LA BELGIQUE
| To the northeast of France (la France) is Belgium (la
Belgique). It is locked between the German-speaking and
French-speaking countries of Europe; the result is that many Belgians
speak two languages . In Canada, there are the French and the English.
in Belgium there are the Walloons in the south who are French-speaking
and the Flemings to the north who speak Flemish (flamand), a special
dialect of the Dutch language.
Although Belgium is nearly twenty times smaller than France, it is much more densely populated with 10 million people. Belgium has a King (un roi) and a Parliament which meets at the capital, Brussels (Bruxelles). There are nine provinces- four Flemish-speaking and five French-speaking. The Belgians have made the most of the little land they have by reclaiming land from the North Sea (la mer du Nord) and by becoming experts at shipping through their many waterways and the two ports of Antwerp (Anvers) and Ghent (Gand). The city of Bruges is world-famous for its fine lace, but most of Belgium is otherwise heavily industrialized. Almost all of Belgium is Roman Catholic, so the church has a lot of influence in the country, especially in education. Members of religious communities- nuns and monks- teach in many of the schools. For many years now, Belgium has been the seat of several important international organizations including NATO as well as the European Union (EU). |
