“In Belgium family life is taken really seriously. All important decisions are taken as a group and family always comes before friends. It can be hard to get used to at first, especially coming from the USA where individualism is so important. In America, for example, it’s rare for my family to eat a meal together, while in Belgium my family always ate at least one meal together a day.”
(Judith, Year Program, 2007)
Follow the jump links to learn more about Belgium French:
Lifestyle and Family Living
Teen Life
Dress and Appearance
Diet and Meals
Educational System
Geography and Climate
Population
Language
Government
Religion
Spending Money
Safety and Support
Fun Facts
Lifestyle and Family Living
“L’Union fait la force – Eendracht maakt macht” (Strength lies in unity) is the Belgian national motto.
Thanks to contact with various cultures, Belgians are tolerant, flexible, modest, sincere, warm, friendly and open-minded.
Belgians value privacy, enjoy a safe and comfortable life, work hard and are self-disciplined. People will be glad to know you, but you may have to make the first steps toward establishing contact.
By showing enthusiasm and interest, by using your charm, tact and openness, you will build real bonds with your new family and friends.
Family life is very important in Belgium. Teenagers are used to deferring to parents at all times, and parents maintain authority and expect the children to follow their rules as long as they live at home. Both parents usually work and students and children are expected to do their share of the housework and daily chores.
Family members and their friends and relatives will usually be close to each other, but in general, Belgians do not maintain very close contact with their neighbors. It is possible that apart from your family and their friends, few people in the community will know about you or be acquainted with AFS.
Most AFSers are placed in small towns and rural areas. Public transportation is well organized and safe.
Belgian host families, like all AFS host families worldwide, are volunteers and are not paid. They open their homes to students in order to share their community and culture as well as to enrich their own family lives.
Teen Life
While every situation is unique, your social life will probably center on family and a small group of friends.
Belgian youth enjoy attending concerts, going to the movies or a lecture and sharing a drink or meal together. Many of them enjoy scouting activities on weekends.
It is a good idea to speak to your host parents early on about the rules of the household regarding socializing.
School activities are very demanding and rather intellectual, which is why outside activities are practiced in youth clubs.
You can practice athletics, basketball, volleyball or netball. Also available are public swimming pools, sport centers, football clubs and riding schools.
Music, drama, singing, drawing, painting and sculpture are taught in special schools called Académies, with classes after school or in the evening. A fee of €150 per year is required.
Dress and Appearance
Dress is casual but neatness is important.
Young adults wear jeans, T-shirts, sweaters and shoes, instead of sneakers.
Belgian weather in the summer is warm and sunny but can also be windy and rainy, and winter can be windy and rainy too. It is advisable to bring a winter coat, warm sweaters, warm shoes and a raincoat.
As in many parts of Europe, a wardrobe consisting of a change of clothes for every day of the week is not necessary.
Please do bring one nice outfit for special occasions: slacks, tie and dress shirt for men, skirt and blouse or a dress for women.
Diet and Meals
Belgian cuisine is well known around the world for its chocolates, pastries, frites –french fries, which the Belgians claim to have invented—and beer, invented by Flemish monks. Each region in the country offers its own specialties, available in restaurants, often with exceptional qualities. Endive, or chicory, a vegetable that was accidentally discovered by a Belgian farmer, is called “white gold.”
Belgian families like to cook and eat together. You will learn Belgian table manners by observing the family habits. Usually you do not start the meal before the mother or father does, nor do you get up before everyone is finished.
Belgians like to take their time, enjoying their food as real gourmets.
Belgians eat lots of meat, bread and potatoes and often cooked with oil or broth. Fish and seafood are important.
There is not much junk food and raiding the refrigerator is not done. Vegetarianism is not easily accommodated.
Educational System
While in Belgium, most participants attend the last or next-to-last year of high school.
You will need to attend classes just like any student. When deciding about your schedule, you may want to try out several courses for a few weeks in order to see how advanced they are before making your final decision.
Compulsory school subjects are French, mathematics, history, geography, sciences, religion or ethics, and physical education. Optional courses are foreign languages, arts, and computer sciences.
Examinations are given three times a year, and promotion to the following grade is subject to approval by the teachers’ council. Because of the strict rules, a majority of Belgian students have had to repeat at least one year of school.
School education (compulsory until the age of 18) tends to be rather intellectual (based on the acquisition of knowledge) and quite demanding. Teenagers often study for two or three hours in the evening and sometimes during the weekend.
