So you know about Belgian schools? May I ask how you know that? Or is there something I don't know about foreigners and their knowledge of Belgium?

 

It is true what you said though, there are 4 languages commonly spoken here, the most important one being Dutch, then French. That requires good education on the face of languages. I myself can proudly say my English is pretty good, so is my French and I'm a native speaker od Dutch. My German isn't bad either. I studied Latin and classical Greek in high school, but I of course don't speak those languages, I can barely fluently read them.

 

And the Belgian high schools and universities are known for their superior math teaching qualities. We've been proclaimed to have the best math education in the world I've heard.

 

 

 

About our ports: the port of Antwerp is the 9th biggest one in the world I believe, bigger than the one of NY, San Francisco, but not quite as big as the ones of LA or of course Rotterdam or Singapore.

 

 

 

edit: a little infoabout the port of Antwerp.

 

Belgium also used to be the leading trade centre in Europe from the 11th century till the 16th century, ending in 1585 when Antwerp, the biggest city in Europe at the time, fell to the Spanish.

 

Bruges, still known as the 'Venice from the North', was the whealthiest city in the middle ages, as it held the port where the English came to sell their cloth and wool, and purchased their luxury goods and metal, the Italians offered their financial services there, teaching us about banking and finance (the stock market was invented here), the French and the Germans visited Bruges to purchase wares the Italians had bought in the Levant (currently the Middle-East) and Asia.

 

After the wars with France, famine, the Plague, several civil wars, and the fact that the English took over the cloth market from us, the nobility and merchants of Bruges fled to Antwerp, which then became the trade centre and the centre of all naval merchant activities.

 

 

 

Its central place in Europe is the reason why the port is still one of the leading ports. I believe they claim to be the 4th most important port in the world, the second in Europe, after Rotterdam.

 

Its surface is more than 14.000 ha (=70sq kilometres) (and the surface of the Rotterdam port: 10500 ha), 3 times as big as the city itself and Antwerp is Belgium's second largest city.

 

 

 

Oh, yet another edit:

 

this is a list of the busiest ports, I couldn't find one ordered by the asset worth of the ports, because that's where Antwerp claims to be 4th.

 

1 Singapore

 

2 Hong Kong, China

 

3 Kaohsiung, Taiwan

 

4 Rotterdam, Netherlands

 

5 Pusan, South Korea

 

6 Long Beach, US

 

7 Hamburg, Germany

 

8 Antwerp, Belgium

 

9 Los Angeles, US

 

10 Shanghai, China

Nice info. Yea, Rotterdam is one of the ports I was thinking of. Well if I become a Naval Architect I would work in a firm, not a port, but I'd like to work for a company near a port, so I can see the finished product without traveling. And I know for a fact Rotterdam is a major cruise ship port, next to Southampton.

 

 

 

Oh, and for where I learned that. First on TV, but I don't believe everything I hear on TV, so I looked it up on the internet via Wikipedia and trustworthy sites.

 

 

 

I also am planning to learn Dutch in college. I already can speak some basic phrases, and know some of the basic grammar, just not anything to do with irregular verbs.

I'm amazed and glad that you put so much effort in learning our language!

 

Als ik je zeg dat in Belgische en Nederlandse internationale bedrijven voornamelijk Engels wordt gesproken, hoop ik je niet te demotiveren :)

 

 

 

So how are you finding Dutch? Is it easy to learn for a native English person? Because they're very realted languages.

I'm amazed and glad that you put so much effort in learning our language!

 

Als ik je zeg dat in Belgische en Nederlandse internationale bedrijven voornamelijk Engels wordt gesproken, hoop ik je niet te demotiveren :)

 

 

 

So how are you finding Dutch? Is it easy to learn for a native English person? Because they're very realted languages.

 

 

 

I'm only using phrase books bought at book stores to learn some things, just so I don't walk blind into that class a couple years from now.

 

 

 

But yeah, I find it pretty easy, well at least regular verbs, and replacing 'en' with 't' and the other one, I forgot. And then the different conjugations of I, You, Him/Her, Them, is pretty easy, except that they're are several different forms. But irregular verbs in Dutch scare me :? , then again, I have never been good at irregular verbs.

