Why is it so hard to make friends in Belgium?

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.

Chris

07 Giugno 2007, 12:03:21 pm

Nuova Risposta

Risposte

they are cold

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 .

chela

19 Settembre 2007, 04:35:41 pm

Why is it so hard to make friends in Belgium?

Hi

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.

gabriela

22 Febbraio 2008, 02:02:25 pm

native belgian with mostly foreign friends!

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!

helga

07 Aprile 2008, 10:31:45 am

Native Belgian in Gent

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

Evelien

17 Aprile 2008, 03:00:05 pm

Chinese

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.

karel

22 Aprile 2008, 08:51:39 pm

I am a Belgian who want to be your friend

Hiiiii Everybody

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

Bart Van Costenoble

28 Maggio 2008, 08:38:21 pm

pro

si alguien juega al pro evolution, 2008 i vive en antwerpen

tete

04 Giugno 2008, 11:35:00 am

Just moved to Bruges

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.

Margie

25 Agosto 2008, 11:10:54 pm

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