Sport activities are sometimes linked to school, but then they are mainly competitive team sports and only take place during free time (Wednesday afternoons and weekends).
Between January and March, there is a global education activity called the Semaine sociale (Social Week) where all AFS students work in a social organization or in community service for one week or during three weekends. This activity is organized to show you another face of your host country.
All instruction, with the exception of foreign languages, is done in French. In the beginning, you may find it hard to follow, but as you learn more of the language, school will become less challenging, so be patient, work hard, and keep at it!
While it may be possible to obtain academic credit for the coursework you successfully complete abroad, AFS cannot guarantee this. Please discuss your plans with your school before you go abroad.
Geography and Climate
Belgium is situated between the Netherlands, Germany and France, with 65km of developed resort coastline where the North Sea meets the English Channel. About the size of Taiwan, Belgium is divided into two main regions that partially reflect the language division. In the north is the Dutch Flanders, with flat lands. In the south is the French Wallonia, dominated by the picturesque Ardennes, with forests, deep valleys, historic cities and medieval castles between France and Germany.
Belgium has a temperate climate with mild average summer and winter temperatures. It has lots of rain, especially during the winter months. Average temperatures for summer are 13–21°C (54–72°F) and winter averages from 0-6°C (32-43°F).
Population
Belgium is densely populated, with about ten million people living in slightly more than 30,000 Km². Brussels is the capital city, and Antwerp, to the north, is the principal industrial and port city. The two major ethnic groups in the Belgian population are Flemish (58%) and Walloon (31%).
Language
There are three language regions in Belgium. In Flanders (northern Belgium), Dutch is spoken by 6 million inhabitants, while French is spoken by about 3.5 million in Wallonia (southern Belgium). Many Belgians speak both languages. German is also spoken by the 70,000 inhabitants of the German area near the eastern border. English is also widely understood.
You will be placed with a French-speaking family and in some cases one that speaks German as well. AFS Belgium encourages you to budget €150 in order to participate in French language lessons that will be offered in your host community. Your local volunteers and your host family will help you make arrangements upon your arrival.
Government
Belgium is a Constitutional Monarchy. The head of state is King Albert II. The head of government and a new constitution was adopted in 1994. The new constitution created a federation of three regions based on the three languages spoken.
Religion
The majority of the population is Roman Catholic (75%), while the rest are mostly Protestant.
Spending Money
The Euro is the official currency.
Your program and country information packet (provided in the months prior to your departure) will give you an idea of how much spending money is appropriate and whether you should arrive with any amount of the local currency in hand.
Host families pay only for ordinary family events in which you are expected to participate. When you do such things as shopping for yourself or going out with friends, the expenses are your responsibility. Depending on the cost of living in your host country, we recommend you budget about $100-$300 per month.
Remember: never travel with large amounts of cash. Instead, bring travelers checks or follow the advice in the country and program information packet. Another option for obtaining money while overseas is to use a debit card linked to a checking account back home (but try not to use a debit card for daily purchases since there are ATM and currency exchange fees). Or, you can transfer money using wiring services such as Western Union.
You and your parents should determine a budget and preferred money transfer plan before you depart so that you are not caught without spending money while abroad.
Be conscientious of your spending since conspicuous consumption may not be viewed favorably and spending more than your peers and family may create a distance between you and them.
Safety and Support
AFS has the utmost concern for the welfare, safety, and security of our participants. We’ve been exchanging participants throughout the world for 60 years—that’s six decades of history and experience in international education with an exemplary record of safety, security, and service.
AFS maintains a network of experienced staff and trained volunteers who provide support in each country. In the event of an emergency, 24-hour assistance is available to students, their parents, and the host families. Furthermore, your AFS tuition includes comprehensive medical insurance coverage to ensure that medical care is available to our participants anywhere in the world and at all times.
While we have the above support structures in place, we also encourage you to take responsibility for your own safety and we give you the guidance to do so. Many of the AFS orientation activities, both at home and abroad, are intended to give you the tools to stay safe. We also provide country-specific safety tips to each participant prior to departure.
Learn more about the AFS safety and support network.
Fun Facts
- Belgium is one of the biggest producers of cartoons and comic strips in the world. To mention just few of them: Tintin, The Smurfs, Lucky Luke, Marsupilami and Spirou.
- Belgian chocolate is considered among the best in the world.
- In a book on different European characters, R. Hill describes the Belgians as “open-mined opportunists,” noting their pragmatic and accepting attitude.
- Many towns stage re-enactments of medieval times once a year, when the whole town is set to look and live as centuries before.
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