Today, we took a trip to Ghent, a very beautiful, medieval city.
Professor Prevenier gave us a tour of the city, where he also gave us some
historical information of how Ghent was important in the Middle-Ages. We went
to Saint Bavo Cathedral where we visited the most famous Flemish medieval
painting; the Mystic Lamb by Jan van
Eyck. We then visited the Ghent City Museum where we learned a bit more about
the history of Ghent. Afterwards, we split up into small groups and had dinner
at the house of a Flemish family.
The dinner with the local Flemish family was the most
enjoyable and amusing activity we did today. The food was amazing, and it was
interesting to hear about the culture of Belgians, especially about what it’s
like growing up in Belgium. The begin learning Dutch in the homes, then French
when they are 10, German when they are in middle school, and English somewhere
in between. Their teachers teach the language to them using Dutch in the
beginning levels, but once students reach the higher levels, teachers teach the
language to them in the language they are studying. This is a huge difference
compared to America because most of the language classes I took in high school were
taught in English, regardless of whether or not we were in the higher levels.
In addition, right after we exit the language class, we immediately start
speaking English, and lack practice in speaking the language to anyone else.
The best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in an environment where
you are forced to speak the language, read the language, and even listen to the
language. I only started to become somewhat proficient in French when I studied
it in Berkeley, where the language classroom was completely run in French. They
encouraged and even urged us to speak French whenever we could. They provided
us with a radio station played on the internet and encouraged us to listen to
the news or music in French, just to get our brains to think in the language. In
Belgium, it is very easy to find channels and radio stations in another
language, so students living here have an easier time immersing themselves in
the language. They are also in very close proximity to the countries that speak
the languages they study. America, on the other hand, doesn’t really give their
students that luxury because everything is conducted in English, and it is the
one official language of the nation. That’s definitely one disadvantage of
having only one official language in the country.
It was also slightly amusing because I would ask every so
often if I’m picking up the food right, or eating my food in a proper fashion
because I was very conscious about whether or not I would do something that
would be considered rude. The reason why I acted that way is because in the Ann
Frank house, back in the Netherlands, my American colleagues and I took many
samples of the food that was offered to us, thinking it was okay because that
is what we would have done in our country. If offered something, take as much
of it as you want to show how much you appreciate and enjoy what you are
offered! To the Dutch, that is not the case. It’s considered rude to take more
than one sample of what is offered to you, so when I heard I did something to
offend our hosts, I became a bit more conscious about my actions, so I
explained to my Flemish hosts that I would rather make a fool of myself first
and make sure I don’t offend anyone before I actually offend someone without
even knowing I did. So we had a little inside joke going around, where our
Flemish hosts would be like “That’s not considered rude” and “Oh yes, that is
not considered rude either.” The most amusing comment they made was “That’s the
difference between the Dutch and the Flemish. We don’t consider things to be as
rude as they do.”
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| Figure 1: The most delicious French white wine you will ever run into in your life! |
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