Bernadett Varga - Belgium - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Adapted from Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past.

ISBN 978 1 78702 312 3

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

First published in Great Britain

by Kuperard, an imprint of Bravo Ltd

59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8DS

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8446 2440

www.culturesmart.co.uk

Inquiries:

Design Bobby Birchall

Printed in Turkey

The Culture Smart! series is continuing to expand.

All Culture Smart! guides are available as e-books, and many as audio books. For further information and latest titles visit www.culturesmart.co.uk

BERNADETT MARIA VARGA is a public health and communications professional living and working in Brussels. Born in Hungary, she gained her B.Sc degree as an Expert in Communications at the University of Szeged, Hungary, and her M.Sc in Public Health at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. Bernadett has always been fascinated by different cultures and languages and has traveled the world. She has lived in the USA, the Netherlands, and Denmark, and has been living in Belgium since 2015. Today she works as a freelancer focusing on access to healthcare services for disadvantaged and vulnerable populations Europe-wide.

Situated on the western seaboard of Europe, Belgium is bordered to the north by the Netherlands, to the east by Germany and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and to the south and west by France. A small country, its location at the meeting point of historically important trading routes has made it the economic and urban nerve center of Europe.

Somehow, Belgium has acquired the reputation of being Europes most boring country, a reputation that is entirely undeserved. In fact, if you are looking for the eccentric and the surreal, Belgium is the place to find it. Perhaps this bland image is a smokescreen, the conventional exterior hiding a subversive sense of humor, a surreal imagination, and a deep-rooted disdain for authority. Or perhaps it is a form of camouflage, a way in which Belgium, still overrunhowever peacefullyby foreigners, can keep a few of its secrets to itself.

The Belgians have been called stolid, pragmatic, self-deprecating, antiauthoritarian, subversive, cautious, and tolerant. Supposedly they eat well, drive badly, have a national inferiority complex, hate paying their taxes, and think rules are there to be ignored. Some of these descriptions are fair, and some are caricatures, as we shall see. Belgians are also generous, kind to strangers, unsnobbish, sarcastically witty, given to practical jokes, and very good at finding solutions to disagreements that will satisfy, or at least mollify, all sides.

It is often said that Belgium has no national identity, only language-based regional or even local identities. After centuries of being fought over, this is hardly surprising. Throughout its history up to independence in 1830 it had been ruled by other European powers, its borders constantly shifting and its fortunes intricately entangled with those of France, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany. It is hard not to conclude that the Belgians disregard for authority figures, rules, and regulations has its roots in centuries of resistance to foreign domination, or that their tendency toward ironic self-deprecation reflects the image of Belgium as being small and unimportant, but nonetheless well worth fighting over. Even the famous Belgian compromise can be understood as a response to this constant involvement in other peoples conflicts.

Culture Smart! Belgium aims to help you navigate these swirling waters. It is for anyonebusinessperson, student, or travelerwho wants to understand Belgian society and encounter it with sensitivity and poise, or simply wants an introduction to the diversity this country can offer. We trace the lands turbulent history and try to see how the past has shaped the collective and personal values of todays Belgians. We look at the Belgian people at work, at play, and at home, and offer some tips to help you get along with Belgian colleagues and acquaintances without tearson either side!