Posted by Most people probably don’t know Belgium, it is a very small country in western Europe, famous for its beer and chocolate. It is surrounded by 4 countries: France, Germany, Nederlands and Luxembourg, this is also part of the reason for the complexity of its politics and languages. The official languages in Belgium are Dutch, French, and German.
Living in Belgium for more than 5 years, I have always been occupied with language learning. In Belgium, you can find people of all ages, all over the world, with all kinds of professions taking language courses in the evenings or weekends. I have met a 90 years old gentleman coming from the USA learning Dutch, a director of a company who comes from Australia learning French, and a cleaning lady coming from Poland learning Dutch. In other words, You can easily expect someone walking on the street speaking English, Dutch, French sometimes even Spanish.
The best part of learning languages in Belgium is, if you are legally living in Belgium, the state encourages you to learn the local languages. For instance, if you are living in Brussels, you can learn Dutch completely for free. If you are an immigrant with permanent residence, you can learn all the local languages for free. Otherwise, you just need to pay around 120 euro for learning 1 level (typically 1 lesson per week for 1 whole year) of the language of your choices ( including Spanish, Italian, even Chinese, Japanese!). So cheap, right? If you are working in Belgium, most probably your company will pay for your language lessons, on top of that, you get 10 extra holidays per year as compensation. If you see a job post with the language requirements: English, Dutch and French, no doubt it comes from Belgium!
Some people got surprised that I speak Chinese, English, Dutch and French, well, now you know, with the multi-language environment, the advantage, and the competition, you just got motivated!
Let me know what you think about learning a new language in the comment!
Some state-sponsored language schools: CLT, CVO, ILT…
Discover more about Belgium:
Fun facts about divorces in Belgium
Some tips about saving and spending for tax refund benefits
Check all the less known social benefit from your health insurance
Check all the leaves you can apply while working in Belgium
Back to school – working student in Belgium
Holiday periods – Belgium vs China
Getting to know about Flemish people
Speaking of people – Fleming and Walloon in Belgium
Sounds fun.
Sounds have a lot of fun.
Hello Lin Jiang,
Thank you for this blog.
If we hold permanent residence can we learn all local languages for Free ? I hold a permanent residence and would like to learn French. Can you please provide some references for the schools ?
I’ve enquired in CVO and they do charge for taking French courses for everyone.
Thanks !
Hi Rajesh, you do need to pay for registration fee when you subscribe for language course. If you are living in Brussels, the subscription fee for Dutch lesson is for free (also in CVO).