Europeans who speak a language that is not the main language of their own country but is the primary language of another, for example, Italian-speaking Swiss people, or Flemish people in Belgium, or German-speaking Italians – I have a question for you.
Do you follow the media (news, pop culture, etc) from the other country? For example, do Flemish-Belgians follow Arjan Lubach from the Netherlands? Do German-speaking Italians follow German TV shows like Tatort? What about French-speakers in Switzerland? Are they more integrated into the French culture of modern-day France, as opposed to the multi-lingual Switzerland?
28 comments
I’m Finnish, but my native language is Swedish. I don’t follow Swedish media closely—maybe once every two weeks, I’ll quickly check what they’re writing about. I don’t know much about what’s currently going on in Sweden or what people are talking about there. Sometimes, if something interesting happens, I might follow their news more regularly to see their perspective on the issue.
We Swedish-speaking Finns, in general, don’t feel any special connection to Sweden. It’s a country where we can use our native language, which is kind of funny, but we’re still completely Finnish. In fact, we have a rather rich Swedish-language culture of our own here in Finland.
Outch… Be prepared to be challenged on associating “not the main language of their own country” and “Flemish” in the same sentence.
I’m flemish and I never watch dutch television like most flemish people. We have some tv personalities from the Netherlands on flemish television but that’s it.
On the contrary, Belgian French speakers often watch French television.
It even works that way for the majority, here. We follow all the foreign media in our language and watch their channels. Especially Tatort, there have even been Tatort episodes in Switzerland. RTL, Pro7 and Sat1 have a Swiss-targeted version here with commercials from Swiss companies.
With “more integrated in French culture”, I suppose you mean culture as in music, art, television and film. And it is probably true that French speakers of Switzerland care more about a French-language medium from France than a German-language medium from within Switzerland. Same goes for the other language groups. But other than that, the national cohesion is not at danger.
Flemish people are the majority of the population in belgium, i dont really understand your question
I’m dual national DE/UK, and more or less follow both news cycles. Not everything, but some.
There are of course people who watch Dutch tv, but it’s generally pretty rare. Some Dutch tv-series do get broadcast on Flemish tv stations, but this is only a select few (e.g. Baantjer). As for movies, I can only think of New Kids.
The news doesn’t focus more on the Netherlands than it does on France or the UK. I guess the Netherlands does get the most attention relative to its size, but not by a huge margin.
Music seems to cross over more easily, but there are also a lot of big hits and major artists from the Netherlands that don’t get popular here at all. It often seems quite random which ones take off and which ones don’t.
For books there’s probably the least distinction; pretty much any major Dutch writer can be found in bookshops.
Nope, as my username suggests, I am from the UK and live in Poland (Yes, no longer a part of the EU but from Europe nonetheless).
I can speak Polish more than well enough to do most things and a few people have even been surprised that I am a Brit (let’s face it, most of us can’t even speak English properly) but I also have a super power – the ability to completely blank a lot of parts of daily life that most people encounter and, often complain about.
It is a blessing to be blessedly oblivious and ignorant to:
Advertising (print and digital).
Politics.
Local squabbles.
New fashions (jeans and t-shirts all year round, sometimes I wear shorts instead, or sometimes I add a jacket, hat and gloves)
It is not a blessing to be oblivious and ignorant of:
Road diversion signs.
Food item contents.
Bureaucratic paperwork.
The absolute lack of information overload is a blessing. I leave the house and don’t give a fuck what is said, who is saying it, why it is being said and who the fuck said it. I haven’t impulse bought anything that I have been advertised with in years, don’t need to get involved with anyone or anything I don’t want to, don’t have an opinion and don’t care about aspects of life that those around me grumble and complain about because either:
A) I find out and it is already totally normal because it is the way it is even if it is a massive inconvenience.
B) It changes literally nothing about my life in any way, shape or form. If it does – see point A.
It is also great when you find a place that either a) no one had told you about before or you missed the advertising memo or b) locals don’t really know about because foreigners seem to explore more thoroughly when in a new location.
Whether this is a state of blissful, but sometimes inconvenienced, ignorance; or whether it is a state of supreme acceptance and just being too old to give a fuck anymore, well, I am just not sure.
Either way, I like not being able to read signs and billboards and fine print, not have an opinion on the new motorway developments or housing developments or anything else locals like to complain about. I don’t give a fuck and I am happy that I really don’t need to give a damn.
Ignorance is bliss, apart from when you realise shops are closed on Sundays or that for certain deals you need to read the fine print.
Yes, while I may sometimes confuse my pralka with my zmywarka or my suszarka, or might forget the word for valve or septic tank or whatever, but being able to live a life where the background noise means literally nothing and doesn’t have any bearing on my life is a luxury few get to experience.
>Flemish people in Belgium
Dutch is the majority language of Belgium ;). But no, I don’t know anyone who follows Dutch media at all. I know a lot of people, myself included, that don’t even like it when there’s a lot of Dutch people in Flemish media, partly because we can’t stand their accent lol. If a movie or series is dubbed in Dutch, I will still watch it in English because it’s always people from the Netherlands that dubbed it. Some movies have a separate Flemish version and then I’ll watch those.
