No French, Please! We're Flemish.

In Merchtem, in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, school pupils will no longer be allowed to practice their French.

It does bring up memories of Franco's Spain, where Catalan and other regional languages were forbidden.

The sad thing is that it seems to be a decision taken with no research into what it means. The goal, to make the pupils speak better Dutch, is of course laudable. The means, however, are idiotic.

To start with it is impossible to keep this rule up. Pupils who chat with each other in the corridors, where no one can hear them, will go on speaking French, when they find that more convenient. And the fact that they know they are breaking the rules, will make them lose respect for rules in general.

According to the article, parents will be allowed to use interpreters during parent's meetings. What that means, I cannot tell. Does that mean that a teacher, who is perfectly able to speak French, will talk Flemish to an interpreter, who will translate what was said to French? The parents will answer in French, and in spite of the fact that the teacher already understands it perfectly, the interpreter will bust in and translate it to Flemish.

In spite of this, I guess there is something more behind it, than what the article mentions. It is fair to assume that such a silly rule would not have been implemented, unless there had been a reason for it. It is possible that there is a clique of French pupils, who use French not only to communicate, but also to consciously annoy teachers and other pupils, who have a less than perfect understanding of it.

In that case, one can see that the school wants to do something about it. However, it is difficult to see why they chose to do this.