Finding the Words in Brussels

When the shuttle bus stopped just 20 minutes away from downtown Brussels, there was a collective moan.  We had just flown RyanAir from Madrid with a four hour delay and this pit stop definitely couldn’t be good.  The bus driver said something in French at the front of the bus, that most of us didn’t catch in the back.  We watched as the message was translated back through the bus from French to English to Italian to French again, before someone close enough to our seats announced in English, “We’re waiting for a new bus”.  An Italian behind us asked us in English what was happened.  He translated for his companion.  The Spanish couple understood our English and translated into Spanish for the rest of the bus.  This elaborate international game of telephone is the chaos that Brussels lives in everyday.  No one speaks the same language, but everyone gets by asking, “French?  English?  Spanish?  Italian?” until they find a shared second or third language.  If you’re an expat, it’s a great place to live.  The stigma of speaking in a foreign tongue is removed, as we’re all in the same boat.

Brussels has two official languages, French and Dutch.  It’s uncommon to not see advertisements or street signs translated in both languages.  Like most places in Europe, English is also the del facto tourist language (even the taxi drivers are perfectly fluent).  Unlike most of Europe it also has a high immigration rate which puts non-Belgiums at anywhere from 37- 50% of the population (depending on the source).  We were introduced this fact quickly as we met up with Drew’s high school friend from the States.  In the process, we met with a Spaniard dating a Frenchman, an American engaged to an Italian, two people from Wales, and their friends from France, Colombia, Spain, Italy, UK and US.  A common introduction would be to list the languages you understood.  At one point, I ended up talking about the different accent in Andulucia with a French research scientist in Spanish.

It sounds confusing, but it was actually refreshing.  If I was going to learn French I would move to Brussels over Paris, hands down.  While Paris remains the hub of Western Europe, Brussels has found a way to cope with being a modern day tower of Babel.

All of this lends itself to a city that embraces everything.  You can find a pizzera with authentic Italian pizza, have drinks in an Irish pub, eat mussels and frites in an outdoor cafe or dine on greek, mexican or chinese take out.  But if you go, you must have a real Belgium waffle with fresh strawberries.  You can thank me later.