I just got back last week from 3 weeks in Borneo and, as usual, often got asked "where are you from?" by other travellers. I typically answer this question with "Belgium", as that is where I currently live and own property. If I feel like giving a slightly longer answer, I might say "I was born in the U.S. but I haven't lived there in 20 years". As for my Flemish husband, he answers "Belgium" as the shortest possible answer, but actually, he says his first allegiance is to Torhout, where he was born and raised, then to West Flanders (his province), and after that, he feels Flemish (his cultural identity), then European (his broader cultural identity) and only then Belgian (but only because that's what's written on his passport). That's not saying much for Belgium, but I don't think it's unusual, at least among Flemish people.

What about you, how do you answer the question "where are you from"?

I am German and live in Belgium already since 4 years, but still reply on the question: "I'm from Germany, but live in Belgium"..............
Sometimes I am then asked: "Oh, and you speak fluent Belgian?" :shock:

Personally I would never reply: "I am from Belgium", because I live in Belgium, but I am not born in Belgium. Does that sound reasonable?

In the early 90s I used to answer "I'm from Australia", 'cause back then admitting you were from South Africa got you some disapproving you-filthy-racist-white-supremacist-pariah-looks. Well, our government at the time were filthy racist white supremacists who did turn our beautiful country into an international pariah State, but it still felt unfair to me that these foreigners blamed me personally for it.

These days it depends. If I want to keep it short, I answer that I'm from Belgium and that we don't speak Belgiumese over there. If I want to give them the full story, I tell them that I'm a South African living in Belgium. And then they want to know all about life in South Africa:
"Do you have elephants and lions running through your gardens?" Sorry to disappoint you. :?
"Do you have cars and cell phones?" Yep.
"And TV? Internet?" Positive.
"Have you met Nelson Mandela yet?" Nope.
"So you speak the funny language then?" (Dutch people don't seem to realise it's extremely insulting to call Afrikaans "funny" or "cute" or "baby Dutch" or "kitchen Dutch" or "Dutch for retards" :x they treat the Flemings in the same patronising way)
"So have you learned Belgiumese yet?" I'm working on it. :wink:

HaHaha..... still funny what kind of images people sometimes have of other countries...
Telling people I am from Germany creates just a 'tired smile' (literal translation from a German expression) and of course the references to sauerkraut, wuerstchen and bier, whereas my boy-friend being a real Quebecois from Montreal gets the full 'ahs' and 'ohs'....

Vive le Québec libre maybe?????

ohlala, didn't want to start a discussion about that...I'm still struggling with the 'vrais français de Luis IV' as my boyfriend calls his French :roll: and we did not yet get deep into Canadian politics

Who the hell was Luis IV??????????????????????????

Afrikaans is a beautiful language, I hope it remains widely spoken in SA. I dont think the Dutch mean to patronise!! It is not the same language but it sounds a bit the same, its just very interesting. Although you're right about the funny part, and I agree it often comes across a bit rude. Not very polite but there are some words that are just too funny to keep a straight face. Sorry :wink: As for the Belgians, welll they hate ABN(official Dutch with the hard GGRR, a real ugly sound they say) (same goes for other countries, no one really likes the sound of it) and I think only the Germans think Dutch sounds kinda nice/funny. So the Dutch do get their fair share when non-Dutch comment on their language.

lolly -->stokkielekker (yummie stick)
metro -->moltrein (mole train)
giraffe --> kameelperd (camel horse)

Can I see your tickets please ?

[quote="seo2007"][quote=Birkat][quote]Vive le Québec libre maybe????? [/quote]



Who the hell was Luis IV??????????????????????????[/quote]

Sorry, Louis, IV = the french Sun King [color=red][/color]

[quote="Birkat"][quote=seo2007][quote=Birkat][quote]Vive le Québec libre maybe????? [/quote]



Who the hell was Luis IV??????????????????????????[/quote]

Sorry, Louis, IV = the french Sun King [color=red][/color][/quote]

Hahaha, you meant Louis XIV!

:oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:

I'm English first, British second but when the question is asked I normally reply "I'm from London" as it saves on the follow-up question...

I don't think I can ever be Belgian or from Belgium - I certainly won't be applying for nationality any time soon that's for sure - but I haven't lived away from England for 20 years and so who knows 20 years down the line...

its all down to your own sense of identity... do you feel american DB?

No, I don't feel American, even though I was born there, lived there until I was 20 and have nearly all of my family there. I just don't identify with American culture or values. I'm also a French citizen and used to feel quite French while living in Paris, but now that I live in Brussels I feel less specifically French and more generally European. I certainly don't feel Belgian... although I suppose most Belgians don't, either ;-) ! If the Flanders does get independence one day, I wouldn't mind being Flemish. No offense to any French-speaking Belgians reading this. I have nothing against the southern part of Belgium. It just isn't different enough for me from France to hold any "exotic" appeal.

to the languages: so many fights for the languages between Wallons
and the Flemish.

I suggest to avoid more fights to announce that the third official language
from the German Part of Belgium should be the first and official language
in Belgium. German is a great language.

I usually say I am British, though that doesn't tell the whole story - Born in England, I am half English (Protestant), half Irish (Catholic), I speak fluent French, German and Dutch, have lived in France for 2.5 years, Germany for 1.5 years and and have now been living in Flemish-speaking Belgium since 2002.

[quote="Birkat"][quote=seo2007][quote=Birkat][quote]Vive le Québec libre maybe????? [/quote]



Who the hell was Luis IV??????????????????????????[/quote]

Sorry, Louis, IV = the french Sun King [color=red][/color][/quote]
Louis XIV maybe ? Louis IV of France was 10th-century member of the Carolingian dynasty.

It would only make sense to have English as the official language of Belgium, considering that modern English was born from the merger of Midlle English (which closest cousin was Dutch) and Medieval French. The closest modern relative of English are still Dutch and French.

I am interested to know what kind of people ask you this. I mean, they cannot be European, right ?



How about saying "I am from the EU" or "I am European" ? Good alternative, right ?

[quote="maciamo"][quote="master blaster"][quote=dumblonde]It would only make sense to have English as the official language of Belgium, considering that modern English was born from the merger of Midlle English (which closest cousin was Dutch) and Medieval French. The closest modern relative of English are still Dutch and French.[/quote]

No English has not right for this.

Belgium has only three official languages, one is German.
English not.

England is not in the neighourhood, Germany is.
Luxembourg is, one official language there is German too.
(and Letzemburgisch which is a mixture of French and German).

German is close to Dutch, therfore only one solution:

German for first language in Belgium. Most spoken motherlanguage
in the EU!

The problem is that English is the most widely learnt second language in Belgium, not German. It is also the only true international language, and making it official would seriously boost the competitivity of Belgium on the world market. In Brussels, English is already the most common communication language between foreigners or between Belgians and foreigners (and sometimes also between French- and Dutch-speaking Belgians). Only a tiny minority of Belgians can speak German.

no, a lot of flemish people can speak German as well.

Languages have to do with cultures,you cannot count Belgium
to the anglo-saxon groups.

Belgium: English has no chance as offical language, that is fine

The Netherlands: yes., English could be sometimes second official
language, German has no chance.

However: in whole Europe we have the follwing:

Nr. 1 is English
Nr. 2 German
Nr. 3 French

From these three is English the easiest to learn.

According to Eurostats, 52% of Belgians can speak English fluently, against 25% for German. In the Netherlands, however, 66% of the population can speak German and 87% English.

Anglo-saxon languages are closely related to Dutch and German dialects ofLower Saxony (North-West Germany).

If there is one historical weirdness in Belgium it is that French, a Romance language, is spoken in the South, as the people are predominantly Germanic (Frankish descent).

