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Belgium
Multiple
Languages at the
Kasterlinden School in Brussels |
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An Email Message
from Teacher Kathleen Heylen,
at the Kasterlinden School for the Deaf,
November, 2004
In Belgium, we officially have three
spoken languages: Flemish, French and
German. Flanders is the northern section
of Belgium that is close to the Netherlands
(Holland). The people of the Netherlands
understand us pretty well. That’s
because we all speak Flemish, which
is really Dutch, but there are small
dialectical differences between the
Dutch spoken in Holland, and the Dutch
spoken in Belgium (Flemish).
The city of Brussels is situated in
Flanders, but used to be and still mainly
is French (Walloon) speaking. The southern
part of Belgium is near France and this
is where the people live, whom we call 'Walloon'. This
used to be the 'rich' part of Belgium
in the early 19th century, but that
changed about 70 years ago. Now
Flanders is the economic drive
of Belgium.
Some people in Flanders want to separate
from Wallonië (the French-speaking
Belgians), making Flanders a separate
country. I myself cannot imagine going
on a trip and telling people that I
am from the independant 'Country of
Flanders'. Many people outside our country
are not sure where Belgium is, let alone
Flanders!
And then there is a VERY small
part of Belgium with German speaking
people, but they are such a small
part that they are forgotten frequently
(shame on us!).
There are other languages that exist
in Belgium too, but are not officially
recognized, such as our signed languages.
In the Flemish section of Belgium we
use Flemish Sign Language, which we
call Vlaamse gebarentaal
(VGT). Flemish Sign Language consists
of several dialects, as you can see
on the University of Ghent web
site: https://gebaren.ugent.be/.
There is also a 'French-related' sign
language called 'langue des
signes Wallon', or Walloon
Sign Language. I don’t have any
information on the existence of 'German
sign language' in Belgium. (Deutche
gebarensprache). I suspect the population
of deaf people in the German-speaking
part of Belgium, must be very small
or even none existent.
The
Walloon Sign Language is recognized
and used in the schools, but not
as an official language. There
are actions at hand to promote
the recognition of Flemish Sign
Language as an official language:
https://www.doofactiefront.be.
This site is also available in
English.
Now for my school, Kasterlinden.
(Sint-Agatha-Berchem)...
The
Kasterlinden School is situated
in Brussels. So which languages
do we use? In my section of the
school you see deaf people signing
VGT, and on the other side of
the school, Walloon Sign Language.
There are people running around
speaking Dutch (Flemish) or French
(Walloon). These two sections
of our school used to be blended
together, but a few years ago
the two groups where separated,
Flemish and Walloon. So now the
children at my part of the school
learn 2 languages: Flemish Sign
Language (VGT) and Dutch
(Flemish) written and/or spoken.
This is how we see bi-lingual
education. The children are brought
up in there first language: Flemish
Sign Language and learn to read
and write (sometimes speak) Dutch.
I myself teach VGT and d/Deaf
culture together with Sara, my
co-teacher.
We teach the children the grammar
and syntax of VGT and do this
by using SignWriting. What is
our population? Well, all the
children run through our classroom,
no matter what their hearing loss.
Some students have more hours
using VGT per week than others.
I would love to get some information
on other people using SignWriting
in Belgium. The people I know
don’t really use it or are
not working as educators. My French
is not as good as I would want
it to be. So I get more information
in English and Flemish then French.
It's much more difficult for me
to read a book in French than
in English. But I will do my best
to work with my Belgian partners
;o)
O
dierbaar België ;o)
Vive
la Belgique ;o)
(you
see, again I skip the German part
of Belgium :p )
Sincerely,
Kathleen Heylen
katjesaar@hotmail.com
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Teachers at Kasterlinden School for the Deaf
Kathleen Heylen (left), and Sara Geudens (right).
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Contact:
TEACHERS WHO USE SIGNWRITING
Kathleen Heylen and Sara
Geudens
katjesaar@hotmail.com
Kasterlinden School for the Deaf
Dilbeekstraat 1, 1082, Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Belgium
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