The French language spoken in Belgium differs very little from that of France or Switzerland. It is characterized by the use of some terms that are considered archaic in France, as well as loanwords from languages such as Walloon, Picard and Dutch.

25% can be written as the decimal 0.25.

80 = quatre-vingt, Zut! For some reason this is still how you say 80 in Belgian French.

Belgium is significantly smaller the France, so if you’re short on time or don’t want to travel to many different destinations, then Belgium is a good option. In general, Belgium is less expensive than France. It’s a great place to spend some time and is often overlooked, or rushed through during trips to Europe.

Belgian also use lots of regional dialects expressions which are not considered proper French, even if they are easier to understand (not to say more logical, like « septante » and « nonante »). You might also like Swiss French.

Fortunately, Belgians say ‘septante’ instead. This is easier to learn as ‘septante’ comes from ‘sept’ (‘seven’). Likewise, for the numbers between 90 and 99. Where the French would say ‘quatre-vingt-dix’ for ‘ninety’ (or literally ‘four twenty ten’), a Belgian would say ‘nonante’.

Historically speaking, the country has had quite a wide variety of rulers, influencing how multilingual and multicultural Belgians are today. Due to their close proximity to these three countries, they have three official languages that divide Belgium into three main regions.

The French-speaking community lives in the southern Wallonia region and in the capital, Brussels. They make up approximately 40% (4.5 million) of the population.

Flemish citizens pursued cultural autonomy for all Dutch speakers, as well as for Flemish citizens living in Brussels. That is why three Communities were created: the Flemish Community, the French Community and the German-speaking Community.

In Belgium you can speak any language you want. These languages are not spoken everywhere, because Belgium is subdivided into federated states. Each federated state has its own official language. Only the Brussels-Capital Region is bilingual.

Brussels is bilingual: French and Dutch are the official languages there. Yet Brussels is home to only a minority of Flemish people. This may sound strange, but the reason is simple. For centuries, Brussels was a Dutch-speaking city and today it is still the capital of Flanders.

The capital region of Brussels is bilingual, so Belgians normally speak French and Flemish fluently. In Belgian schools the official two languages taught are French and Dutch, so the majority of Belgians are bilingual. Dutch (Flemish) is spoken in the Flemish communities, while French is spoken in Wallonia.

Answer. The Dutch were powerful in Belgium, as their population was much higher than French and other Communities.

You should learn Dutch. Sure, Dutch is virtually useless outside of Belgium and the Nederlands. French is much more useful, but you could also learn it at home. The purpose of doing an exchange program is to do a language immersion.