Sue

Do you really speak English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portugese, Irish, Serbo-Croatian, Polish, etc. or do you speak your homeland's country's language and know some of a foreign language.

Rex

I think that many Europeans speak "some" of a second, third or fourth language. And frequently, English is one of those languages.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Ursula

Sue: You would be surprised how bad some people's homeland country language can be. Just thinking of some of our Federal Council members when they speak high German or when the ones from the German part have to speak French or Italian. It can be truly bad.<BR>Anyway, all depends on your education at school and if you are willing to spend some time in a foreign country after that to really learn and even more speak the language.<BR>A language is moving and you have to go with it. If you don't practice you'll forget a lot sooner or later. I like this forum because it helps a lot to brush up and to learn new words, even if some of them are truly useless in daily life.<BR>I'd say a lot (not all) people speak some of a foreign language. But this is also due to easier access to foreign languages like TV programs from literaly all over Europe and the US. Usually just CNN though.

Sheila

I think Rex is right. I speak English fluently for obvious reasons and muddle along in French, German and Italian. I have a smattering, which I'm always trying to improve on, of Scots Gaelic, Dutch, Spanish and Greek.<BR><BR>I have two internet friends, one from Switzerland, who is fluent in German, French, English and Italian as well as Schwizzer Deutsch; the other has fluency in all of the foregoing less Italian and swiss plus Flemish; and I'm jealous.

George

Si, yo speaketh two languages, muy dificil. English is unusually tough for me.

Vita

I would guess it's affected by historical influences, how closely you live to the border of other countries, and your level of education. I have a Dutch friend who speaks English, Dutch, German, and French, all fluently to my ear. One of my cowokers is Belgian and speaks English, French, and I think, Dutch.

xxx

This gduyqbush guy is showing up on all the posts. Looks like he finally discovered the babelfish translator.

Bob C

I have found that when your in small villages for example in France. You will not find a lot of people who speak other than French. When close to the border you will find for example people speaking German and French. It was not uncommon for a tour of a cheteau to be in French only and they had printed hand outs for other languages.

Sjoerd

http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/...guage%20skills

elina

I speak Finnish, Swedish, French and English somewhat fluently. And I manage a decent conversation in German, and a halting one in Italian and Russian. <BR><BR>Finnish is my native tongue, Swedish is Finland´s second official language, and everybody has to learn it, French I learned while living few years in France, and English I learned at school (8 years of it).<BR><BR>German, Russian and Italian I also learned at school. (German 5 years, Italian and Russian 3 years.)<BR><BR>If I spoke only Finnish my world would be quite small. Besides, I like languages, and it gives me great satisfaction every time I realize that I have managed a decent conversation f.ex. in Russian or Italian.

Kat

Most of my European friends speak 3 languages or more, with English being one of them. <BR><BR>One of my friends speaks 13 languages, and he's only 28. Some people have a knack and a need, others don't. I also believe being raised in close proximity to other countries exposes one to understand one language will not be sufficient as the world becomes more universal.<BR><BR>I, as an American, feel deficient with my semi-fluent Greek (after living in Greece), semi-fluent Spanish (born and raised in California) and English.

elina

I just wanted to add that what Ursula wrote is so very true. Your language skills get rusty quite fast if you don´t keep them up. TV helps a lot, because here everything is subtitled, and you hear the original language. Books are great, I like to read in the original language whenever possible. But magazines are best in learning new words and sayings. Regular speaking would also be important, but unfortunately that is not always possible. So, when I was a kid my parents ordered that we will have every week "an English day", "a Swedish day", and "a German day". Those days no other languages were allowed in the house. We kids thought that that was fun, it was almost like being abroad.<BR><BR>

