European Diary: For a reporter wanting to practise his school French, the linguistic prowess of the Brussels native can be a problem.
Any misplaced grammar in everyday conversation often results in a reply in English, meaning you don't get to use the language much.
Switching seamlessly between languages is par for the course in Brussels. The 30,000 EU officials working in the city usually have to speak at least one other European language apart from their mother tongue.
And the multilingual Belgians are certainly no slouches either.
In Belgium there are three official state languages - French, Flemish and German - and many people also speak English.
As home to the EU, which has 25 member states and 20 official languages, it is appropriate that Brussels has developed into a multilingual hub in Europe.
Yet a new report published last week by the European Commission highlights that there are significant differences in the ability of people to speak foreign languages across Europe.
Europeans and their Languages, a survey of 28,694 people in all member states and Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey, shows Luxembourg is the clear linguistic leader in the EU with 14 per cent of people speaking another EU language, apart from one of the three state languages.
States with a small population tend to top the league table, with nine out of 10 Luxembourgers speaking three EU languages. Three-quarters of Dutch and 71 per cent of Slovenes are achieving the same level of linguistic prowess.
The two countries with the worst knowledge of foreign languages are Ireland and Britain - both island nations where most people speak English as their mother tongue.
Two-thirds of Irish people and three out of five British people admit to not knowing any other language but their mother tongue.
Other countries lagging in the foreign language department are Italy, Hungary, Portugal and Spain, where between 56 per cent and 59 per cent of people cannot speak a second language.
Overall , 44 per cent of Europe's 450 million population cannot speak a second language, the survey reports.
This language deficiency is a cause for concern for the European Commission, which targeted multilingualism as a priority for EU states at a summit in March 2002.
It set a goal for all EU citizens to speak two EU languages in addition to their mother tongue.
"Learning more languages benefits the EU internal market and offers cultural benefits to people," says Frederic Vincent, spokesman for education commissioner Jan Figel.
"For example, it enables people to travel and work in other states. Ireland and Britain have both benefited from this because many people speak English."
The commission presented its languages report to EU education ministers last Thursday as part of a wider debate on commission proposals to establish a new strategy for multilingualism in the EU.
This strategy has three aims: to encourage language learning and promote linguistic diversity in society; to promote a multilingual economy; and to give Europeans access to European legislation, procedures and information in their own languages.
It targets the introduction of language education at a younger age in schools and promotion of lifelong learning of languages.
Yet harmonising practices in the field of education is extraordinarily difficult as member states jealously guard their competence in these sensitive cultural areas, according to Mr Vincent, who points to the different approaches to language learning taken in Europe's schools.
For example, he says, in Britain students can stop learning a foreign language at 14, whereas in some EU states, such as Italy and France, reforms are boosting the teaching of foreign languages from as young as six.
However, not all Europeans are convinced of the merits of learning new languages, particularly the Irish.
According to Europeans and their Languages just a third of Irish people agree that Europeans should be able to speak two languages along with their mother tongue. This ranks us 20th out of 25 states in terms of favouring a multilingual approach. Poles, Greeks, Lithuanians and Cypriots top the list of nationalities that think they should be able to speak at least three EU languages.
The dominance of English in the Republic probably plays a big part in our lack of eagerness to speak multiple languages. After all, 51 per cent of Europeans say they can speak English either as their mother tongue or a foreign language, making it the de facto lingua franca of Europe. German is the second most popular language, spoken by 32 per cent of people, while French is spoken by 26 per cent, says the report.
Even at the commission, which spends millions of euro every year translating documents into all 20 official EU languages and promoting multilingualism, English has displaced French as the language of choice.
At the daily commission press briefing most reporters from the 10 new EU states ask questions in English and most official briefings are conducted in English.
It could be Europe's addiction to English that ultimately frustrates the EU's goal of a multilingual community in which each citizen can speak three languages.