Shoutbox

OK, with the school, im going to belgium, which means going through france aswell, that's 2 countries i've never set foot in for only £55 (but its only a day trip)

We're going to Ypres to have a look at the trenches from world war 1.

Anyway, anyone got any info on belgium? Do they speak german or french, cos im quite good at german.

Anyway i can't wait, i gotta wake up at 5AM in the morning though to meet at the school to get on the coach, and i'm worried because my history teacher said my passport photo would be okay, even though in that i have hair down to my shoulders, where as now my hair is about 4cm long!

They speak French in the south ('Wallonie') and Dutch in the north ('Vlamingen')...
Be sure to taste some belgian-french-frites there And chocalates!

People in Belgium speak French I think, and others speak dutch/german...

I'm not sure, I think some areas have their own language ...

And is Ypres in the north or south? or the middle?

And is dutch similar to german?

Yea, i'll try them if i can, anything else i should try?

quote:

---

Originally posted by spokes
anything else i should try?

---

Looking at a map

... Sorry, I just had to say it...

Ypres is at the South, or it should be... As most of the trench warfare in World War One went on in the North France/South Belgium area... aka Flanders...

quote:

---

Originally posted by spokes
And is dutch similar to german?

---

Similar yes, however, you will not be able to understand it or make yourself be understood in Dutch with your knowledge of German, it's like Spanish and Portuguese. Nonetheless many people in Belgian are likely to speak English or German.

quote:

---

Originally posted by traxor
Ypres is at the South, or it should be... As most of the trench warfare in World War One went on in the North France/South Belgium area... aka Flanders...

---

it is part of Flanders, where they speak dutch, only difference is that flanders is not the south... it is the north side of belgium

map!
http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/gbr/dyn/co...ge2.x=9&image2.y=3

quote:

---

Originally posted by spokes
And is dutch similar to german?

---

I prefer to speak English in Germany, even though I'm dutch ><

Ypres or Ieper (the dutch name for the city) is indeed located in the north parth of Belgium, in West-Flanders. They speak "West-Vlaams" over there. You won't get far with your knowledge of German . Even for us in East-Flanders it's sometimes hard to understand them if they speak in their dialect.

Dutch and german aren't that similar to each other like a lot of people think. There are indeed words that are pretty much the same, but often they have different meanings. 

I'm not going to speak it over there, i was just gonna see if i could read signs etc.