1
　 ♪ 　 Belgium    Report 　 ♪ 　
　 Kei  Fujisawa 　
Have you ever been sent Godiva chocolate by your girlfriend on Valentine's Day ?
Did you cry when you watched Nero's death scene in Flanders ?
Do you know anything about Belgium other than these two ?
All Europe members are very interested in this small country .
　 Basic knowledge
　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　
★ capital Brussels 　
　 　
★ population 10,348,276 　
　 　
★ language Dutch / French / German 　
　 　
★ specialty diamond / cars / carpets / medical aids 　
　 　
★ area about 30,000 km (1.5 as large as Shikoku in Japan)
　 　
★ religion Christianity (75% Catholicism ) 　
　 　
★ flag black  yellow  red  vertical stripes 　
　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　
Let's take a look at the details from the different aspects !
　 Q.1 Are many Belgian driving rough ? 　 　
True  : The number of the death toll caused by traffic accident is high.
The second worst record holder behind Portugal.
　 Q.2 Belgian likes beer very much. 　 　 　 　
True  : There are over 400 kinds of beer.
The consumption for beer is the highest in the world.
　 Q.3 Is Belgian called gourmet ? 　 　 　 　
Difficult to answer  :
Belgium food is not so famous.  
Their life style is very plain. They like to have local and homely dishes.
But they stick to the taste of chocolate and beer. (a kind of kodawari)
　 Q.4 There is no  famous people in Belgium .
False  : オードリー・ヘップバーン （　actress  )
ルネ　・　ルーベンス (  artist      )
メーテルリンク (  Blue Bird  in the storybook  )
ジャック・ブレル (  chanson singer  )
エキュール・ポワロ (  detective in アガサ・クリスティ−）
　 Q.5 Are Belgium people living happily even though they have many problems 　 2
　 on low economic gross, 10% of unemployment , expencive price and dioxin ? 　
True  : Because of 5 these factors , they could be living happily.
1 　 They can own their house cheaper . 　 　 　
2 　 Education fee is not so high. 　 　 　 　 　 　
3 　 Working hour is short.  They can work in double harness easily.
4 　 Long leisure time ;  They tend  not to take much time on cooking 
and child care.  They value  dinner . They usually have a small 
breakfast and lunch like only bread.
They ask baby-sitter on weekends . Parents use time for 
themselves on weekends.
Almost all apartments have a dishwasher.
5 　 Belgium people put a high value on leisure 　
They have a lot of raining days through whole year .
Moreover they have a long cold  windy winter .
They're waiting for coming warm spring like people in Hokkaido.
That's because they need to have a month vacation time in 
summer They work hard to take this leisure time . It's not 
exaggeration.
　 I looked up the informetion about Belgium and Belgian . 　
　 Many visitors introduceme to Belgian character. 　
　
　 Belgian is very kind , patient , open minded to forigners . And modest . 　
　
　 Belgium is acutually a small country .  It was independent from Holland in 1830. 　
　  Its capital Brussels has a head office of EU and NATO. 　
　 Brussels is now an international city . 　
　
　 Throgh this study , I found it more interesting to know Belgian . 　
　 I'd like to visit Belgium and to make some frisnds with Belgian someday. 　
　
　 This study was eyeopner to stand on the map of Europe . 　
　
　 I'll show you one stereotype about European people. 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　
　 　
　 Good cook like British.  Good driver like French .  Generous like Dutch . 　
　 　
　 Eloquent like Finn .  Humorous like German .  Flexible like the Swedish . 　
　 　
　 Farmous like Luxembourger .  Patient like Austrian .  Control freak like Italian . 　
　 　
　 Humble like Spanish . Systematic like Greek .  Sensible like Dane . Sober like Irish .
　 　
　 Mechanical like Portuguese .   And    Useful  like  Belgian . 　 　
　          　
　 　 　 　 　 　 What do you think ?  It's fun , isn't it ?