 

 

 

So yeah, very basic vocabulary. :P

Why switch. Just to be like everyone else.. I don't think so.. We have OUR OWN system. Yes metric is easier, but that means switching all speedometers, and signs, and thermometers, etc. A big hassel. And haven't any of you learned how to convert, you know like 2.54 cm in an inch. There is no solid reason to switch. Let me guess, next they will be suggesting the Euro, or for the Americas, the Amero

America is a hopeless cause; those idiots have to be special in everything they do, like not using the WAY better metric system, and what the hells with switching up "football" and "soccer"? And for god sakes, those morons were so desperate to be special and cool that they resorted to declaring themselves the only original thing they could think of, the Fat nation!

 

 

 

Oh, and ya, I'm an American :P .

 

It's the worthless people like you who should just shut down their computer and throw it out of a second story window. I'm not joking. It's bad enough that people can't get over the fact that we don't use the metric system. It doesn't make us stupid. We gave it a shot a while back and that shot failed. End of story. There's no point in dwelling on the fact that we won't switch over to the Godly metric system. I'm pretty sure there are more important things to whine about. Anyway, whether or not you are American, it's still stupid to call the country stupid. We call football, soccer because it's a different language. You don't see me asking every German person why they call pens, kugelschreibers. You call us idiots? I'm not an idiot. The post you made better defines you as the idiot. You could've made your point without insulting this country. We really aren't that bad. If you'd take some time to get out some instead of spending it all on you friggin computer, you'd realize that. Fat? No. That's another stereotypical analyzation. Sure, we have a lot of overweight and obese people, but that doesn't mean that all of us are 400 pound (yes pound) whales that eat every thing we see. The thing about your post is that it directly insults almost 300 million people. I assure you, not all of us are the fat, ignorant, morons that you speak of. For you to come into a topic that is pointless enough as it is and say something even more idiotic than what the topic is about, is beyond me. I mean this literally: Get a life.

I like our way better. It's bad enough getting rid of Pluto, and then changing it to metric. I like how 0 is cold, and 100 is hot. Simple.

America is a hopeless cause; those idiots have to be special in everything they do, like not using the WAY better metric system, and what the hells with switching up "football" and "soccer"? And for god sakes, those morons were so desperate to be special and cool that they resorted to declaring themselves the only original thing they could think of, the Fat nation!

 

 

 

Oh, and ya, I'm an American :P .

 

[Overly long flame post]

 

Okay, I'm sorry that I didn't put [/sarcasm] tags or [/exaggeration] tags around my post, I thought it was obvious that it was a joke. I know that all of America isn't fat, of course it isn't (actually, there's only maybe one or two kids at my school that could be considered obese). Yes, we couldn't make the switch, and probably won't be able to for a long time, but I think most can agree that the metric system is more or less better. And that "football"- "soccer" thing was just a random thing I threw in, it just really bothers me that we did that lol :P . Nontheless, it can't be related in the same way that it is to pens, if you look through other languages the term "soccer" is usually spelled in a way similiar to "football" (futbol, etc) and vice versa. It's just bothered me a lot for a long time :lol: .

 

 

 

Don't take this post as me kneeling down to your glory, I basically want to flame the hell out of you right now. Thankfully I (and hopefully most other people on this forum) actually am mature enough to end this flame war before it starts.

 

 

 

Unnecessary defense garners suspicion.

America is a hopeless cause; those idiots have to be special in everything they do, like not using the WAY better metric system, and what the hells with switching up "football" and "soccer"? And for god sakes, those morons were so desperate to be special and cool that they resorted to declaring themselves the only original thing they could think of, the Fat nation!

 

 

 

Oh, and ya, I'm an American :P .

 

[Overly long flame post]

 

Okay, I'm sorry that I didn't put [/sarcasm] tags or [/exaggeration] tags around my post, I thought it was obvious that it was a joke. I know that all of America isn't fat, of course it isn't (actually, there's only maybe one or two kids at my school that could be considered obese). Yes, we couldn't make the switch, and probably won't be able to for a long time, but I think most can agree that the metric system is more or less better. And that "football"- "soccer" thing was just a random thing I threw in, it just really bothers me that we did that lol :P . Nontheless, it can't be related in the same way that it is to pens, if you look through other languages the term "soccer" is usually spelled in a way similiar to "football" (futbol, etc) and vice versa. It's just bothered me a lot for a long time :lol: .

 

 

 

Don't take this post as me kneeling down to your glory, I basically want to flame the hell out of you right now. Thankfully I (and hopefully most other people on this forum) actually am mature enough to end this flame war before it starts.

 

 

 

Unnecessary defense garners suspicion.

 

Alright, I know I shouldn't do this. I should just ignore everything you said and not feed the flames. I'm not immature but right now, I'm ticked. Whether you were joking or not, it was still uncalled for. It was still insulting, to me at least. Just because your joking, does not mean what you said was okay.

