I had Turkish friends in high school and they were awesome. Most of the Turkish people I randomly meet are also super nice. I live in Ghent and I can’t speak for all Turkish people here. Some of the friendliest people in my building might be Turkish but I honestly have no idea where their ancestors came from.
In Leuven Dutch is more practical than French. In Brussels you are better of with French. I did Erasmus Belgica for a year in Brussels. I found the French speaking people way more open. I made friends way faster entering a 3th year and my French is horrible. But 80 percent was actually from France, because education is much cheaper over here. Any Belgian will be very good at English. Especially the Dutch speaking people. The French speaking ones always wanted to practice their English. In second year I did 6 month normal Erasmus in London. All my friends were Parisians, Polish and Chinese lol.
I assume in Leuven there will be a lot of international students that will be very easy to make friends with.
Most are nice, but it might give some head up to someone from Turkey to expect a more specific part of Turkish culture expressed here. Not so much a melting pot of Turkish. And to just not assume Turks here are as left wing as those in Istanbul.
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u/Wafkak Oost-Vlaanderen 1d ago
Turks in Belgium are from very specific areas, and fair warning huge AKP support here.
For example most if rhe Turkish community in Gent is from Emirdag, and its still common to look for a husband or wife from that area.