Talk:East Flanders

Since it's not in English, this link shouldn't be in the article. Might be of some use for Dutch speaking contributers. (WT-en) Jelse 02:53, 30 March 2006 (EST)

Title should be changed

This title should be changed: there is no province in Belgium called East Flanders. It's called Oost-Vlaanderen and just because the word "oost" means "East" and "Vlaanderen" is Flanders does not mean we have to invent new words in English! It is also confusing for foreigners if you force-feed them with English terms they have never heard before. It is much more user-friendly if you provide them with one term for each concept as much as possible.

Especially when contributors decide, for instance, to consequently use French names for Dutch-speaking towns (Bruges, Louvain, Malines,...) it may become very difficult for tourists to find their way there. Many tourists eager to see the medieval college town of Leuven looked for Louvain and ended up in the 1970s town of Louvain-la-Neuve! Also, using the name Oost-Vlaanderen will save us the trouble from always having to explain why "East Flanders" is in the western part of Flanders!

I would like to add that this tendency to "invent" translations and pass them off as official (rather than just translations between brackets to help explain the origins of a name, for instance) is typical of the English articles on Wikivoyage/Wikipedia about Dutch and Flemish (Dutch-speaking Belgian) cities, provinces, and other places ("Flemish Brabant" is another such monstrosity). They do not help travelers to find their way around at all.