How divided a city is Brussels?

[Khadeejah_al-Jahani]

I’ve read a bit about the politics of Brussels and how it’s all dominated by French vs Dutch issues. Is the whole city divided by language and how do foreigners who don’t speak French or Dutch as a first language fit in?

[Luca_Segantini1]

Hi Khadeejah,
Although Belgium is "dominated by French vs Dutch issues", Brussels is much less. There is a minority of Dutch speakers in town (official figures say 12% but I would guess they are less than that) and all public offices and institutions are bilingual. Street names, police cars, metro stops, everything that is highly visible is strictly bilingual. The reality (seen from someone who is living in Brussels since 16 years) is that you can very well live in the city without speaking Dutch (for sure) and possibly French, as the international community is so large that even if you address someone in French you have 3-4 chances in 10 to find out the person is speaking another language (Arabic, Spanish, Italian, English, Polish, Turkish being the very frequent ones). So, if you are considering moving to Brussels, I would say you will not have any issues and get by very easily with English only. Of course, really integrating and getting a bit more into the local life (beyond the expat bubble, which I would recommend you only use to adapt during the first few months) will require French, particularly if you have kids. Hope this helps. Regards, Luca

[Emily_Darrow]

Hi Khadeejah Brussels is a funny place. Politically speaking, yes, the divide is between speakers of French (Walloons) and Dutch (Flemish). Practically speaking, the most often-spoken language is French. But there is a significant "expat" population from all over Europe which speaks English as a common second language, and an even larger "immigrant" population speaking mainly Arabic, Turkish, or any number of other languages in addition to the French or Dutch they may have learned at school. In my neighborhood for example, you are much more likely to be greeted with "as-salaam alaikum" than "bonjour". When you go to a shop, the person serving you is likely to wait for you to speak first in order to determine which language they should try to communicate with you in. That linguistic uncertainty is one reason why customer service in Brussels has a bad reputation. Also why many services (government, police, etc) have a hard time communicating with each other/citizens/sharing information. Comes with the territory, unfortunately.

[Maarten_Belmans]

The issue of FR vs NL is very much alive, unfortunately. Even though Brussels is supposed to be bilingual, the majority speaks French and doesn't want to, or can't, speak Dutch. So if you speak French, you'll get by without a problem. If you don't speak French, you can switch to English and it should be okay too. However, it's notable that Flander's English skills are way better than those of the French part (& Brussels).

[Adrien_B]

First, you need to know that 95% of people living in Brussels speaks (mainly) French.
But a lot of Dutch-speaking people works in Brussels which might make you think that there's more than 5% of Dutch, during the day anyway.

But, there's also a lot of people that speak English. French-speaking people in Wallonia are sadly not very well-known to speak English for the vast majority (I do not have any numbers on that). You'll get (almost) no problems with English in Brussels nor Flanders.

[Rando_Parna]

My experience says that if you don't plan to work for EU institutions you have to be able to speak French! And I'm mainly referring to doing business here.

Even if people understand and speak English - you are seriously in disadvantage if you are not able to speak French.

As far as I understand - the dutch speaking Belgians don't have this problem. English is fine.