The reason is that the Franks were the earliest Germanic people to settle in the Roman Empire (since the 3rd century) and therefore the first to be Latinised. When the Franks conquered Roman Gaul under Clovis (who came from Tournai in Wallonia), the population south of Tournai completely dropped the Frankish language to adopt Latin, so as to communicate better with the inhabitants of the new Frankish Kingdom, and to sound more "civilised" (Rome being the model of civilisation at the time). The North (Flanders, Netherlands) and East (Rhineland) of the Frankish territory remained Germanic speaking, because it was not part of the Merovingian royal domain around Tournai and Cambrai. The rest of Wallonia became latinised under the Carolingians, who were based in Liege. Again, the linguistic border stops sharp right after their base in Liege.

It's an interesting question:

I usually say Bombay (because I don't think Bombay has a lot in common with the rest of India) or Goa (which for certain has nothing in common with the rest of India).

I have mixed Indian/Portuguese ancestry but English is my mother tongue. And most people seem to think I'm Brazilian. So, just to take the piss, I've resorted to saying I'm Spanish on the outside, Scandinavian on the inside, and Indian in between

And, I live in Antwerp!

My reply depends on how I think the person will react to the answer. Most cases I tell people that I am an American, but I have found that is some groups it is just better for me to say that I am from Canada, because of the stereo typing and negativity towards Americans.

Maybe you should say American and proof them wrong.

Bonjour, DB.

Si tu le connas bien, moi - t'che sui' Aurignais.

à la perchoine,

Manuel de Vol à Basse Altitude

Birkat, you probably do not realise that "Guest 2007" is an usurper who stole the name which was mine before I was banned last year. After that episode I came back with my present name "Emilio".
This not very delicate "Guest 2007" (I think I know who it is) stole one of my previous postings as well...
btw, it is Henri IV ( "Paris vaut bien une messe"), the good king who from protestant became catholic and saw to it that every Frenchman could eat a chicken on Sunday!
Louis XIV is "Le Roi Soleil", famous for his ballet skills and "L'État c'est Moi!"...

Are you allowed to say 'Bombay'? - I thought one was suposed to refer to that place as 'Mumbai'...

and presumably, the Indian film indsustry is now 'Mollywood'

How about......this is an ignorant question to begin with......No one has to answer this question and I think it's too tempting to come back with some kind of self-serving response. When someone asks this question, he/she is attempting to typecast you into some kind of mold. And, in my opinion, no one really wants to hear your relocation history - not really!

Well, when people hear my accent (if I'm speaking English) they say: "Are you English?"  

No I'm not.  I tell them where I'm from and most of them - although they are now somewhat better informed -are none the wiser. (waddya expect?)

"Where are you from" is (IMO) a pretty useless question.  I'm from where I'm from, but I left there 40 years ago ... in the meantime, I've been 'somewhere else' and there's a tiny chance that the experiences gleaned in all those 'somewhere elses' (and there are many of them) may just have changed my outlook on almost everything.

When I'm not speaking English, I get accused of being from almost anywhere - apart from where the speaker is from .

The sad thing is, that when I go home (and I do, occasionally) there are so many foreign imports there that I get asked 'where are you from?' almost daily.  They usually don't understand the answer, because I answer in the language which my grandparents (who were from there) spoke.  The imports don't speak it.

where do you come to me means where do you think it's your hometown, nothing to do where you live now, where you born or what's your nationality

well, to be honest, to me it always sounds as a nosey question. Sometimes it even irritates me and I ask them back, WHY do you want to know where I come from for chrissake? What kind of CONTRIBUTION does such a private knowledge would give to our conversation if at all? Mostly they stammer that they ask out of "personal interest" for me, which is really something I don't buy!

I agree with you completely. I honestly think some people wish others would ask them this question because they're in love with themselves and like to recount their 'history' of relocation to others while attempting to embrace their self-proclaimed 'Europeanized', more 'sophisticated' selves . I see this as self-serving on many levels. It is problematic for both the asker and the responder as it attempts to typecast all the way around - wouldn't it be better to simply ask a more 'in the now' question such as: how are you enjoying your stay here? or what do you find interesting here? etc.

I'm from England,my wife is Italian, I FEEL Belgian.