2023-08-15 06:23:00
Elisabeth Leijnse teaches the literatures and cultures of Flanders and the Netherlands to French-speaking students preparing for a bachelor’s degree in Germanic languages and letters at UNamur. Born in 1961 in Aalst to a Dutch father and a Flemish mother, she has lived for thirty years in Dave, a pretty village on the banks of the Meuse, seven kilometers from Namur. A sinologist by training, her companion Daan is from the Netherlands and writes for Amnesty International. Her twin children (girl and boy), now 25 years old, are both good bilinguals educated in French. “My children are lucky to have mastered both French and Dutch,” she rejoices.
Flanders ? I will not go back…
Elisabeth Leijnse is fluent in French, a language she speaks with her Walloon friends and her colleagues in Namur. What is the vehicular language at home? “We’re going from French to Dutch in less time than it takes to tell,” laughs Elisabeth Leijnse. It is a linguistic situation which is not exceptional. This is how it is in any immigrant family. Except that with us, the language spoken at home is also the second national language, which is very useful for children. “The teacher feels like a fish in water in Wallonia. “No, I’m not homesick. I do not regret my native Flanders at all. And I have no intention of going back there one day”, she says.
Elisabeth Leijnse came to live in Wallonia because, she says, “the surrounding nature is magnificent”. “I like wide open spaces, there are more of them here than in Flanders and the landscape is varied. The Meuse, the Sambre, the Ourthe, the Semois… These are superb rivers, I am under the spell of these unique waterways,” says the professor.
After her secondary studies, Elisabeth Leijnse left Flanders and enrolled at the Notre-Dame de la Paix faculties in Namur. “I have a rebellious child’s journey. At 17, I had only one desire, and that was to live in a kot. Living in Aalst, I could do the studies I wanted in Brussels or Ghent, but I would have commuted daily, as my brothers and my sister had done, “she explains. In Namur, it was not would not have been possible.”When I enrolled at university, recalls Elisabeth Leijnse, I had never set foot in Wallonia and I spoke French very badly.” But after a few months, the student changes orientation: why not study English at the same time as French? After applying for Germanic languages in Namur, and applying for philosophy at the University of Antwerp, Elisabeth Leijnse realizes that she misses Wallonia. She then decided to continue her studies in Germanic philology at the University of Liège where she obtained her degree. She defended her doctorate there before landing a position as a lecturer at… UNamur.
Rik Torfs: “Here, when you meet someone in the street and they don’t say hello to you, it’s a safe bet that it’s a Flemish”
”Better to laugh at prejudice”
Flemings sometimes judge Walloons by describing them as lazy. “I don’t like prejudice. Small Flemish or Walloon mythologies exist, but it is better to laugh at them. Besides, all the good jokes about Walloons have been told to me by Walloons. Self-mockery is something I like about them.” And to slip one in: “Do you know the difference between a Walloon and a Fleming? The Fleming has a plan. The Walloon draws his plan.”
Elisabeth Leijnse assures that her students are not lazy for a penny. “I would even say that they work more than the students in the Netherlands or in England. But the prejudices are tenacious. Like conspiracy theories: we always find confirmation of what we already know. We can find nine Walloons who work diligently. A single slacker will suffice to confirm the prejudice. It’s toxic. We then fall into the vicious circle of verificationism”, professes Elisabeth Leijnse.
The professor continues her momentum: “Perception, the image of one community in relation to another, plays a crucial role in the learning of foreign languages. My colleague Laurence Mettewie from UNamur is researching this point. With her team, she addresses the motivational and affective facets of language learning. Many in Wallonia prefer English at school. If young Walloons learn Dutch, it is because they know that mastering Dutch is a powerful lever for getting a job. The problem is that the Dutch language suffers from a bad image and often arouses negative feelings, which hinders its learning. Me, as a professor of literature, I have no problem deconstructing the negative image of the other community. Reading novels, excursions to Ghent, Antwerp, meetings with students… Each year, some of our graduates complete their masters in Flanders. ”
On the other side of the linguistic border, the perception is not very different. Flemish pupils are no longer really convinced of the usefulness of learning French at school. “Despite the attractiveness of France to spend their holidays there, the knowledge of French in Flanders is in freefall. It must also be said that the knowledge of Dutch in Wallonia does not improve either among pupils who have chosen Dutch as a second language”, summarizes Elisabeth Leijnse.
And to continue: “Most of my students in Germanic languages at UNamur chose this course because they were pushed to do so by an enthusiastic teacher or because they completed their studies in immersion education. I also see that young second-generation migrants achieve excellent scores in Dutch. They know that mastering this language will allow them to find work more quickly in Belgium. Above all, they did not receive any negative message about “Flemish” from those around them,” she specifies.
Elisabeth Leijnse recalls that she has always been well received in Wallonia. “Walloons often apologize for not expressing themselves correctly in Dutch when they realize that I am Flemish. They believe, wrongly, that it is more difficult for French speakers to learn a foreign language than for Flemings. This too is an obstacle to learning. It is true that the Flemings have the advantage of more regular contact with foreign languages than the French speakers: practically no film, no series, no television news is dubbed in the north of the country, but well subtitled. This perhaps reinforces the image of the polyglot Flemish, which is an obvious asset for the Flemish economy”, observes Elisabeth Leijnse.
Ecotourism in Wallonia
Written at the end of 2022, what does the guidance note suggest to him advocating for compulsory learning of Dutch in French-speaking education from the 3rd primary from the 2027-2028 school year? “It’s obviously a good thing”, confirms Elisabeth Leijnse who nevertheless wonders about the implementation of the measure given the lack of teachers. Our interlocutor believes that the image of Dutch should above all be boosted. Socio-emotional work is even more important than language work.
“What do we know in Wallonia about what is happening in Flanders and vice versa?, asks the Germanist. Do the Walloons know who Sanda Dia is, this young black student from Louvain who died during a baptism in a circle of elitist students after having suffered the worst humiliations? The case dominated the Flemish media for months. Do French-speaking Belgians know our greatest Flemish authors? Stefan Hertmans, Jeroen Olyslaegers, Lize Spit, David Van Reybrouck are however published in excellent French translations. For the first time in the history of our country, the universities of Ghent and Namur gave a joint cycle of courses on Belgian literature this year thanks to professors Caroline De Mulder (UNamur) and Yves T’Sjoen (UGent). ”
Elisabeth Leijnse believes that Wallonia does not know enough about its potential in terms of ecotourism. “The climate crisis forces us to think differently. The number of electric terminals for recharging our vehicles must increase: 12% of Belgian terminals are in the Walloon region, that’s too few. Like the Netherlands and Flanders, Wallonia should invest much more in the development of cycle paths. In light of the climate crisis, community feuds are just arguments in the playground. We share the same problem, Walloons and Flemings.”
1692083467
#find #Walloons #work #diligently #single #lazy #person #confirm #prejudice #toxic