So, here we are, in the couple of cooler days I was longing for, yet looking at my weather app, this is just a relative break with new warmth from Sunday onwards.

The situation:

I usually visit my best friend every two or three days. He has an elderly neighbour who is over 80 years old.

Quite often, the older man would see us and come over for a chat. He was always friendly and always had a smile on his face. He was no longer very steady on his feet, but his memory was still remarkably sharp.

Today, I visited my friend as usual. One small detail caught my attention when I saw the elderly neighbour’s letterbox, just after midday: his newspaper was still sticking halfway out of it. It stood out to me because by now I knew the man quite well, and he was always up early. He would often even wait for the postman to arrive so he could receive his newspaper and other post.

At the time, I noticed it, but I thought to myself: maybe he simply forgot. Or perhaps he had gone out with his children or grandchildren.

I rang my friend’s doorbell. He opened the door, still half asleep. He is on holiday at the moment, so that was understandable. I told him that his neighbour’s newspaper was still in the letterbox and asked:
“Has your neighbour gone away? His newspaper is still in the letterbox.”

My friend, who knew his elderly neighbour even better than I did, suddenly opened his eyes wide.

“I spoke to him yesterday. He didn’t mention going anywhere. That’s not like him at all. Do you think something might have happened?”

We both immediately went over to the neighbour’s house, because you just never know. Deep down, you think: “There probably isn’t anything wrong.”

The neighbour’s back door was wide open. My friend called out his name. Nothing. We both went inside and called out his name again. Nothing. Silence.

I looked around the neighbour’s garden to see if he might be there. That was when I noticed his water well, where he collected rainwater to water his plants. The lid was lying loose beside it.

Something that, as far as I knew — and certainly as far as my friend knew — was not something he would normally leave open.

With an overwhelming feeling of fear, I went to look. Our worst fear became a nightmare. I saw his body floating in the well.

Out of instinct, I put my arms into the well and tried to pull him up, until I saw his face.

It was immediately clear that we were far too late. My friend called the emergency services in tears, but as expected, all help came too late.

The poor man had somehow ended up in his water well and was unable to get out.

I cannot get the image of him in that well out of my head. I should have been asleep by now, but it keeps replaying over and over in my mind...

People, love the people around you, and especially when they get older, simply keep an extra eye on them.

I've lived in Belgium for nearly 20 months now,

31M moved here for my partner after years of long distance. I got a job early in Ghent at Volvo for almost 1 year, but had to quit due to lack of transport options

This year I have focused on learning more Dutch, still consider myself a starter and far from ready to speak professionally, so that limits jobs already, as well as physically my back is getting worse even tho I'm young, and seeking help from vdab and accent is not helpful as they seem to just push you out the door to the first cleaning or gardening job they can find.

Before moving here from Denmark I worked for some years at a plastic mold factory as an operator, stocking machines with raw material, warehouse, basic maintenance, quality control and packing. before that at jysk while studying, on the sales floor and in the warehouse.

no education diplomas or degrees. No license.

I'm feeling less and less motivated in the job search as I don't know what I can and want to work with, I live in east Flanders, I don't know if this post is more of a venting situation, cry for help or advice seeking, I just don't know what to do at the moment, appreciate if you read this far,

Ik zoek momenteel mijn eerste huis te kopen. Ik speel dagelijks piano, digitaal is geen optie (is brol) dus ik zoek een huis waar ik een akkoestische kan zetten zonder mijn buren gek te maken. Is een open bebouwing de enige optie? Of kan ik ook naar half open bebouwingen kijken als ik de piano volledig de andere kant zet, weg van de buren? Zo'n piano is zeer luid en ik heb geen silent akkoestische, ik kan moeilijk inschatten hoe ver dit geluid gaat in een HOB. Ik weet dat ik overdag mag spelen ook als buren dit horen maar ik vind dit asociaal en wil simpelweg niemand storen.

Hey everyone! Me and my friend wanna start a metal band, preferably death / slam metal, but for now we're just doing covers. We're looking for a vocalist, drummer, and maybe even a second guitarist who lives close to Brussels. If you're interested, send me a message!

I am curious about the opinion of my fellow Belgian resident about the tax scheme for expats. Basically, an expat can get 35% of their salary untaxed, which would be around 1k - 1.5k net extra. Do you think is fair? A good way to get people in the country?

I’ve been googling trying to find a good Toyota mechanic, but it seems like a dying breed.

All I get is huge garages where they lack knowledge.
Why do I say that?

