School and Place to live

Hello and welcome on our website,

Like all parents, you are concerned with the well-being of your children.  The linguistic question is classic and has already been commented on many times.  Children learn new languages ​​without any difficulty.  They will even learn French faster than you.  Put them in a public school.  I have a 15 year old daughter who speaks French / Portuguese / English.  And a 5 year old son who speaks French / Portuguese.

Thank you very much for your quick reply.
What about the best place to live? Where do you suggest for renting a house?

Other than that you would have to take the train to and from work, I recommend the city of Liège and its region.  It is purely French-speaking but with a less condescending spirit than in the capital and its region.

And less expensive...

http://www.visitezliege.be/en

For Leuven the nearest city with a variety of choices in school and social life is Brussel. Look in the east side of the city so can get quicker to Leuven (+- 20min by car).
Tervuren, Woluwé Saint Lambert, Woluwé Saint Pierre or even Zaventem are communes (district/region) with a good quality of life and a multiculturel community making the adaptation period smoother. Good Luck!

kilbel wrote:

For Leuven the nearest city with a variety of choices in school and social life is Brussel. Look in the east side of the city so can get quicker to Leuven (+- 20min by car).
Tervuren, Woluwé Saint Lambert, Woluwé Saint Pierre or even Zaventem are communes (district/region) with a good quality of life and a multiculturel community making the adaptation period smoother. Good Luck!

Hi,

It's not a bad idea. But all the areas that you propose are a bit expensive. And when you emigrate abroad, it is better to immerse yourself completely rather than trying to get closer to your community because you increase the risk of ghettoizing yourself.

Hi Alejandro,

Leuven, the city, is great to live. But perhaps you are looking more for a town around Leuven, especially because you have kids? In the towns you find bigger houses, with a garden and prices are most of the times lower than in the city.

A lot of children of expats go to national schools, they pick up the language very fast.

***

Take care!

You don't consider international schools because they are expensives, but in non-French speaking country, the French schools are also expensives and only French people can get fees paid by their company. So, even if French is more "useful" than Dutch, think that you should pay French schools abroad

Hi Alejandro,

We have a 7-year boy, who was initially bilingual in English and Portuguese prior to our move to Brussels. Our son was born in London and we speak both languages at home. When we moved to Brussels from London over two years ago, we enrolled our son in a Flemish-speaking school. It proved too difficult linguistically and in the end we managed to enrol him at a very good French Catholic public school, which we are very happy with. And despite all the disruption caused by the pandemic, our son is doing very well, and now having a good command of the three languages.
If I were you, I would live in Brussels and commute to Leuven, where you have a greater selection of French-speaking schools, as Leuven is in Flanders and my guess that all state schools the language of teaching is Dutch/Flemish. Leuven is practically a suburb of Brussels, just over 30 minutes on the train. The downside would be the cost of the seasonal ticket, which I don't know how much it is.
Brussels is a very international city and has large expat communities from southern Europe and South America. It is a very pleasant to live here. We live in leafy Uccle, where you would find a good selection of public French schools.

Best of luck.
Magnus