Few days ago a friend of ours got a ticket from a local traffic police. Normally you get them due to speeding, just like the ones I have received. Each and every of the ones I have got have come via mail since these guys rely too much on tech :o(
However, the friend of ours who happen to be one of the very many non-Belgians living here are Canadians. Yep, parts of Canada is French speaking but since these people are not, they are at the same “I-Don´t- Parle-Vous” level as myself when it comes to proper discussions in French.
The Lady of the family was driving around their home area, a suburb of Brussels, and she was stopped by a police control. Since these guys happen to live in Flemish speaking area, the police patrol that stopped them gave the “speech” according to their Flemish guide book – in Flemish!
(For info to the ones wondering what is Flemish: it´s basically the same as Dutch language, no matter what Belgium´s or Dutch say. Belgium has got 3 official languages: French, Flemish and German.)
Even though the police clearly understood who/what their customer was ( a non Flemish or French speaking expat), they continued to manage the situation in Flemish.
Was this due to lack of English speaking skills then?
Well, the Jury is out for that one;
The lovely police officer spoke only Flemish until at the end he said with a perfect English: “You will get a ticket!” .
In a country with millions of non-origin-Belgians (including the people from Morocco, Congo, Turkey and what-ever-country-where-you-come-from-to-find-success-or-abuse-social-welfare), one could imagine to get more services also in English. That is not the case in public or private sector – including shops…
HOLD YOUR BREATH: I Have got a positive experience with a Belgium Police to come :o)
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