Sing along friends with a great Belgium folksinger who died sadely 25 years ago : here whe go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyU69gIG4sg

I speak a little Dutch, more Belguim dialect, having lived in Ghent one summer in the late 70's and remember this song! Thank you for the rememberance. Here is my favorite post:
I think Ferre,s populatity and appreciation came a little too late,there were no mobile fones with video etc to catch brief exposure in the Muse or wherever in the 60,we just never had the equipment,we must just remember the man through his music,and his contemporaries who keep the spirit alive.

Yes, one wonders with itunes how this would be different, and thank you keeping his music alive!

Nice surprise that you lived in Belgium MG , en dat u een beetje Nederlands spreekt . Sadely i cant find any video or live pictures of Ferre . The Muze ( Antwerp jazzclub ) is still open today and has a big poster on the wall of Ferre. He had several good songs ( see i-tunes ) but the problem was that he cuddent work with money . Today he had 2500 dollar , the next day he was poor and had spend it all .

I put another song of him on ' Topical Tropical discussion ' I think its more relevant there at the moment .

Okay, I will go over to ' Topical Tropical discussion ' to read your post on Ferre. I am not sure the problem with his money was all his doing. Oh, Sorry, guitarman! That may be too many verbs. Let me restate that : I am not sure his downfall was money. Maybe he had a bad manger, or none at all. The right manager can lift your financial burdens and leave you to be creative.

Language can cause some crazy misinterpretations!
And we get no practice!We in the US are isolated from any border that requires a different language from English except Mexico. We are surrounded by English and Oceans!

Yet we study and learn French , Latin , Spansih, Italian, even Chinese, in high school and college, but sadly this is rote and we have little chances to integrate any foreign language except Spanish into our vocabulary. We simply don't have the opportunity to use the language skills we learn. And sadly the skills sit dormant.

In contrast, I found Belgium to be a virtual melting pot of Dutch, French and German. Of course, the Dutch will tell you they have the true language, and the Belgium dialects are the guttural south as Alabama and Mississippi are to Maine...the truth is we are all one language.

As far as my language skills go...
I really only mastered how long to roll my R's depending on which town I was in. The further north I got to Netherlands, the longer the roll. I was fascinated by the provincialism of each town, and how a dialect could change within 30 kilos, as compared to the entire United States which speaks one language, with accent changes but not significant dialect differences (not counting rap music!)
as you have between Belgium and Holland.