Spain and Belgium, two so different countries in culture, weather, education, customs, public transport… You don’t find two identical countries in our planet and the Erasmus program arises you the chance to discover the differences in first person.
Listing some of them
There is one stuff that I applaud about Belgium which is the possibility to ride a bike everytime you feel like. Biking is a great way to save money and, what’s also remarkable, it’s eco-friendly. But you hardly could induce Spaniards to adopt such a habit. It is unthinkable in a country that is not that plain and dry as Belgium is.
Another aspect that amazed me the first time I came to Belgium years ago was the awesome variety of beers. You can have at hand more than 700 brands of brew. It would take almost a whole lifetime to taste them all: Duvel, Leffle, Cristal, Grimbergen, Delirium Tremens… In Spain we also have many sorts of beer such as Mahou, Cruzcampo, or Estrella Levante… but not as many as you find here. If I had to choose among both assortments I’d be inclined towards the Belgian one without any hesitation.
And what about chocolate? Its reputation precedes it, this pleasure no one is capable to resist. In Belgium you can visit stores that any Spaniard would dream to have around back in his hometown such as Pierre Marcolini in Brussels, Neuhaus and Godiva throughout the whole Belgium.
You speak, we don’t
I admire the Belgians, they are very well-mannered people. They know how to respect other cultures and are willing to learn from the outsiders. It is also remarkable that they learn three languages since their childhood.
Something I completely dislike about my country is the disability of people to cope in languages; it’s odd to listen someone speaking fluent English although to be fair I have to admit that this is changing quickly above all between students.
We are living in kind of a bubble
Alberto Sepulveda, a Spanish student living in Macao claims, “from all the Erasmus students that I’ve met during my stay in Macao the one’s who speak better English are the ones from the northern part of Europe”. This is basically due to their high quality education. In the past 4 months Alberto has realized how below them we, the Spaniards, are. “But we aren’t the worst at languages, Portuguese and French people levels are even lower”, he concluded.
Since he is in Macao, he spends time watching films and soap operas in English, “this is something we don’t have the chance to do in Spain, when you go to the cinema or even watch TV, everything is translated into Spanish. So we are living in kind of a bubble”.
Jef Goorst, a Flemish citizen, born and raised in Hasselt affirms he speaks four languages: Dutch, French, English and a bit of German. When he was in primary school he learned French and in high school he was taught in German and English.
In his opinion, “the Spaniards should include more languages in the education system in order to become bilingual, for their sake”.
The Spaniards should include more languages in the education system in order to become bilingual, for their sake
I agree and think we should start to be concerned about t the importance of, specially, English since it’s the language that runs the world, at least nowadays.
After expressing all these aspects, I have to conclude that I’m glad to be a Spaniard but I’m also willing to get some things changed in my country after having got to know the cool Belgian lifestyle.
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