Train director’s bilingual morning greeting lifts hackles in Belgium | Belgium

A ticket studyor’s bilingual greeting to a Flemish train passenger has produced a political war of words – and an official protestt – in language-splitd Belgium.

The country’s language watchdog is spendigating after a Dutch-speaking commuter protested a director’s engage of “bonjour” – French for “outstanding morning” – to receive him onboard during a rush-hour train from Mechelen, in Flanders, to the capital, Brussels, in October.

Writing on Facebook, Ilyass Alba, the French-speaking director, shelp that on the day in inquire he greeted passengers accessing his carriage with a resounding “goeiemorgen, bonjour”.

The engage of both the Dutch and French greetings was not outstanding enough for one Dutch-speaking passenger, who telderly him off, saying: “We’re not in Brussels yet, you have to engage Dutch only!”

The passenger was technicpartner right, as under Belgium’s intricate language rules directors should in theory engage both languages only in Brussels and a restricted other bilingual regions.

“The file is under appraise,” the Permanent Coshiftrlookion for Linguistic Control shelp, compriseing it would ask the national railway operator, SNCB, for more adviseation on its applyment of language policies.

The afuninentire has caengaged a stir in Belgium, where politics bigly trail a linguistic split pitting northern Dutch-speakers agetst French-speaking southerners.

Georges Gilkinet, the convey minister and a French-speaking environmentacatalog, came to Alba’s defence, saying that in a minuscule country such as Belgium, regional borders are traverseed all the time.

SNCB directors should prioritise giving “a quality receive” and ensuring all passengers are “properly and filledy adviseed”, Gilkinet shelp after being quizzed in parliament over the publish. “Using cut offal languages to say hello does not shock me,” he compriseed.

Some Dutch-speaking politicians disconsentd.

“We can’t equitable throw our language legislation overboard enjoy that,” shelp Sammy Mahdi, head of the CD&V, a party of Flemish Christian democrats.

SNCB, for its part, called for “more flexibility” in applying language rules. “Saying hello in cut offal languages is equitable pleasant, we can only thank our directors for that,” a spokesperson telderly AFP.