Sapphire It's interesting you call it bigotry - the Flemish call it preserving their language, national identity and culture, and there is some history there with how the Flemish were treated by the French speakers going some considerable way back. and especially during WW1. The Welsh are the same about their language and culture; I had a very interesting discussion with a Welsh lady about it last week when I had GCSE pre standardisation meetings in London.
I think the term 'bigotry' is too easily used when you don't and perhaps can't understand (because we are not in the situation) why preserving your language and culture is so important. It's also too easy to dismiss people as bigots when they are no such thing.
I wasn't thinking in Brugge (Bruges) once, and spoke to someone in French, asking for a bus ticket. He wouldn't talk to me. I joined the back of the queue, and next time asked in English, and was served without a problem.
There are people in the gemeente we live in, who resent English being spoken too freely, and loathe French being spoken. If one goes to the town hall, then the staff are not supposed to communicate with you in anything but Flemish, and there are subsidised language lessons for incomers.
The next gemeente along is militantly Flemish. A colleague of dh's who was a fluent French speaker was given a married quarter there; he went to the baker for bread and croissant on a Sunday morning, ordered it all in French and took out his wallet to pay. The baker, having carefully organised his order, and put it all in a bag, then proceeded to throw the bag on the floor, and stamp on the contents. He then explained that French is not a language to be used in Overijse, and that Flemish should be spoken.
It is facile to dismiss such views as bigoted; there is reasoning behind them, and you might like to consider that this is about 25 minutes in the car from Berlaymont and Schuman, the heart of the EU. It is ironic that the EU is situated in a country where some towns have two names; one in French and one in Flemish; Antwerp is Anvers, Bergen is Mons etc., and the country is divided by a language line running across it.
Segregation can be by language as well as other things, and some communities choose that rather than speaking the language of their host nation. It creates a divide, and this is what people are reacting to, that they don't feel at ease or at home any more because in their native country they consistently don't hear their mother tongue spoken. I suppose it's new for the Brits to feel like that because English is the lingua franca of the world. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I get back to the UK, as I can do the shopping in English. and don't have to worry about the correct word for things.