History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 291

A DIFFERENT STORY:
France and Flemish- France
The Flemish Regional Alliance of France reports that from this year on the Lille
Academy, a cornerstone of the educational system in a region of northern France with
a population of 4 million, will discontinue its training of Dutch language teachers.
Instead and with what irony, the exotic language of the newly arrived immigrants,
mainly of North African Arab descent, will be taught.
One and a half millennia ago, while the Saxons were engaged upon the great
migration westward across the North Sea to post-Roman Britain, so the Flemish tribe
advanced west along the Channel coast into Gallia, sweeping down upon the
decaying Roman garrisons. Twelve centuries later some of the land they won was
annexed by France. After the Revolution of 1789 the Flemish language had its official
status removed in la Grande Nation. But no problem today, you would think. We are
surely past such petty nationalisms in the modern Europe of nations, of which France
is the spiritual leader. There is, don’t forget, the European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages which explicitly seeks to promote and protect historical regional
and minority languages and excludes from protection the languages of recent
immigrants to France. Flemish is unquestionably one of the native languages of
France (see in the north). And just along the coast in Belgium and Netherlands, Dutch
is spoken by twenty million prosperous people. Bilingualism is surely no threat and
would be a great economical advantage to the Flemish of France.
There were some grounds for hope that Paris thought so, too. Back in April 2001 the
Minister of Education, Jack Lang, formally admitted that for more than two centuries
French governments had repressed regional languages. He even announced that
bilingual education would, for the first time, be recognized and bilingual teachers
recruited in French public schools.
This hope has turned out to be shortlived, mere lip service paid to the lofty ideal of
national diversity. The
reality is that for Paris
today, just as before, the
Frenchification
of
the
North of France can’t go
fast enough. The Flemish
instruction books of the
French Lille Academy will
end up on the local flea
market.
It is exceedingly curious
how the French authorities
hold to their historical
prejudices and see the
Flemish-French not in the

291