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How many languages do Europeans speak | ||
Tags: Europe | Number of Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 1 of 66 28 September 2014 at 10:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Time and time again I see or hear the statement that whereas Americans are all monoligual, Europeans commonly know a bunch of languages because of geographical proximity and also they're like super smart. How much truth is there in this? I'm from Sweden and apart from immigrants and children of immigrants, nobody speaks any language except Swedish and English (which can't really be called a foreign language). Nobody. I've met two people who speak German, and my cousin learned French and spent a year there in school, but he hasn't used it since and I don't think he speaks it very well now. That's it, as far as I know and remember. Knowing a foreign language (again, not counting heritage languages or English) is extremely uncommon in Sweden (despite the fact that it's mandatory to study a third language for six years or so in school). I recently moved to Norway and the situation seems to be much the same here. I have very little experience with other European countries, so tell me: are people in France and Germany all triliguals? I mean, I get that people from Switzerland and Luxembourg are multilingual, but what's the status of Europeans in the bigger countries?
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| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 2 of 66 28 September 2014 at 11:17am | IP Logged | ||
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It's interesting you think that English can't be called a foreign language in Sweden. It's certainly a foreign language in other parts of Europe.
This Wikipedia entry has lots of info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Europe Edited by patrickwilken on 28 September 2014 at 11:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| albysky Triglot Senior Member Italy lang-8.com/1108796Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4387 days ago 287 posts - 393 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German | Message 3 of 66 28 September 2014 at 11:32am | IP Logged | ||
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In Italy most of the people are almost entirely monolingual , even languages like Spanish and french that
should be easier for us ,are not so commonly known . My sister has studied English , french and Spanish at school for many years , but as far as I know she cannot speak those languages very well although she has always been an exellent student ; I think she can read them pretty well though . The only people I know here who are truly multilingual are people either with a foreign parent or having had an experience abroad , I suppose those do not count .learning languages autodidactically isn't a very common hobby and the school system seems to be ineffective pretty much everywhere .This is at least my experience . I guess multilingual people can be found in places exposed to more than one language , like borders or switzerland and luxemburg, like you said . As scandinavians and dutch people , you are lucky to get english almost for free . Edited by albysky on 28 September 2014 at 11:44am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 4 of 66 28 September 2014 at 11:50am | IP Logged | ||
Maybe, but it still can't be compared to other languages. People learn Spanish to speak to Spaniards and Mexicans. People learn Mandarin to speak to Chinese. But people learn English to speak to Poles, and Germans, and Chinese, and Russians. With English you can talk to people everywhere. It's certainly true that not everyone speaks English, but it's the medium of communication at most international situations. English is the global language, so I don't think it's really a foreign language anywhere. For an Italian to learn English is hardly the same as for an American to learn Italian. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4098 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 5 of 66 28 September 2014 at 12:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Learning a local lingua franca is not the exact same as learning any other language that is not a lingua franca, but that does not make the language any less foreign.
