When Alizee Poulicek was chosen as Miss Belgium 2008, she received the crown with resounding boos from the audience. Yup, it cannot be her lack of good looks that resulted in the dissatisfaction, but the fact that she completely failed the language test of the competition since she could neither speak or understand Dutch, the official language of Belgium. She does speak French and Czech though, if it is any consolation.

The behaviour of the audience was noted across Europe, and the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws sarcatically put the headline “Miss Belgium doesn’t speak Dutch. Our country is in a deep crisis”. Whatever the case, I’m pretty sure none of you here will even bother about what she says when she comes on the stage.