Hello, I’m Leo Feypel from Luxembourg and I’m 15 years old. Before my family moved to Bangkok, one and a half years ago, I studied at the Lycée Robert-Schuman, a secondary school in Luxemburg. I had lived in Luxembourg since my birth, so I was a little bit sad when we moved to Bangkok. However I am meeting new, interesting and nice people in Bangkok while studying at the Swiss School Bangkok. Although Thailand is very nice I still miss Luxemburg and that is because it’s a very interesting country.
Few people seem to know about Luxemburg, particularly in this part of the world. No wonder. With only 2,586 square kilometers and a little over 500 000 inhabitants, it is one of the smallest countries in the world.
While small, it does have an important role to play. Luxembourg lies in the heart of Europe, bordered by Germany, France and Belgium. It is one of the founding nations of the EU (European Union) and of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation).
However, when Luxemburg was founded in 963 AD, it was an unimportant piece of land ruled by many nations including the Netherlands, France and Spain. Luxembourg became a fully independent Grand Duchy in 1839, gaining wealth and importance only after the Second World War through the mining of iron.
Luxemburgish schools are quite different from Thai schools. There are no school uniforms and classes mostly have less than 20 students. Interestingly, while there is a Luxemburgish language, the first language learned in school is German, followed by French and English, with the option of adding Latin, Spanish or Italian.
More than forty percent of Luxembourg’s inhabitants are foreigners, which is one of the reasons why we learn so many different languages and share so many cultures.
So now you know something about Luxembourg. If you have questions, feel free to ask on Facebook (Bangkok Post learning).