FLEMISH AND A CONCERT

Flemish....it's not a very well known language apart from here in Belgium. Actually, only in Flandres as in Wallonia, the south eastern part of Belgium, they speak French. I automatically started speaking French to people and got a very curt reply, 'We do speak English you know!' Most people speak very good English but all the signs, labels, notices etc are all in Flemish. It's not an easy language to decipher if you don't know any at all. I'm trying to learn a few basics. 

We went to a concert in Bruges the other night. We always look out for them in any town. This was a piano concert with music by Bartók and a choir. The tickets and programme were all in Flemish but it sounded good so we bought our tickets.

The pianist playing Bartók.

When we arrived we were told it would be a few minutes late as the children had been delayed. Children?? We soon heard them arrive, about 40 of them between ages 5 to 10. This was the choir! The pianist was excellent, if only he'd played solo for longer. The concert hall was interesting 'in the round' it went up in a 'square' spiral. The children came in for most of the performance. They were very good but it was a bit like a primary school concert. Nothing wrong with that as long as you're expecting it. The children left and the pianist sat and had a discussion with a female interviewer for at least half an hour, in Flemish. We were completely lost!! Should we leave or stay and hope the pianist would play another piece? Eventually he did play again. Superb but then the choir came in again. Well, all in a day's navigating/touring in a country with a totally foreign language! At least it finished quite early so we could go to a bar and have a drink afterwards.