Valentina and Alexander

If you read my blog from time to time, you may remember I mentioned two people who joined our Flemish class and inadvertently took the "understood assigned seats" from the family of three.

Well, they are Valentina and Alexander from Russia. They are a mature retired couple who were in Belgium to visit their daughter and grandchildren. I have no doubt they were attending Flemish classes so they could talk to their grandchildren.

Have you ever thought about this? It's quite common around here, imagine not speaking the language of your grandchildren. Like, say your son or daughter moves to Arkansas, has children, and they speak something other than English.

Okay, Arkansas isn't the best example. They often do speak something other than English.

I'm just kidding.

We've actually met a few people with this same issue. Not the Arkansas thing . . . trying, at our age, to learn Italian or Greek or Spanish. I mean, these people already know English, Dutch, German, and French! But what to do when your grandkids are in Italy?!

You learn Italian.

So it is with Valentina and Alexander. They speak Russian and English and who knows what else, but they want and need to speak Dutch.

This is a map of languages - just in Europe.

We live somewhere just below the word "Dutch" up there. So you see we only have to drive a half hour to already need to know French and German!

They (Valentina and Alexander) attended class regularly and I noticed they had been absent for about a week. I asked our teacher about them and she said they were only allowed to remain in Belgium for three months and had to return to Russia. I don't know the rules about this or when they will be allowed to visit again, but I do hope they are able to practice their Dutch so they can tell stories to their grandchildren when they see them again.