Loca Lingo Multicultural

Ok, for the French I can say he will still need some practice, but the way it sounds is definitely there… amazing what tourism can bring… global economy at a street’s level.

Another great Chinese Love song (the romance side of china),… a classic from Teresa Teng who died 10 years ago. You’d better learn this one by heart - after having listened at it, it will buzz several days long in your head… no matter what.
Chose first your version on either Youtube, Metacafé, and then follow the lyrics. The translation is like for the previous one (yuèliang dàibiǎo wǒ de xīn - 月 亮 代 表 我 的 心) more an interpretation (and not a transliteration (title). Enjoy…

So we started with a series of Russian songs, we should now carry on with Chinese ones.
If you plan to start making business in China, there are 2 things you’ll absolutely need to master :
- being able to drink lots of whisky (alcohol in general), and still talk about serious business at the end of the night
- sing, or master a few local karaoke songs.

Hereunder is a (cheezy) classic, known by just a few hundred millions of Chinese… like for the Russian series, chose the version you would enjoy first, and then good luck… Youtube, metacafe and that’s it (Frenchy platforms do not seem interested in Chinese music…).

Unlike Russian, Mandarin Chinese doesn’t have any alphabet (it is a bit more complex, more pictograms/ ideograms…) - it will be pretty user unfriendly to list more than 300000…different words.
Instead, we will put a transliteration in pinyin. If you find the characters hereunder too small, just increase the size of the text with your favorite browser..

Pretty much a “soviet” song (1938)… that entered the local Russian culture.

First, chose your music version, through either Youtube, Dailymotion or Metacafé.
Then, help yourself with the alphabet below, or go straight to the transliteration - try to learn this song with the real alphabet (anyway you’ll need to master it before your journey)… if you want to carry on your immersion, have a look as well to Калинка, Kalinka

Disturbing piece of art from an artist (Mladen Stilinović) born in Belgrade & living in Croatia. What if we swapped the word “artist” by “businessman” ? The message is much deeper though, and makes us questioning about the real definition of “artist”…

Born in Brussels.

I don’t bloody care about the results of my national football team (ok, maybe except woman tennis), but I don’t mind watching a football match - I actually support the Dutch team (thanks to Overmars, so small, so fast).

I usually play low key when mentioning my origins (”born in Brussels”, that’s it, next?). My nationality is not a big deal when exchanging with “foreigners” (funny concept as well btw…).

I don’t know any Belgian folk songs by heart (and actually any songs), even if I enjoy listening at them (like any other songs from any other country). If it is possible to dance on it, I’ll be the first on the floor.

I don’t know my national anthem by heart (just the main chorus ; “le roi, la loi, la liberté” (”the king, the law, the freedom”) - ready to sing for freedom though). The English and the French ones sound great.

Even if I’m a French native speaker, I am fluent in two other languages (and basics in 5 others), I like to speak them all, alternatively, during the day. English is the new Lingua Franca, it’s a tool, a commodity. Dutch is a part of myself.

I prefer the taste of Czech beer (”Krusovice cerny” is my favorite), Belgian chocolate is fine, but I wouldn’t kill for it.

they are nice people everywhere (in Belgium and abroad). They are *ssh*les everywhere as well.

Oh, yes, I forgot,… Belgium has a government now where nearly all important political parties who competed during these elections, have gained official responsibilities (15 ministries from left to Flemish secessionist far-right sides - Mexican Army, here we are…)… opposition ? Funny Belgian concept… “concertation”, you mean.

Identity like national I.D. - if your personality were limited to what is written on this piece of plastic, I don’t think I would spend a sincere time with you (I might politely listen at you though).
Believe it or not, but this is my profession of faith as a Belgian. Keeping my eyes opened to other ways of thinking, learning from them, the world is big enough… up to you if you want to be considered as a cattle. In my country, we sell (specific) weapons (and bloody good ones) to (selected) third world countries (it is just for business of course), but we don’t use them at home… not legal for civilians to own one… we can make more money in other ways.

In the case of some hurdles in Belgium (split of the country, demonstrations). I’ll check what’s going on - if things get serious (which would sincerely surprise me), I sell everything (easy, I have nothing) and will live somewhere else, abroad (making money and surviving is hard enough) in a more peace minded country - maybe I’ll be entitled to get an Australian nationality ? Cool perspective… Little Belgium between little Armenia and Little Italy in Sidney… but don’t ask me to shoot on my neighbor because he speaks another language, and because we did not manage to communicate together. It is not because buying a gun is less time consuming, it brings a clever and long-lasting solution… and anyway I can’t really shoot.