Anti-bilingualism in the news
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Complaint upheld against Belgian ticket inspector who said ‘bonjour’ in Flanders
Ilyass Alba also said ‘goeiedag’ on train in Dutch-speaking region but he breached country’s strict language rules
Jennifer Rankin in Brussels, The Guardian (16 Jul 2025)
Go figure! The train was in Flanders and nearing Brussels, which is officially bilingual.
A complaint against a Belgian ticket inspector who gave passengers a bilingual greeting in Dutch-speaking Flanders has been upheld, shedding light on the country’s strict language laws.
The conductor, Ilyass Alba, said Belgium’s Permanent Commission for Linguistic Control [sic, a quasi-judicial body in Belgium] had upheld a complaint made by a commuter in 2024. The passenger had objected to Alba’s use of the French word “bonjour” while the train was in Dutch-speaking Flanders.
I asked AIO whether Ilyass Alba is a Flemish name. It answered:
-
- Ilyass is a masculine given name with Arabic, Turkish, and Persian origins derived from the Arabic name Elias, which refers to the prophet Elijah.
- Alba is a surname that can be Spanish, Italian, Romanian, or Scottish Gaelic in origin. While Alba can be a surname of Belgian origin, the surname is not among the top 10 most common surnames in the Flemish Region of Belgium.
- "A bilingual, biscriptal pun in Belgium" (12/14/16)
- "Bilingualism is good for you — but not for me, thank you." (1/21/11)
- "Fingerspitzengefühl" (5/25/10)
- "A new mixed language in the news" (6/18/13)
- "Luxembourgish and Limburgish" (5/8/25)
- "List of multilingual countries and regions" (Wikipedia) — it's long
DJL said,
July 19, 2025 @ 5:29 am
More a case of linguistic nationalism than anti-bilingualism, I would say. Similar things happen in Catalonia too.
Viseguy said,
July 19, 2025 @ 9:41 am
Enshrining such intolerance in law only encourages the stupid behavior. And now dear leader in the U.S. has decreed that English is the official national language. Che cazzo succede? as my ancestors might have put it.
Charles in Toronto said,
July 19, 2025 @ 10:33 am
@DJL I'd say the difference between this and Canada, though, is that for services under federal jurisdiction (which interprovincial rail is, at least in Canada), there is a right to be served in both official languages. For example even if you live in Calgary, you have the right to request that the Canada Revenue Agency communicate with you in French. So it would not be out of place for a rail employee to greet someone in English & French in a unilingual area and it would not be subject to a complaint. But yes in Quebec, for anything outside of federal jurisdiction, the language laws can come after you for use of English in disallowed situations.
In Belgium the model is "you have the right to be served in the language of the place where you are located, and nothing else". And I think it's similar in a few other multilingual European countries such as Switzerland. Like if you are a Swiss French speaker but you live in a region where the official language is Italian, you do not have the right to communicate with the government in French, only Italian.