Flanders' "je ne sais quoi"

Although a lot is said in the media about Flemish people hating on the French-speaking community and feeling the need for autonomy, a lot of Flemish people will tell you that they still want to be part of Belgium and that they have French-speaking friends. A lot of them also speak a very good French and works in Brussels. Also, Flemish dialects are full of French influences, even in every day conversations. The opposite is also true, because French-speakers tend to use Flemish words as well.

Some common Belgian lexicon (be-fr, be-nl, be-fr/nl):

• Voilà : Here it is, there you go...
• Salut - Salu(utjes): Goodbye (or hi)
• Allez: 1) Okay, like, kind of... 2) Come on!
• Ça va?: Are you okay? How are you?
• Kot: Student accommodation
• Busé - Gebuisd: Getting low results at school
• À volonté: As much as you want (in a restaurant)
• Merci(kes): Thank you
• Bon: Well...
• Bourgmestre - Burgemeester: Mayor
• Friture - Frituur: Shop where Belgian (!) fries are sold

However, the last century saw a lot of big changes in the countries that altered the perceptions of the different communities. First of all, Belgium used to be officially monolingual in French. The reason was that most of the rich families in Wallonia and Flanders spoke French, although the rest of them spoke dialects of Flemish and Walloon (a cousin-language of French). Also, Wallonia was the wealthiest part of Belgium at first, due to a massive industrialization and mining (that's why you will find a lot of Italian miners' offspring in Wallonia, including Prime Minister Elio di Rupo!). Afterwards, this industry faded away and unemployment rose up in Wallonia, while Flanders was becoming more and more wealthy. 

Nowadays, Dutch is officially used and mastered by (almost) all Flemish people and their area is much richer than Wallonia. Therefore, a lot of them want more autonomy to have their own tax system, so that they won't pay for the poor... I also have to mention that Brussels was populated by a lot of rich families from Flanders and Wallonia who spoke French only and a lot of Walloons found a job there and were there to stay. This is why Brussels is stuck in the middle of Flanders but most people only speak French.

This odd history has left a lot of stereotypes in the country. In caricatures, the Walloons are seen by Flemish people are stupid, lazy workers, who like to go on strike and who are socialist, just to make Flemish people pay for them. The other stereotype is that Walloons can't speak a foreign language properly (which is often true, unfortunately, except when you get educated in Linguistics haha). The Flemish may see Brussels as a place full of Walloons and foreign immigrants, and not as enjoyable as, say, Ghent or Bruges...