Irish in Belgium!

miss.c

Hi, just curious, if there are many ppl living in belgium from ireland, im working here at the moment

Diageio_Man

theres a great irish community around the town of leuven, was working there a few years ago.

mike kelly

Diageio_Man wrote: »

theres a great irish community around the town of leuven, was working there a few years ago.

out of curiosity, why Leuven in particular?

Shanley

Moving to Kortrij in a few weeks and was wondering what its like over there myself.

Going working in a bar, seems decent wages! Whats the cost of living like though.

e.g Alcohol, Food, Apartment, Ciggerettes

barakus

How is belgium as a place to live? do you need much of the language to get by? thanks

Prenderb

mike kelly wrote: »

out of curiosity, why Leuven in particular?

That's because of the beer! Stella's brewed there, and one of the big drinks companies (i think it's Inbev) is based there.

Addit: Proof from wikipedia....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuven

Prenderb

barakus wrote: »

How is belgium as a place to live? do you need much of the language to get by? thanks

Would that be the Dutch, French, or German that they speak? If you're thinking of moving, language wise you need to see what they speak where you're going. You'd probably get by with French in Brussels (I did on holidays at least) but other areas will be Flemish (Dutch) or Walloon (French).

barakus

Prenderb wrote: »

Would that be the Dutch, French, or German that they speak? If you're thinking of moving, language wise you need to see what they speak where you're going. You'd probably get by with French in Brussels (I did on holidays at least) but other areas will be Flemish (Dutch) or Walloon (French).

yeah I was just wondering as I went to brussels a few years ago and got by with the small bit of french. I always thought it would be a cool place to live for a while though.

mike kelly

barakus wrote: »

yeah I was just wondering as I went to brussels a few years ago and got by with the small bit of french. I always thought it would be a cool place to live for a while though.

Brussels is a boring, run down and dangerous ****hole, a kind of continental version of Limerick.

barakus

mike kelly wrote: »

Brussels is a boring, run down and dangerous ****hole, a kind of continental version of Limerick.

used to live in limerick too and liked it:(

seachto7

mike kelly wrote: »

Brussels is a boring, run down and dangerous ****hole, a kind of continental version of Limerick.

have you been to Charleroi or Liege? Now THEY are sh*tholes...

mike kelly

barakus wrote: »

used to live in limerick too and liked it:(

Ever been in Naples or Johannesburg?

mike kelly

seachto7 wrote: »

have you been to Charleroi or Liege? Now THEY are sh*tholes...

Worse than Brussels? I'll be staying away from them then. Seems that all the nice places in Belgium are Flemish speaking.

belge boy

mike kelly wrote: »

Brussels is a boring, run down and dangerous ****hole, a kind of continental version of Limerick.

**** you and where the hell do you come from?

op im half irish, both my parents are from there, i have heard lately many irish accents.

mike kelly

Walk a few steps from Grand Place and it is like being in a Moroccan slum. Yes, there are some nice suburbs but most of the city centre is awful

seachto7

problem with Belgium is overpopulation. There are too many people living there...

belge boy

i like it.

mike kelly

Flemish women are sexy. Can't have too many of them.

I lived in Brussels for a while and found it a dump at first, but it grew on me by the time I left. I heard many others say the same thing, people who hated it initially but ended up staying for years. It is very run down, not sure where the 'dangerous' thing comes from, though. I found it extremely safe compared to Dublin, I walked around on my own day and night, often got the night bus home from the Bourse and never had a single problem. I suspect some people might be put off by the very large numbers of ethnic minorities, that can be intimidating for someone coming from Ireland, but I never had any issues, and I had to take a bus all through the worst parts of town to go to work. That said, the Flemish cities are generally much nicer, and if I went back to Belgium I think I'd prefer to live in Antwerp.

