I have been living for 4 months now in Brussels - and all my friends are foreigners!!! Why is it so hard to make Belgian friends? Sometimes I get the impression that they prefer to stay amongst themselves. This is not really what I expected when I came here.
yeah its hard to make friends here im living i holland den haag its only 4 hours to belgium ive been here for one year and i only have foreigners friends from my own counry in south america .
I am in Bel. since 2002 and i have experienced all kind of negative reactions from Belgians. I cannot name one single flemish or wallon friend, only foreigners.I learned Dutch, but that diddn`t change anything.
Hi, most of my friends are foreigners, I live Ghent and mostly met them at foreign clubs/shops or at courses, or amongst neighbours. I don't use to go out anymore but most of them still gladly visit me and vice versa. I think it has made me rich, learning other values, food, music... in short, culture. Wish you succes, however maybe age makes difference, and so one generation might be less interested than the other. Plus nowadays many are hiding behind their PC screen... difficult!
I live in Gent and I must say that it's true that it's difficult to meet people. But you can always try to follow some course, take a dancing class or something similar. I'm sure you will meet people soon.
Of course, it does help if you speak Flemish or French
I have a Chinese girlfriend living in the UK and we're planning for living together. And when she was here and we were joining some social activities, this isolated treatment was not the case.
I am 100% native and i want to make foreign friends. I think what you experience it rather normal because Belgians usually network through hobbys and sports and are participating in a wide range of clubs from music clubs to book clubs and other sorts of hobby clubs. They have their own life with a strong family life so they dont need really foreigners. I used to life for four years abroad in Hungary and i experience just the same, foreigners have time because they are usually without any family or hobby obligations in their host country.
Anyway i just misssssssss very much the foreign international life so i am happy to go with any foreigner for a drink in Brussels,
cheers,
Bart (a typical belgian name by the way)contact me on
I'm from South Africa and have dropped my whole life and moved here with my partner who got a job here. I don't know anyone yet and would like to make some friends. I'm going to start a Dutch course soon but am exploring all options so if anyone is nearby and would like to go for a drink drop me a mail at .
So far I've observed that some locals are not open to public greetings and informal chit-chat like South Africans. Some seem to think it is okay to stare at you without smiling or greeting which I find a little scary.
I am possibly moving to Belgium start of next year and now I am almost scared off by the comments! Has anyone found it difficult to get a job?? If Belgians are not a particularly friendly bunch, does that mean they are hesitant to hire foreigners? Especially those who dont speak flemish/french?
Hi, Its true that Belgians are not very open to new people, but don't worry this has nothing to do with racist issues, they are really closed even to new Belgian people. What I mean by this is that is your are at a party for exaple, they will stick to the group of people they know, and not be willing to talk to people they've never seen before.
However, there is something good....with time and in a common environment (courses, sports, etc) it is possible to develop a nice friendship, and these friends there will be not many but they will be the best your can find.
I live one year and 3 months here. I studied a master degree (just finished in July) and I got on well with all my classmates, but specially I met my 3 best friends.
Regarding the "job" question, it is true that it will be difficult. My Belgian classmates got a job after sending 4 to 5 application letters, but it took me more than 25 applications to find a job, specially because I don't speak the french and my dutch is still pretty basic. But there are companies where foreigners are accepted. At the end I had 2 job offers to choose from, and now I'm happily working with an indefinite contract.
good luck
