Aren't French Belgians more open than Dutch Belgians???
Obviously, their languages are different -
The Dutch-speaking have some similar traditions to the Dutch -
They are Flemings, and speak Flemish dialects, sounds different than Dutch -
Differences of Dutch and Flemish is like comparing North American and British English -
A Fleming can understand a Dutchman, or vice versa...
French speaking Belgians are culturally similar to the French -
But both (Flemings and French speaking) are very similar people (except language) -
Their foods are same, their hobbies are same, they both love football (soccer) -
I am French-speaking Belgian born in Brussels suburbs -
I have many Flemish speaking Belgians friends of my area, since childhood -
Except for a minority, Flemings and French-speaking DO NOT hate each other -
A product of extremist political parties -
Just call it disagreement and difference of opinions -
Like people from England and people from Scotland -
Explaining the differences between the two takes more than a few lines in Yahoo!...
I live overseas since 50+ years but go home to Brussels 2 or 3 times a year -
I consider myself BelgIan... sufficient description -
I speak Spanish at home and now retired, I spoke English in my job, for my entire career -
I love to practice French and Flemish whenever I can -
Are you Belgian, Greywolf...?
Do you live there...?
Do you speak Flemish/Dutch and French...?
"Aren't French Belgians more open than Dutch Belgians???"
Maybe it would help if I told you that the average Fleming speaks 3 languages while the average Francophone speaks only French. Being monolingual in this day and age (i.e. not even being able to speak English) is a sure sign of being from an insular (closed) culture. The Flemish have much more exposure (i.e. are more open) to Francophone culture than Francophones do to Flemish culture. Many Flemish people sing or act in French. No Walloons sing in Flemish or act in Flemish films, and so on. There's many more examples...
But whatever, I get where this is coming from...
There is no such think as "French" or "Dutch" Belgians. There are French-speaking and Flemish-speaking Belgians (note: not Dutch-speaking: Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands. Flemish is not the same).
They hate each others guts.