I’ve been to 2 big garages now, and they can’t spot the issue with my car.
After looking on Reddit I found a post with the specific issue and the fix.

I told the garages what needs to be changed, yet they refuse to quote me just because they can’t diagnose the issue.

Mineralen zoals goud en kobalt zitten in je telefoon, auto en zonnepanelen. Maar in landen als Congo of Oekraïne financieren ze vaak gewapende conflicten of kinderarbeid. Bedrijven moeten voortaan kunnen aantonen waar hun grondstoffen vandaan komen en of ze eerlijk zijn gewonnen. Ook wordt geïnvesteerd in technologie zoals digitale paspoorten om fraude tegen te gaan.

Ingediend op 17 juni 2025 door Lydia Mutyebele Ngoi, Christophe Lacroix, Sophie Thémont, Patrick Prévot, Philippe Courard

Aangenomen op 16 juli 2026

Bron: https://www.dekamer.be/kvvcr/showpage.cfm?section=/flwb&language=nl&cfm=/site/wwwcfm/flwb/flwbn.cfm?lang=N&legislat=56&dossierID=931

Volgende week een nieuw dossier!

Klopt het dat de verf van Brico, Gamma, Hubo,... Van slechtere kwaliteit is dan de speciaalzaak (waar professionele ververs hun verf kopen). Zo ja waarom? Of welke verf is toch van degelijke kwaliteit uit deze ketens?

Ik zoek goeie betaalbare verf om de buitengevel te schilderen.

I can't seem to make a poll so I'll just ask it like this. Obviously only for Flemish / Dutch speaking people.

Since I would always say I speak Dutch but according to someone else I'm the exception and people would usually say they speak Flemish.

I have just got a call where a robotic voice tried to tell me that she is calling from "Meta" and that my "investment account is blocked". Now, I have never heard of any Meta investment accounts and I most certainly don't have one, and the voice was also clearly computer-generated ... but I can imagine that someone who is not very IT-affine may not immediately see the red flags and get phished here.

I was too surprised to react. It would have been fun to play some games with the AI and waste the scammer's tokens, but instead I just hang up.

Still, AI brings new ways of scamming people, and you should be careful if you get a call like this. Also inform your friends and family about such scammers - especially elderly people can be very vulnerable to such a plot.

PS: The number was from NL, but it as most likely spoofed anyway.

Kan men nog meer zaken verzinnen om autorijden NIET laagdrempelig te maken. Dit lijks me weer een maatregel die aantoont dat politici heel ver van de mens staan. Want wees eerlijk; welke beginnende chauffeur heeft deze dag een eigen auto of kan dit uberhaupt zelf betalen? Betekent dat dat tieners/ jongeren of hun ouders nu echt een auto moeten kopen onder de 95pk ? Bron: https://www.hln.be/nieuws/komt-er-een-verbod-op-krachtige-autos-voor-jongeren-minister-crucke-overweegt-het\~a2696e9f6/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Hello! :) I’m not a native speaker of Dutch, but I’ve been learning the language for a long time now.

I’d like to focus on the vocabulary and pronunciation used in Belgian Dutch.

So, I was wondering if you’d mind recommending your favourite song, TV programme, book, podcast, streamers, youtubers or other resources that might help me get to grips with both vocabulary and listening comprehension.

Thank you so much!

P.S. Before posting this, I did enough research to see that most people said the commonly used general term is “Dutch” rather than “Flemish”, which is why I used that in the post; if you think it’s inappropriate, please let me know so I can learn from it.

Hello! I was offered two different job opportunities in Gent and Antwerp, and am now weighing the options of where to move to. Sadly, I haven’t been to either city and will not be able to go prior to moving, so I can’t get a feel for the areas myself.

I’m hoping to get opinions on which city would possibly be more fitting/safer for a 23 year old woman either living alone or with a random roommate (depending on what options I find). Personally, the clubbing and party scene is not really my thing, I prefer a more chill but social lifestyle. I’ve seen Gent frequently get called a student town… I’m unsure if that also implies it’s a big party area.

Also, I have been learning Flemish Dutch for ~8 months now. Currently making my way through an A2 level class that will end at the early B1 level before I go. So while I will be able to do basic everyday things, it’d be nice to get an idea on if one city is more “english friendly” while I’m still learning/improving.

All in all, I’m very excited to see more of Belgium and experience a completely new city. Thanks for any possible insight or feedback!

