Oh, those funny Belgians.

... but North of the border, in the Netherlands, it's "cool" to mix as much English as possible into your language at work, which actually sounds ridiculous, particularly since lots of people there don't pronounce English particularly well.

On a slightly more serious note (you see, AL, I can be serious too), I do subscribe to the idea that if you emigrate to a country, you should be economically active there and participate in life there in the language of that country, ASAP.

(... and the Flemish have long believed that Flanders is more of a country than Belgium is!)

Oh, and another thing: You should try to actually fire someone in the Netherlands.

As long as the employee doesn't do something illegal, it is a hassle. But temps can still be fired easily (I know.)

My wife is a partner in a midwifery practice in the Netherlands. We have unfortunately had direct experience (more than once) of this type of situation there:
If someone is employed on a fixed-term basis, i.e. a contract for 3 months, a year, etc., it is not legally possible for the employer to terminate that contract before it ends, it is not even possible to write reasons or terms for such termination into a fixed-term agreement. (This means that when you do need to terminate, you either have to come to a mutual agreement (tricky) or take the matter to a type of labour court, where a judge can terminate.)

However, the usual "penalty" that the employer has to pay, is 3 months' salary. This can be increased (or decreased) depending on the respective cases stated before the court. But 3 months is the default case for 1-year fixed term contracts. And then, of course, legal fees.

After 3 fixed-term contracts, the next renewal/extension is automatically deemed to be a permanent contract, whatever you may actually agree and write in it. Firing a permanently-employed person, is more difficult and more costly.

The result? Laws that were designed to protect employees from unfair treatment, now make it very unattractive to employ anybody... And certainly one is very careful about committing long-term to an employee.

I think the auto parts supplier has been fraternizing with Quebecois!

I thought Belgium had 4 official languages? Or 4 that are taught in high schools equally....