Quote:
Originally Posted by acidzebra
There is no "Flemish" part of the Netherlands. Could you have stayed here for 6 months without realising the difference between the Netherlands and Belgium? Or are you equating the Netherlands and Belgium in some way?
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The Flemish/Dutch part of Beligum I think used to be a part of Holland but when Belgium was created they took land from France, Germany, and Holland and merged them into Belgium. At least that's how I understood it.
My husband identifies himself as Flemish and I never questioned and other people i spoke to there identified themselves as Flemish. I assumed it's the same as me identifying myself as Hispanic it's like an ethnic identity.
I know the difference between the Netherlands and Belgium since we had to drive out of Belgium to go to Holland to buy weed. They are different countries.
From what I can tell there does appear to be some friction still because my husband still seems to hate the French part of the country a lot and blames them for having his political party outlawed. But is more okay with the German part (maybe shared history?)
In high school we never got past world war 2 in history and in college after war world 2 we focused on the Vietnam War. European history (anything not England) is a specialized subject field from what I can tell. So what I know is based on my own observations, what little I read on wikipedia and what my husband tells me based on what he learned in school and his own environment where he grew up which was about 20 miles away from Brussels.
So yes, while I was there for 6 months total I only still saw a small fraction of the entire country.
It's like someone going to Rhode Island and basing their entire impression on the country on one state. But if that's the only impression they got they have to rely on others to tell them how the other parts of the country are different.
My apologies for assuming on the rest of the country.
Though at this website.
http://www.123independenceday.com/be...emography.html
the ethnic group break down follows. '
Ethnic Groups
Fleming 58%, Walloon 31%, about 71.000 Germans, Mixed or other 11% (mostly Europeans, some Turks, Morroccans and Algerians.)