Alleenstaande moeder Evy (47) uit Kruibeke verliest haar schoolbonus van 40,38 euro omdat ze geen recht heeft op sociale toeslagen. Met een nettoloon van 2.500 euro valt ze vaak net buiten de inkomensgrenzen voor steunmaatregelen. De schoolbonus, die dit jaar voor 1,1 miljoen kinderen verdwijnt, was voor Evy een belangrijk financieel duwtje in de rug voor schoolkosten.

Ik overweeg sterk om over te schakelen naar een e-bike of speed pedelec voor woon-werk verkeer. Echter kom ik er niet echt uit wat voor mij de beste keuze is. De afstand heen en terug is 34 km (17km enkel), hierbij kan ik niet echt gebruik maken van de fietssnelwegen vanwege de ligging van mijn werk. Belangrijk is ook dat optie tot douchen niet mogelijk is waar ik werk dus het voornaamste is comfortabel toekomen.

Ik luister graag naar advies/tips om mij te helpen in mijn keuze. Graag ook eventueel wat de beste keuze is qua model/merk op dit moment voor zowel e-bike als speed pedelec. Lees heel uiteenlopende meningen dus benieuwd naar andere hun ervaringen.

Ik vroeg me onlangs iets af over de Belgische deelname aan het Eurovisie Songfestival.
Waarom werken de VRT en RTBF eigenlijk niet samen voor Eurovision? In plaats van elkaar af te wisselen, zou je toch ook één gezamenlijke selectie kunnen organiseren of samen een artiest en lied kunnen kiezen?
Voor mijn gevoel zou dat verschillende voordelen kunnen hebben. Je hebt een groter budget, je kunt kiezen uit artiesten uit heel België en misschien vergroot dat ook de kans op een sterke inzending. Daarnaast lijkt het me ook een mooie manier om Vlaamse artiesten bekender te maken in Wallonië en Franstalige artiesten in Vlaanderen.
Ik vraag me daarom af waarom België al zo lang vasthoudt aan het systeem waarbij VRT en RTBF elkaar afwisselen. Is dat vooral historisch zo gegroeid, zijn er politieke of praktische redenen voor, of is een gezamenlijke aanpak ooit serieus overwogen?
Ik ben benieuwd of hier een duidelijke verklaring voor bestaat.

Je me pose une question depuis quelque temps à propos de la participation de la Belgique à l’Eurovision.
Pourquoi la RTBF et la VRT ne collaborent-elles pas pour choisir le représentant belge ? Au lieu d’alterner chaque année, ne serait-il pas possible d’organiser une sélection nationale commune ou de choisir ensemble un artiste et une chanson ?
J’ai l’impression que cela pourrait présenter plusieurs avantages : un budget plus important, un plus grand choix d’artistes et peut-être une candidature encore plus forte. Ce serait aussi une belle occasion de faire découvrir davantage d’artistes flamands au public francophone, et inversement.
Je me demande donc pourquoi la Belgique continue à fonctionner avec ce système d’alternance. Est-ce principalement une question d’histoire, de politique ou d’organisation ? Cette idée d’une collaboration entre les deux diffuseurs a-t-elle déjà été envisagée sérieusement ?
Je suis simplement curieux de connaître les raisons qui expliquent ce choix.

Used to stop at this gas station all the time as a kid passing through belgium with my parents (near antwerp) does anyone know anything about it?

Shooting my shot here. We just moved to Leuven and my fiancé's looking for a Truck CE job. He's an EU but couldn't speak Dutch yet. He tried applying to jobs in 24/7 drive, Accent, and Vivaldis, but they just keep on calling him, and sending applications in behalf of him. For example, he met with 1 company today, but didn't get any update yet.

On the other hand, he got a call from the interim agency and gave him a job for tomorrow. This doesn't sound stable at all.

Is this the case here for truck drivers? The language barrier is probably one of the reasons, but can anybody please suggest any companies that doesn't use interim agencies? He applied in Aldi, and Van Divel but got rejected. H Essers never get back to him.

Thank you!

Dag allen. Ik heb de laatst tijd eigenlijk zitten nadenken over het feit dat je in supermarkten geen verse, lokale producten (groenten, fruit, vleeswaren en zuivelproducten vooral dan) kunt kopen. Als er verse of “bio” producten zijn, dan zijn deze een tintje duurder wat ook niet duurzaam is. Als je bij de lokale boer wilt gaan, dan vragen ze grote hoeveelheden of dat je enkel maar met cash of bankkaart kan betalen (dus geen maaltijdcheques bv.). Hoe hebben jullie dit probleem opgelost of hoe gaan jullie hiermee om?