Don't know why you got downvoted, but when the Spanish ruled over the 7 Provences, about all of the current the Netherlands and most of Belgium was in it. So technically correct, just was 500 years ago or so.
Just a really small portion of Belgium speaks German, a lot of them speak Flemish which is kindred to Dutch. Brussel is more in the French speaking part of the nation, but just on the language border. So you can usually get by with speaking Dutch.
I attended a business meeting in Brussels many years ago. I spoke English. One guy spoke French, another Flemish and another German. Apparently, they understood one another. I haven't a clue what the final decision was!
That's pretty common here, to understand all 4. I can't speak French, (un pitete peu) but if the one speaking doesn't start to rattle in 20 words per second like they usually do I can understand it. English is the second language to most Dutch, German is a weird dialect. Come to think of it, better to understand than some of the dialects in the Netherlands itself.
Don't know why you got downvoted, but when the Spanish ruled over the 7 Provences, about all of the current the Netherlands and most of Belgium was in it. So technically correct, just was 500 years ago or so.
Just a really small portion of Belgium speaks German, a lot of them speak Flemish which is kindred to Dutch. Brussel is more in the French speaking part of the nation, but just on the language border. So you can usually get by with speaking Dutch.
I attended a business meeting in Brussels many years ago. I spoke English. One guy spoke French, another Flemish and another German. Apparently, they understood one another. I haven't a clue what the final decision was!
That's pretty common here, to understand all 4. I can't speak French, (un pitete peu) but if the one speaking doesn't start to rattle in 20 words per second like they usually do I can understand it. English is the second language to most Dutch, German is a weird dialect. Come to think of it, better to understand than some of the dialects in the Netherlands itself.
I mean it’s the internet, it’s not like people will take 30 seconds to look something up.