generally speaking, normally, usually 
[Dutch phrase of the week]
“Normaal gesproken” literally translates to “normally spoken”. “Gesproken” is the past participle of the irregular verb “spreken” [sprak, h. gesproken].
Examples:
– “Heb je een scheetje gelaten? Die zijn normaal gesproken niet te harden, bah…”
(“Did you fart? The stench of your farts is usually unbearable, yuck…”)
– “Ik gebruik normaal gesproken een QWERTY toetsenbord.”
(“I use a QWERTY keyboard, generally speaking.”)
– “Ik was mijn handen normaal gesproken met zeep nadat ik naar de w.c. ben geweest.”
(“I normally wash my hands with soap after using the toilet.” Lit.: “…after I have been to the toilet.”)
Related words:
– Normaal: normal, usual [adjective/adverb].
– Spreken: to speak [verb] [spreken, sprak, gesproken].
Example:
– “Ik heb in het ziekenhuis met de dokter gesproken, ze hebben niks vreemds in mijn bloed kunnen ontdekken.”
(“I have spoken with the doctor in the hospital, they couldn’t find anything strange in my blood.”)
Flemish speakers often start a sentence with “Normaal” (skipping the “gesproken”) and then tell about how something normally works even if, by way of exception, it didn’t work this time. In fact they’re talking about a high ideal that is entirely hypothetical, something that is perhaps plausible abroad but certainly not in Belgium. The exception is in fact the norm. A classic example would be: “Normaal, the Flemish and the [French-speaking] Walloons get along splendidly, but today there was an unfortunate disagreement over the federal budget”. Yet everyone knows the Flemish and the Walloons try their hardest to disagree over everything.
@E.P.
That’s a good point and something I’ve noticed too.
Another strange Flemish use of “normally” seems to occur when the meaning is “only”.