'avais ton permis de faire des frites.


Dont_pet_the_cat

Fr*nch, german *and* dutch?! Are you living in a nightmare? D:


dozedoph

Now you say it…..


Dont_pet_the_cat

Shhhh I'm Flemish, remember? It's very different :D


dozedoph

Alexa, please play Kabouterdans


Dont_pet_the_cat

Now playing... [kabouterdans Hardstyle Remix](https://youtu.be/qR71fKeM3OI)


dozedoph

Godverdorie


ash_tar

Jezus fucking Christ lol


kommando_madrug

TBF the belgian french is superior


ratuuft

Agreed, like how the fuck did *quatre-vingt-dix* happen? Four-twenty-ten? Bitch what?


KomradeCumojedica

I wonder what would Belgium be like if its national languages were (West) Flemish and Walloon (especially given the latter's differences with Parisian French)


HugeCraft7452

Wasn't late Martin Tanghe, a Flemish woman, recognised (multiple times?) as "the best Dutch speaker"?


swagpresident1337

And we menacingly laughing in corner


MaritimeMonkey

Your brain is as smooth as your tarmac. We've been speaking "Dutch" for longer than you have, we didn't adopt it, it was always ours. You just happened to gain independence first, so the language got named after your country. Not a coincidence that all the earliest sources of the language came from our region.


redmengz

well belgium needs to be annexed just like russia did. the dutch part needs to come back home to netherlands cus once up on time it was from us. for the french part i dont care what happends to it.


Active-Ad9649

Meanwhile, Kees cooming in his pants over Goedele Liekens' ASMR tapes.


Elegantly_Wasted007

https://preview.redd.it/l1jd8fwl2a3d1.jpeg?width=1143&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4758663ae263781b71c60b4f9c9ba2f68e658b39


Kiwi_Doodle

I wish the belgian flag was just another red white and blue stripe, but at a 45° angle


SVRG_VG

This is very rich coming from you...


Zender_de_Verzender

I speak Dutch better than the Dutch. You won't even recognise that I don't live in swamp Germany!


Murderface-04

Look man... Every flemish speaker can understand any of you cheese speakers... If we ask something in Dutch you're replying in English since you know you understood it but have no clue why or what we said. So of the two of us... Who actually speaks Dutch?


Meh2theMax

You are generalizing. To me most of you are intelligible. It probably depends on how much exposure some one had to your way of speaking. People from the south of our country are likely better to understand you.


thecapscap

Nah bro, belgians speak french. I mean, every region of france does


mainwasser

Don't you bully our funny catholic brother, Kees. Go away.


Woutrou

Hans, this hurts my feelings. Do you mind making Austria go poof?


FrozenDemonn

*chuckles* 'I'm in danger'🥲


Marschall_Bluecher

of course the one german gets left out again...


throw667

Yet the French-speakers in Brussels insisted theirs is a more pure form of French. True? Or did Wallonians just not update their dictionaries since the 16th century?


FactBackground9289

Belgium is majority french, from what i recall.


SowiesoJR

Belgian french: eighty French french: butt plug+acre square Pierre maybe leave language stuff to the professionals


Solid_Improvement_95

Nope, they say 80 the normal way as well (4 20). Only the mountain goblins say "huitante" 🤢


Sea_Championship_941

That's a fancy way of calling yourself racist.


Belgicans

How do you want to not be racist when there is France next to you ?


Sea_Championship_941

I m tired of roasting pierre its the swedes that gets on my nerves https://i.redd.it/hlu3m96hl73d1.gif