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Train conductor’s bilingual morning greeting raises hackles in Belgium (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The country’s language watchdog is investigating after a Dutch-speaking commuter protested a conductor’s use of “bonjour” – French for “good morning” – to welcome him onboard during a rush-hour train from Mechelen, in Flanders, to the capital, Brussels, in October.

Writing on Facebook, Ilyass Alba, the French-speaking conductor, said that on the day in question he greeted passengers entering his carriage with a resounding “goeiemorgen, bonjour”.

The use of both the Dutch and French greetings was not good enough for one Dutch-speaking passenger, who told him off, saying: “We’re not in Brussels yet, you have to use Dutch only!”

The passenger was technically right, as under Belgium’s complex language rules conductors should in theory use both languages only in Brussels and a few other bilingual regions.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

How sad one's inner monologue must be to take issue with "good morning". If the conductor started praising Jesus or Allah he'd have a strong case, but "good morning"? Wow.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

It's pretty pathetic for that passenger to complain about it. It's one thing to be refused service in Dutch when buying a ticket or some longer interaction, but this is just sad.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Depending on the context praising Allah would be something I would accept as normal, and I'm a Christian in a mostly Christian country. You give the appropriate praise for your belief and the response is for the responders belief (if one is called for). Good morning should be in every language the conductor knows, though only one from the list in any given announcement. Ideally the conductor spends some time to learn good morning in weird languages just to mix it up ("Xin chào - that is Good morning in Vietnamese") Such phases need to be said all the time, but there is no reason they have to be in any particular language and mixing it up help get people to listen to announcements.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Depending on the context praising Allah would be something I would accept as normal, and I’m a Christian in a mostly Christian country.

Hard nope.

To consider antireligion instead of atheism

“The harm of religion is historically evident whereas the presence or absence of gods is not. Ultimately, the continued existence of religion is predicated on the indoctrination of children and suppression of rational thought. Therefore I am against religion but not necessarily against the idea of gods. For all we know gods are computer scientists and we are in their video game.” —https://www.arscyni.cc/file/antireligion.html