Wayne

It's probably too general a statement to say simply that Europeans speak several languages. I would say that MANY Europeans in larger cities and in businesses that involve contact with other countries, probably speak at least one other language besides having some decent knowledge of English. But my experience outside large cities, and outside of tourist areas, is that most of the people in every European country (except Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg) speak very little of any language other than their own. In those 4 countries, it seems that MOST people everywhere can speak at least one other language besides a generally fluent English. But they are all small countries and you can understand why; if they couldn't get along in another language, they couldn't participate in trade or commerce. <BR><BR>And of course, there are the people of one country who live near, or whose ancestors were part of, another country. If you go to northern Italy, you will find people speaking German. The Swiss seem to manage 3 or 4 languages fluently, as do the Dutch and many Belgians.<BR><BR>In the U.S., we suffer from two major difficulties relative to other languages: (1) Our country is very large and linguistically integrated; that is, English is the de facto language, though many immigrants never learn it and many misguided liberals in Congress want to have multiple-language schools and facilities. And of course, anywhere you go in the world, English is the common language for conducting business among various nationalities.<BR>(2) Our schools don't require adequate training in some of the world's other important languages. We should probably focus more on language training as the world shrinks. When I took Latin in high school (2 years) I really felt it was a waste of time because it wasn't usable. Only later, as I became familiar with other languages, did I realize that many words in several languages have their roots in Latin.<BR><BR>Having decided that I enjoy travel, I slowly began to learn other languages using audio cassette courses. I found that it enhanced my appreciation of the countries I visited, and it was welcomed by the natives (except the French in larger cities, who just can't seem to bear hearing us Americans butcher their beautiful language).<BR><BR>The most unusual aspect of my language background is that I took three years of Russian in college, and that has been a tremendous asset when I travel in the eastern bloc of Europe. More than once, I have used Russian to help get me out of situations that might have been difficult if I didn't speak a language someone could understand (for instance, in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and YugoslaviaJ). I just wish I could have the opportunity to learn more of all the major world languages.

Steve Mueller

<BR>As I said earlier today in another thread, patterns of bi- and multi-lingualism are governed by proximity.<BR><BR>Proximity is key both in terms of exposure and economic necessity (e.g., Benelux citizens learn the language of larger, more economically powerful, neighbors). A lack of proximity to non-English-speaking lands accounts for the tendency of Americans to be monolingual. The proximity argument is also supported by the fact that most bi- or multi-lingual Europeans speak other European languages, rather than languages like Chinese or Japanese.<BR><BR>What I find difficult to understand is how multilingual individuals find the time to learn so many languages. I learned Spanish and French in school. Years later, I learned very rudimentary Japanese only because I spent a year at the University of Tokyo as a visiting scholar. The amount of time I invested in each of these languages was substantial. To learn Japanese, my wife and I spent every weekday morning for four months in an immersion course offered by the university. At the end of this course, we were doing considerably better than average (according to our instructor), yet I felt that I could communicate at about the level of a four-year old.<BR><BR>When do multilingual European students find time for other subjects? Is there an obvious trade-off between enhancing language skills at the expense of more basic skills, such as math and science.

Leah

Wayne, another factor to consider is that the US is relatively isolated. We have French Canadians to the north, but I know few people who have ever been to Canada. We have Mexico to the south, and the same is true for that country. Most people here take some French or some Spanish, but do not have the means to travel abroad. And if you don't use it, you lose it! The Europeans have huge advantage over the US b/c European travel is more economically and geographically feasible.

Sjoerd

Hey guys, go to the link I provided above. You can find the *facts* there, not just speculation.

semaphor

Thought US was the richest country on earth? Why don't most people travel abroad? Europeans (partic Brits) are always visiting the US, Australia, Carribean, etc...Lack of imagination, intelligence, or yet another e.g. of insularity?

Sjoerd

Steve, what helps tremendously in learning a foreign language is watching TV in that language. After you have learnt the basics at school, you can make a lot of progress by just watching the news. I often watch English, German, French and Spanish language TV.

anon

Leah,<BR>About Americans not having means to travel abroad; there is a thread "Is everyone here immensely wealthy?" Even modest income level people I work with, their spending priorities prevent them from travelling abroad even if they could have done otherwise. These folks always have shiny new cars compared to mine. It is hard to keep from bursting in laughter when these folks tell me they can't afford to travel abroad.<BR><BR>Even within well to do people in my circle, only minority has travelled to non English speaking countries. It is not that they have financial constraints nor unwillingness to travel; they have travelled to Hawaii, Florida, and Las Vegas more than they can count with both hands.

Sheila

Sjoerd, that web site is fascinating. For those who don't do links what it says is thatBR><BR>English is the language which is most widely spoken in the EU. 16% are native speakers but a further 31% speak it well enough to hold a conversation. <BR><BR>For German it's 24% and 8% <BR><BR>For French it's 28% altogether<BR><BR>45% of European citizens can take part in a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue and these are some of the differences state to stateBR> <BR>in Luxembourg, nearly everyone speaks another language well enough to hold a conversation <BR> and 8 in 10 people living in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden are th same. <BR>People in the UK, Ireland and Portugal are least likely to speak another language, with less than a third of these population saying they can do this. <BR><BR>Attitudes are interesting. Personally I view maths and science as advanced necromancy and certainly don't think of them as "basic"<BR>