Dutch in Belgium of French as a second language among Dutch speakers in Flanders decreases, especially for the benefit of English. In French education, French is no longer a compulsory second language. Such a situation already existed in French-speaking Belgium with regard to Dutch. In schools in Wallonia, Dutch is often taught as an elective, and as such it must compete against English. There are also Walloon educational institutions where several subjects are taught in Dutch as a form of Language immersion. Despite its name, Brabantian is the dominant contributor to the Flemish Dutch "tussentaal". The combined region, culture, and people of Dutch-speaking
The Sorrow of Belgium The Sorrow of Belgium The Sorrow of Belgium () is a major novel first published in 1983 by the Belgian author Hugo Claus (1929–2008). It is widely considered Claus' major work and "the most important Dutch-language novel of the twentieth century". "The Sorrow of Belgium" explores the childhood and youth of Louis Seynaeve, a Flemish schoolboy living in the region of Kortrijk during World War II when Belgium was under German occupation. The novel itself is a "bildungsroman" formed from two sections: The work was first published in an English translation by Arnold J. Pomerans in 1994. It was also