More on the language

My French is progressing very slowly. I had my first test in class this week and as I tell people…”I think I got some right”. I find the language to be very difficult on many levels. The pronunciation is difficult since nothing sounds as it is spelled. Then the masculine/feminine somewhat random assignment to words is confounding. I practice short phrases over and over again and then when I try to use them, the locals stare blankly at me. I say it again. Another blank stare. Then finally they just say in English- “What is it that you want?”. Sigh…At least I have a wonderful and kind teacher named Nadine.

And then there is Flemish. So today I drove north of Brussels to take care of the lease for my car that I’ve been trying to order for two months. First I took the Ring highway to the road Haachtsesteenweg exit, then right on the road Mechelsesteenweg, then before reaching my destination I run into an omweg vooruit (detour) and finally reach my destination on the road Levvensesteenweg. Now if you think those names just roll off your tongue, you are wrong. When Howard and I try to pronounce them, we pause to consider how to go about it and then we just burst out laughing. Yes, it turns out we are ugly Americans after all.

More differences…

The washing machines, clothes driers and the refrigerators are SO much smaller than in the US. A maximum of two days worth of food can be stored in the refrigerator and nothing more than a few ice cube trays can be fit into the freezer. One bed sheet and a couple of tee-shirts make up a load of wash. Doing a week’s worth of clothes is a full day’s endeavor.


















Customer service is a foreign term in Belgium. If something is done easily with good customer service, it is very unusual. Mostly you are expected to stay home multiple full days to have anything repaired. When they then don’t show up, they can’t understand why this is a problem. Alternatively, repair people call or drop by unexpected and then exclaim indignantly that “but why where you not there?” The Belgians seem to have resigned themselves to the lack of customer service but we Americans are often seen huffing and puffing around, with (as the Brits say) our shorts in a knot over it.

So between the washing taking all day, having to food shop every other day, and waiting at home to get things repaired for multiple days on end, we don’t know how anyone goes to work.