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Foreign languages in the EU | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4330 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 1 of 34 24 July 2014 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Quiet a nice set of maps showing the what the first, second, and third most common foreign languages people speak in the EU by country:
http://jakubmarian.com/map-of-the-most-spoken-foreign-langua ges-of-the-eu-by-country/ The same site also has maps showing the percentage of people would can have a conversation in various EU languages (no idea what 'conversation' means in this case): English German French Russian Edited by patrickwilken on 24 July 2014 at 3:23pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5033 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 2 of 34 24 July 2014 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm going to guess the 19% of people in England who can hold a conversation in French ARE French. Check out this article.
More French people live in London than in Bordeaux, Nantes or Strasbourg The French consulate in London estimates between 300,000 and 400,000 French citizens live in the British capital. :) 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4462 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 34 24 July 2014 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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So the English are on average the most conversational non-native speakers of French in
the EU? Interesting! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5033 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 4 of 34 24 July 2014 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | ||
humm... I have serious doubts about the accuracy of that statement. Going only on the anecdotal evidence of my experience (working for a French company in the UK) the people in this HQ building who speak French are: 1 French woman 1 German woman 1 Hungarian woman 1 French/Portuguese fellow and me... an American. (and I consider my French poor (B1/B2 at best), although I can hold a brief conversations) Almost every English person in this building took French in school, not one of them can speak French with me. I know, I've tried to find people to practice with! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4330 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 34 24 July 2014 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | ||
Good guess, but from my scan of the report that's not correct. Respondents were asked what their foreign (i.e., non-native) languages were. The second most popular response for the UK, was English. So I don't think French native speakers in England can count French as a response. Have a look at page 23 here: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_en.p df Edited by patrickwilken on 24 July 2014 at 6:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MarcoLeal Groupie Portugal Joined 4631 days ago 58 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 6 of 34 24 July 2014 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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As a Portuguese I have a hard time believing the French conversation figures for
Portugal. There's no way on Earth that the amount of People that can hold a conversation in French (supposedly 15%) is so high, especially when compared to English (27%, which to be honest seems kind of low, but I could be biased here). Taking 2 or 3 years of French in middle school is pretty standard but it always has a secondary status compared to English. Most people can't hold a conversation in French even immediately after finishing these 3 years, let alone after more years have gone by. I live in Lisbon, which is the largest city and also the one that gets visited by tourists the most. I am also 25 years old and college educated like the majority of my friends or coworkers. Still, even in this context I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of people that are capable of more than "Je m'appelle [insert name]". Edited by MarcoLeal on 24 July 2014 at 6:56pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4814 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 7 of 34 24 July 2014 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think french to be more popular in older generations of portugueses. Edited by Michel1020 on 24 July 2014 at 7:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6394 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 34 24 July 2014 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe immigrants also contribute to the French as second language stats in Portugal?
1 person has voted this message useful |
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