"My birth region" Provincie West-Vlaanderen by Museeuw

Provincie West-Vlaanderen Travel Guide: 4,763 reviews and 13,841 photos

Born and bred

I was born in the centre of West-Vlaanderen and lived there for more than 20 years. My Mom and a lot of my friends still live there, so I go back often. Actually, I only feel 100% at home when I'm in West-Vlaanderen and when I'm talking in the West-Flemish dialect, but that doesn't mean I would want to move back there. Except maybe when I'm old. It's just a little bit too provincial for me.

The language

My language is something that I'm actually proud of. The West-Flemish dialect is the oldest dialect in Flanders, and hence the most incomprehensible. People from Antwerp for instance (which is only about 100 km away) cannot understand us if we really talk our dialect. Which is quite nice. :-)

Two important features of our dialect (that are different with Dutch) are:
* we don't have the soft 'g' (as in the Dutch word 'geven'); we pronounce an 'h' instead.
* we use a glottal stop a lot.

But: This also makes it harder for West-Flemish people to learn to speak proper standard Dutch.

Events

Top events in West-Vlaanderen are:
- Folk festival Dranouter
- Start of the Ronde van Vlaanderen

Intro Updated Feb 17, 2007
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Playing cards for towels, sausages,... Local Customs (1)

In the winter a lot of organisations (e.g. youth movements, fanfares, football clubs,...) in West-Vlaanderen organise... more travel advice

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Comments (2)

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blint Apr 12, 2008 at 4:26 AM

So as it turns out Belgians have STRANGE local customs!!!!! hahaha now I must go to Belguim and play manillen, maybe a toilet paper kaarting! You can never get enough of that! :)
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Helenbb Nov 20, 2007 at 5:33 AM

no cheese and steak.. its unfair.. i have a chinese stomach. haha,..i have a good idea.. and you will faint.. contest for smelly toufu. hahahaha