You are also assuming that English has the same "global" character across Europe (and the world), which is a very Scandinavian way of looking at things, I've found, but which is not necessarily true. Scandinavia is incredibly wrapped up in the idea of being part of the anglophone world, so much so that it creates an illusion that knowing English is a ticket into the world outside of Scandinavia. The rest of the world, and the rest of Europe, are not necessarily hooked into that world. Aside from what media is imported into Scandinavia (or at least Sweden, though I hear it's getting better) you see it very clearly when you watch Scandinavians (and Dutch people) being interviewed in foreign media. They default to English. "This is an international situation," they seem to say, "so we'll speak THE international language". This is not the case when most other nationalities are interviewed. It's quite deeply ingrained in society. Heck, if you need an "international" version of your "birth certificate" (registerutdrag) in Sweden you get a crappy English translation (mind you, that's useful since it's often easier to find a translator who works with English, but it also shows how Swedes view the world). As for Germany and France, I have yet to meet a German in Germany who speaks a foreign language (I have met Germans elsewhere who do), and in France few people speak even English (Breton is an "endangered" language and there are as many people in Brittany who speak Breton as English, and this is a touristy area with lots of monolingual Brits), the most common foreign language, although when I spent the summer in Alsace people kept speaking German to me (I think, I doubt they'd speak pure Elsassisch to a foreigner) so I assume it varies from region to region. In Sweden I find that speaking multiple foreign languages, aside from Swedish as a second language and heritage languages, is something of a question of class/education. I went to an English-medium school with entry exams, and most people there could probably get by with a third language. I know a lot of classicists and archaeologists (being educated as a Classical Archaeologist) and most people have enough German, Italian or Greek to get by at least in touristy (actually work, though) situations or to make heads and tails out of an article with the help of a dictionary, and many of them make sense out of at least one classical language. The people I took Classical Greek with had all studied a foreign language at university before, except for the guy who was Greek by birth. My husband's family is rather "upper class" and those who have not actively rebelled against that seem to be able to make do with (albeit not speak fluently) a third language. I am acquainted with several people who speak decent Danish because they've worked or studied in Denmark (even more people who refused to learn any though), I have one brother and one father who speak German because it was necessary for work. Heck, I have friends who speak Yiddish (only one of them as a non-heritage language, though, but I wonder if it counts as a heritage-language when a grand-parent was the last person to speak it). All highly educated people. Most people do, as you say, though, not speak a second foreign language or are unwilling to speak the little they know (edit: that goes for a lot of people and English too, if they have a say in it!). It also depends on what you count as "knowing". My mother is probably at a weak B1 in both French and German, having studied neither for almost 45 years (and using it only to give simple commands to foreign children at the daycare she works for), and when she's in France she wants me to do all the speaking for her. But she can make do in France and Germany if need be. Heck, when my father had a heart attack in Germany she spent a week speaking German to doctors, nurses, hotel workers, taxi drivers, and the patient in the bed next to my father. Does that mean she speaks three foreign languages? Or only English? Edited by eyðimörk on 28 September 2014 at 1:10pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5765 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 66 28 September 2014 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | ||
Three, certainly, even if her English is better than the other two. Most Germans I know who did have to take a second language in school forgot it. The ones that took a second language and then a third usually speak all three. But there aren't that many of them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chris13 Groupie FinlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4050 days ago 53 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 7 of 66 28 September 2014 at 2:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know what you mean when you don't really class English as a foreign language, from my experience of Finland you'd widely see English used on some shop windows almost as a means of appearing "cool". I always assumed that tv, for example would be much the same as here in the UK, everything that's on is in English - I figured everything on TV in Finland would be in Finnish or Swedish whereas to my surprise it was hard to find a Finnish channel that was purely in Finnish. I'd count somewhere in the region of 6-8 out of the channels available, the majority were in English with Finnish subtitles. If that were the case here I'd imagine people would become interested in a foreign language at an earlier age and possibly look at learning one.
As it stands, in the UK I'd say it's incredibly rare to find a speaker of multiple languages unless they are immigrants or tourists. Whenever I mention I study a couple of languages I'm often met with a very quizzical look and a very blunt "Why?" However, I do have a lot of European friends who speak a multitude of languages. I have a French friend that speaks English and Finnish, a Croatian friend that has a masters in English, speaks German and Italian, A Dutch friend also with a masters in English that also speaks Spanish and the list is quite long come to think of it. So I'd agree but only regarding certain countries where languages seem to be focused on from a very early age. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4908 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 8 of 66 28 September 2014 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think the most important factor must be proximity. In areas near borders I would guess the numbers of people who speak another language are higher. The USA doesn't really worry about borders. Sure we have Mexico, and a lot of areas with large populations of Spanish speakers, but there is an attitude that Spanish is beneath them. On the sitcom "My Name is Earl", when faced by a woman speaking Spanish, one woman said, "Excuse me, I don't speak maid." Of course the woman was written to be amusingly ignorant, but it reflects reality.
My sister lives in Belgium and it seems that a lot of the people in their area are tri-lingual (French, Dutch and English), including her children. So I think one of the major factors is proximity to other languages. I remember visiting a village in rural France when I was about 11, and nobody spoke anything except French (not even English except the family we were visiting). But if the village had been near Spain or Germany, I am sure the numbers of people who were functional in a foreign language would have been much higher. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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