Why do Walloon students prefer to learn English over Dutch?

17 comments

1. As a Flemish person that needed to learn French in school: I use none of the French and a lot of English in my day to day life. I assume the same would go for the Walloons.

2. I’m surprised there was even a time not so very long ago when it was 50/50. If they made me choose between Dutch and English as a French speaker I would certainly pick English as well. Which is exactly why Wallonia should switch to the Flemish system and make both mandatory.

3. It shouldn’t be a choice. Dutch 2nd, English 3rd or 4th.

4. I speak for myself but I think a lot of people can relate to that.

   When I was a kid in the early 2000s I was bombarded with cool english media like movies, cartoons, music, video games,… It was the language spoken on the Internet and I understood that people spoke more English than Dutch worldwide. I could get good english grades with no effort because I was pretty much already learning the language through english media (internet, music, movies). When you’re a kid you don’t realize how important Dutch is to find work in some areas or how nicer it is to interact with Dutch people if you speak their language, you only care about easy grades while investing as little effort as possible. With the Internet’s influence growing it’s really not a surprise that more and more kids would rather get into English.

   I speak more English than even French now so i don’t really regret it but I still wish I put more effort into Dutch, or that a basic level of Dutch were mandatory in school, it’s harder to spare time to learn when you get older.

5. I mean honestly I think that number would be the same in Flanders if pupils could have the choice so not really a surprise. However Dutch should be mandatory in Walloon schools the same as French is mandatory here imo.

6. because English has become a far more pervasive language in Brussels (ie. the promised land for Walloons) than Dutch..

   … because/and they have zero respect for their majority compatriots..

7. I think it’s because in some schools, you can’t learn dutch or even german, you only can take english as second language. In my school, we have to learn only english and I think that’s fucked up. I wish that dutch was a mandatory in walloon schools (just like french being mandatory in flemish schools)

8. Bad evolution.. both Dutch and English should be mandatory just like French and English should be mandatory in Flanders (no idea if that is the case). It can only help later on during their careers.

9. Mandatory Dutch would be a better solution if you look at the job opportunities in Flanders

10. I think just like in Flanders they have high exposure to English already (internet, movies, tv) so they consider it a freebie grade, as they’re already somewhat fluent.

    Do not attribute to malice that which is easily explained by laziness lol

11. My controversial opinion is that we should adopt the Singaporean system: all education in English only. People can still speak their mother tongue at home. My secret hope is that over time this would lead to the extinction of other languages, so that eventually we’ll all live in a monolingual world.

    Pros: – much less cultural misunderstanding – more and easier cooperation economically and in academics – less energy wasted learning multiple languages – less political conflict (see Belgium) – infinitely more access to literature, academic resources, instead of being limited to what’s available in your native language -> more fair + much higher quality)

    Cons: angry redditors downvoting me in the comments I guess.

12. Dutch, French, English and a little bit of German should be mandatory. Dutch and French because you kinda need those to work and live in Belgium. English because it’s just an important language. And a little German because it can come in handy.

13. Absolutely ridiculous that in Flanders we start French in 5th grade and we are told we need to be at least bilingual to be employed in Belgium. And in Wallonia they don’t think kids need to learn an official language of the country they live in???

14. English is 20x more useful than Dutch so….

15. Bc the’re stupid.

16. Because it’s actually useful

17. Honestly, retrospectively, I made the right call choosing English first, I have access to way more cultural and scientific content than I would have if I had considered English as a second thought. It was 24 years ago, it was the first time kids were able to choose in my school and we were a tiny minority. Before that, it was mandatory Dutch.

    English helped me find love and a decent work, I wouldn’t have traded that for anything.