BEING BELGIAN: It’s a linguistic nightmare!

Ahhhhhhh. Some Belgian cities are easily identifiable in both Flemish and French: Genk is Genk no matter which way you look at it. It certainly isn’t Gent, which is Gand if you come from the south. Brugge and Bruges are not too dissimilar. And you shouldn't get too confused between Brussel and Bruxelles. Most, however, are less readily comparable. Mons = Bergen. Roeselare = Roulers. Liege = Luik. It is all enough to drive you to tea. Being Belgian is all about being linguistically flexible, so forgive me for spelling the clubs differently every week. Luckily Standard (not a city but a state of mind) is spelled the same in both Flemish and French, so there can be little confusion. Less fortunately for them, they drew with Zulte Waregem this weekend meaning that they are not in control of their own destiny any longer in the race for the play-offs. Being Belgian has been writing about this for weeks and, as they might say in American English, is just looking forward to closure. Next week it will get it (and predicts that Standard will be able to concentrate on Europe where they are performing admirably well…). In the meantime, what is to be said apart from Anderlecht (Dutch) is Anderlecht (French) is Anderlecht (English) is on a winning streak and looks unstoppable.

Results below, table here.

Westerlo 2-1 Cercle Brugge
Kortrijk 3-1 Lokeren
Zulte Waregem 1-1 Standard
Club Brugge 1-0 Roeselare
Anderlecht 2-0 Racing Genk
Sint Truiden 2-0 Germinal Beerschot
Gent 2-1 Charleroi

Comments

[Charles le Roi]

@ Teddy: The club was established in 1999 as a result of the merger between K. Beerschot V.A.C. and K.F.C. Germinal Ekeren. Kentucky Fried Chicken Germinal Ekeren. Germinal Beerschot is an improvement!

@ Floris VC: I think Tom de Sutter lives in Delbecha, have you seen him round?

[The Worm]

very funny intro... The Worm is amused

[Floris VC]

Hi,

The Spanish for Dilbeek is Delbecha!

Tea?

Laters,
Floris

[Teddy]

Can you give us a linguistic breakdown of "Germinal Beerschot" ?