I’m a German speaking Italian and we def. watch and read German media. I’ve noticed that not everything reaches us, especially if from the north, but I grew up watching Kika (German TV-channel) and the Italian Rai Gulp/K2…
I would even say that many of the German speakers almost exclusively consume German media (sometimes from inside Italy, like our daily newspapers, but often also from Germany or Austria).
you’re doing a bad example since other than the NPO most of your media is in fact owned by Flemish
I’m a Hungarian from Ukraine and I only followed Hungarian media back when I lived there.
I do follow the news, pop culture, movies/music and in general resources regarding one of the two languages I speak besides my mother language + just from to time the news and music/radio from the second language. I like though definitely hearing both languages in original movies, sometimes I even prefer hearing both instead of my mother language in movies that do not origin in those countries.
I’m a fluent danish speaker but live in an English speaking country.
I follow both the danish news and the news of my current country (and a couple of others I have previously lived in). Danish TV, not so much, but I never really watched that much when I actually lived in Denmark.
It’s sometimes an eye-opener how differently ‘unbiased’ news is reported in different parts of the world.
Flemish is in fact the most spoken language in Belgium.
“Europeans who speak a language that is not the main language of their own country but is the primary language of another.” I sometimes think of the opposite: Why don’t we Swedes care more about what the Swedish-speaking Finns are doing in terms of art and culture? It’s sad that we don’t have a tradition of cultural exchange (apart from Tove Jansson, the Swedish-speaking Finn that everyone with a heart loves. Also, Mark Levengood.)
I was born and raised in Germany to a Norwegian father and a Spanish mother. I seldom follow anything Norwegian, and my grasp on the language is limited to speaking my father’s dialect, I was never thought to write it though.
I was thought by my mother to speak both Galician and Spanish and while I don’t follow politics or anything of that sort from Spain I do love Spanish music and movies
I’m Hungarian from Romania and I do follow the hungarian clownfiesta for entertainment purposes.
My mother never thought me Belarusian properly but I can understand.. but I just use Russian for everything because its convenient
My poor northern neighbour, you think Dutch is an endangered language in Belgium?
And yes, I follow the news from your country. Only politics though, I’m not interested in your famous people.
I watch Lubach on YouTube sometimes. In the 1980s, when there were fewer different channels to chose from, people in Flanders used to watch quite a lot of Dutch television. Things like Wedden Dat? or Van Kooten en De Bie. But not anymore, they stopped doing that in the 90s when commercial television started. Oh and by the way, about 66% of the Belgian population speak Dutch, not exactly a minority.
like most Austrians I speak german and definitely grew up watching german television, listening to german music, etc
I’m spanish and I speak “gallego”, 1 of 3 cooficial languages that are spoken in Spain, apart main lenguage.
I watch Bulgarian news in the morning, a bit of Russian in the afternoon, and American news at night.
As an ethnic Albanian from Montenegro, I would say it is very common for us to consume Albanian or Kosovar media, although it isn’t uncommon to follow Montenegrin media as well; the average café/bar/club here will play a mixture of Albanian and Serbo-Croatian music, for example. It is pretty much inevitable to do so, considering the Albanian minority in Montenegro only makes up around 5% of the population, so there is very little Albanian-language content being produced there.
Aside from that, we cannot really be seen as a separate entity from Kosovo and Albania, since many of us have relatives there, and a large number end up moving there for work or education. It’s not like we’re not integrated in Montenegro, but it does feel like our relationship with the country is political; we accept that we live in Montenegro and participate in Montenegrin society, but we don’t *feel* Montenegrin.
As an ethnic Albanian from Montenegro, I would say it is very common for us to consume Albanian or Kosovar media, although it isn’t uncommon to follow Montenegrin media as well; the average café/bar/club here will play a mixture of Albanian and Serbo-Croatian music, for example. It is pretty much inevitable to do so, considering the Albanian minority in Montenegro only makes up around 5% of the population, so there is very little Albanian-language content being produced there.
Aside from that, we cannot really be seen as a separate entity from Kosovo and Albania, since many of us have relatives there, and a large number end up moving there for work or education. It’s not like we’re not integrated in Montenegro, but it does feel like our relationship with the country is political; we accept that we live in Montenegro and participate in Montenegrin society, but we don’t *feel* Montenegrin.
Yes, I know Arjen Lubach and I’m subscribed to De Avondshow on Youtube, but that’s about the only Dutch content I watch. I went to his stand-up show in Ghent and the place was packed, so there are more Flemish Lubach fans out there.
When something newsworthy happens in an Anglophone, a Francophone or a Germanophone country or region I sometimes check out the local news media to get some more info.
When I listen to the radio while I’m driving, I tend to put on Fun Radio (French and/or Belgian version, I live close to France and close to Wallonia), so radio news I get mostly in French. This also skews my musical tastes a bit more to the French side.
I also love stand-up comedy, whether it’s in Dutch, English, French or German. I go to shows in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany. For example Laura Laune is brilliant and from Wallonia, but she is completely unknown in Flanders.
I don’t really follow Flemish media closely. Nowadays I think people just follow who and what they like online and branch out from there, without much regard for borders. When I was a kid (90’s and early 2000’s), we used to watch Dutch TV though(Te Land, Ter Zee en In De Lucht, Lingo, Andre Van Duin, Oh Oh Cherso etc.).
I am Italian and speak English. I almost exclusively follow media such as films, documentaries, websites, and news in English.