mike kelly

[quote=[Deleted User];64060919]I lived in Brussels for a while and found it a dump at first, but it grew on me by the time I left. I heard many others say the same thing, people who hated it initially but ended up staying for years. It is very run down, not sure where the 'dangerous' thing comes from, though. I found it extremely safe compared to Dublin, I walked around on my own day and night, often got the night bus home from the Bourse and never had a single problem. I suspect some people might be put off by the very large numbers of ethnic minorities, that can be intimidating for someone coming from Ireland, but I never had any issues, and I had to take a bus all through the worst parts of town to go to work. That said, the Flemish cities are generally much nicer, and if I went back to Belgium I think I'd prefer to live in Antwerp.[/quote]

Is there much of an irish communityy there? Antwerp has an attractive centre but I found it very boring. I have to see all those arabs in Brussels did spook me a bit.

Lockstep

Irish studying/working in Leuven here.

I lived in Brussels for 7 years, fairly big Irish community there.

Leuven is the same, if you ever want to watch a Gaelic match or meet Irish people, Stapleton's pub is near the Irish Institute for Europe so attracts all the diplomats/workers etc.


As far as Belgium goes, everyone in Flanders speaks English. ANd I mean perfectly. Cities are beautiful and they love Irish people. Flemish women are jaw droppingly gorgeous too. Antwerp and Ghent are incredible. Bruges is lovely but a bit dull.
Brussels is grand. Nothing too special. Can be dull at times and some areas can be rough but no more than any city.


Wallonia is pretty ****e to be honest. Few speak English so it can be tough if you've no French. Cities are fairly run down too (Namur is nice though)
Charleroi and Liege; avoid/avoid/avoid.

mike kelly

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Flemish women are jaw droppingly gorgeous too.

never a truer word spoken

Lockstep

Aye it's fantastic.

Generalisation here but the ones over here love Irish lads; aside from the accent they're happy to bullsh!t away, they claim Flemish lads are too reserved which is a pain in the hole.

However, relationship cultures seem big over here. They take things alot moreseriously than back home. And I mean serious.

sarahf383

Hey there. I'm Irish and in April im supposed to be moving to lueven with my boyfriend. Im really hesitant and nervous about going, Is it hard to find work? As I don't speak any other language than English and whats the cost of living like?

sarahf383

Hey there. I'm Irish and in April im supposed to be moving to lueven with my boyfriend. Im really hesitant and nervous about going, Is it hard to find work? As I don't speak any other language than English and whats the cost of living like?

seachto7

Lockstep wrote: »

Aye it's fantastic.

Generalisation here but the ones over here love Irish lads; aside from the accent they're happy to bullsh!t away, they claim Flemish lads are too reserved which is a pain in the hole.

However, relationship cultures seem big over here. They take things alot moreseriously than back home. And I mean serious.

Shur how bad if you are with a hot Flemish lady! What's the problem?

meliselis

Glad to hear you irish lads love the Flemish ladies

Asmooh

anyone of you irish people speaking Dutch or flemish?

Asmooh

sarahf383 wrote: »

Hey there. I'm Irish and in April im supposed to be moving to lueven with my boyfriend. Im really hesitant and nervous about going, Is it hard to find work? As I don't speak any other language than English and whats the cost of living like?

Compare to Ireland its like 30% of it?

meliselis

Belgium is very expensive to be honest. Finding a job is hard...
as for the language, most of us speak English so that won't be a problem

Asmooh

meliselis wrote: »

Belgium is very expensive to be honest. Finding a job is hard...
as for the language, most of us speak English so that won't be a problem

No its not... its actually very cheap compare to Ireland.
Houses are cheaper, less tax compare to The Netherlands.
Also food and everything is cheaper.

Finding a job is easy, if you speak dutch or french, it doesnt matter if they speak english.
Knowing the country's language is a must if you want a job, you should at least understand.

My ex GF is Swedish, she did understand Dutch but she coulnd get a job in The Netherlands because she did not speak Dutch very well and also understanding not perfect and they put it on "in case of"