Apud robert <rverbeke@hotmail.com> (sci.lang.japan) hoc legimus:

>I can understand the situation is somewhat hard to understand... In
>Belgium people speak Dutch, French and German. When Brittish people
>visit Bruges (in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) they try to speak
>French to the locals because they think they are doing them a favor
>this way. 

The idea of Brits trying to speak French as a "favor" borders on the
absurd anyway.

>The capital Brussels is in the Dutch speaking part, but the majority
>of the people speaks French. When you ask directions in English there,
>people will answer you in French. 

Just like in France.

>If you ask directions in Dutch in
>many cases they will turn their back on you.

Just like in France.  8-)}

> The majority of people in Belgium
>speak Dutch, but for some reason nobody knows this... 

Well, the French know for sure that French isn't spoken in Belgium.

The last time I was in Paris, I noticed a lot of signs for tourists in
Spanish and Italian (as well as English, of course), but very few in 
German. I asked a friend why there were so few German signs. She thought 
it was because all the visiting Germans would probably be able to speak
English...

>However, some of them have heard the word
>"furamango"! (This is supposed to be my language I guess...) 

Well, to commemorate this posting, I've added フラマン語
and フラマン人 to JMdict/EDICT.

-- 
Jim Breen        http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/
Computer Science & Software Engineering,
Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia 
ジム・ブリーン@モナシュ大学