If america switches to the metric system everyone else has to drive on the right side of the road \

Actually, here's an apparently little known fact:

 

 

 

America has officially been using the metric system for about 40 years or so. However, it would cost way too much to change every piece of machinery to metric system now. Also, the metric system is being gradually introduced into schools.

Actually, here's an apparently little known fact:

 

 

 

America has officially been using the metric system for about 40 years or so. However, it would cost way too much to change every piece of machinery to metric system now. Also, the metric system is being gradually introduced into schools.

 

Yes, we've been using it for a while but not for much. The only thing we use the metric system for, fully, is science. That's also the only place that it's being introduced to in school. I don't forsee America ever using the metric system for travel and everyday measurements. The only reason we use it for science is because it's actually important for our scientists to be using the same units of measure as scientists all over the world. For everything else, it doesn't matter.

If america switches to the metric system everyone else has to drive on the right side of the road \

 

 

 

Say what? :? All of Europe, except Britain, drives on our side of the road, and they use metric. -.-

If america switches to the metric system everyone else has to drive on the right side of the road \

 

:-s

 

 

 

You sure know your world.

America is the best country ever.

 

 

 

How many counties have you lived in? Honestly

 

 

 

Continued: Here in britain we drive on the left, being a right hand drive car. Because britain is not attached to any other countries it does not prove to much of a problem. I will now say that it metric and imperial make no difference on which side of the road to use.

 

 

 

We still use pints for milk, pounds and ounces.

 

 

 

Britain is pretty much using both, the older people find it harder to convert, im sure (in fact i'm certain) that america, a much, much, much bigger country would suffer the same problems.

 

 

 

Period

 

 

 

~Parker

America is the best country ever.

 

 

 

How many counties have you lived in? Honestly

 

 

 

 

Have you seen his post count?

 

 

 

 

 

Surely he would have been driven away by now if he kept up that attitude *cough*

 

(Sorry, just had to point this out before another dozen people think he's serious)

I think MPC was serious, but a better way of expressing his feelings would've been:

 

'I wouldn't ever want to live anywhere else than here in the US of A!'

 

 

 

You can't say something's better than something else if it's abouit something as complicated as a country. What standards to use?

We still use pints for milk, pounds and ounces.

 

 

 

Britain is pretty much using both, the older people find it harder to convert, im sure (in fact i'm certain) that america, a much, much, much bigger country would suffer the same problems.

 

 

 

How do you use pounds in Britain?

 

 

 

'How much is this?'

 

'40 pounds'

 

'It doesn't feel like 40 pounds'

 

'No it costs 40 pounds!'

 

'O...'

 

 

 

'How much are you?'

 

'Around 150 pounds'

 

'You think you're worth a 150 pounds, wow...'

 

'No, I weigh 150 pounds!'

 

'O...'

That's why J.K. Rowling invented the Galleon. Although it might be misinterpreted as a gallon :P

The only reason we use it for science is because it's actually important for our scientists to be using the same units of measure as scientists all over the world. For everything else, it doesn't matter.

 

 

 

Only partially correct. Scientists don't use exclusively metric, they use base units. There are only 7 different base units, Length (metres), Time,(seconds), mass (kg) current (Ampere), thermodynamic temperature (Kelvin), amount of material (Moles) and luminosity intensity (candela). As you can see, Kelvin replaces the more commonly known Celsius. All of these with the exception of metres have a distinct definition, and hence other units such as Joules, Farads, becquerels and the like are derived from these. The reason you dont use feet in place of metres, or punds instead of Kg, is that to do this would mean that you have to alter the definitions of the other base units for the equations to work. This would be an absurd thing to do, and a right pain in the rear, so Yanks use the standard scintific base units.

 

 

 

Little bit of useless info for yer all! I'm not going to get drawn into the whole 'Americans are stupid', ''No they're not!' thing, but I have to say this; Any Brit who is arguing that the Americans are non conformists, remember who is one of the only countries in the world to drive on the left? Also the only other countries that drive on the left, do so because they are/were British Colonies...

 

Little bit of useless info for yer all! I'm not going to get drawn into the whole 'Americans are stupid', ''No they're not!' thing, but I have to say this; Any Brit who is arguing that the Americans are non conformists, remember who is one of the only countries in the world to drive on the left? Also the only other countries that drive on the left, do so because they are/were British Colonies...

 

 

 

Well, it makes sense! If they ever have a hankering to joust they can just stick the pole out the window :)