New Europe keener to learn German than French

Adam   Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:39 pm GMT
euobserver.com . . .

New Europe keener to learn German than French
21.02.2006 - 15:09 CET | By Andrew Rettman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU enlargement is pushing German ahead of French on the European language ladder, with non-indigenous languages such as Russian and Turkish also on the rise, a new European Commission study has shown.

The number of German speakers and English speakers jumped 6 percent each between 2001 and 2005, hitting 14 percent and 38 percent respectively, while the rate of French speakers rose just 3 points to 14 percent.

"With the enlargement of the European Union, the balance between French and German is slowly changing. Clearly more citizens in the new member states master German, while their skills in French and Spanish are scarce," the report stated.

Almost two thirds of Europeans feel English is the most important foreign language for adults and children to learn.

But support for learning French as a foreign language dived from 40 percent to 25 percent in the past five years, while support for German slipped just 1 point to 22 percent.

France is fiercely protective of its linguistic heritage, with the Paris-based Academie Francaise sending out ambassadors to eastern Europe to promote French studies and awarding prizes to foreign francophones.

The academie also enforces the so-called "loi Toubon" of 1994 against the usage of foreign terms in French public sector texts, providing French options for new words, such as "courriel" instead of "email."

"We are aware of international trends, but we want to show that French is able to express reality equally well," academie lexicographer Jean-Matthieu Pasqualini told EUobserver. "There is a danger that the value of French could be forgotten in the language of international science and finance."

Exotic tongues on the rise
The new study also put Russian on the map as the joint-fourth most popular language in the EU, equal with Spanish on 6 percent.

The Russian jump comes mainly from the Baltic States, with about one fifth of Latvians and Estonians citing Russian as their mother tongue while half of all Latvians, Estonians and Lithuanians cite Russian as the most important foreign language to learn.

Eight percent of Germans quoted non-indigenous languages, mostly Turkish, as their maternal language, with EU candidate Bulgaria also recording 8 percent Turkish mother tongue speakers.

Non-indigenous mother tongues account for 5 percent of the British population and 3 percent of the French, with Indian languages and Arabic dominant.

The report did not cover Chinese, but European Commission language policy director Jacques Delmoly predicted a "boom" in EU Chinese language learning in the next few years due to China's economic growth.

Model Europeans
The typical European speaking multiple languages is likely to be young, well-educated and working in a managerial-type position, the study says.

The model polyglot is likely to have been born outside his country of residence and to live in a small member state that has more than one official language, such as Belgium, or in a country that has strong ties with neighbours, such as Slovenia.

Anglophone and southern European countries came bottom of the class, with 66 percent of the Irish and 62 percent of Brits saying they do not speak any foreign language, while over 55 percent of Italians, Portuguese and Spaniards said the same.

The European Commission itself recently came under fire for shedding Spanish, Italian and French translators in order to take on staff from new member states.

With 21 official EU languages and 60 other regional and non-indigenous tongues present in Europe, Tuesday's (21 February) commission press briefing on multilingualism was conducted in English, German and French only.

The study says 55 percent of EU citizens believe all EU communication should be handled in just one language, but the commission avoided the sensitive question of "which one?"
Adam   Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:41 pm GMT
"with 66 percent of the Irish and 62 percent of Brits saying they do not speak any foreign language, while over 55 percent of Italians, Portuguese and Spaniards said the same. "

So the Paddies are worse than the brits.
Guest   Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:47 pm GMT
" "with 66 percent of the Irish and 62 percent of Brits saying they do not speak any foreign language, while over 55 percent of Italians, Portuguese and Spaniards said the same. "

So the Paddies are worse than the brits."
Closer to 90% of Irish speak a foreign language. Its called English.
Easterner   Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 pm GMT
>>"With the enlargement of the European Union, the balance between French and German is slowly changing. Clearly more citizens in the new member states master German, while their skills in French and Spanish are scarce," the report stated. <<

I am not surprised. Due to historical ties, German has always been more prominent in Central and East Europe than has French. Actually, French used to be the common language of culture for mainly avant-garde artistic movements (and people with "progressive" ideas) during the late 19th and the early 20th century, but even then, German mainly kept its status in the area as the common language of science. However, it is still lagging behind English as a preferred foreign language nowadays, although many people might want to study it in the future in states bordering with Germany or Austria, which means close economic ties with one of these countries.

In Western Hungary, for example, the number of Austrian real estate owners and of various companies from German-speaking countries is quickly rising, and the tourist area near Lake Balaton looks almost like it has turned German in the summer (and the situation is similar in the Croatian seaside). I guess it could be similar in the Czech Republic and the westernmost areas of Poland, although these countries have historically been antagonistic to German-speaking empires, whereas Hungary has always had friendly ties with them. Nevertheless, German was widely used in almost all of these countries in the past, except for Romania, which preferred French, due to its close relationship with France. However, at least in Hungary, there is also a rising number of people who study Italian or Spanish, but the number of French speakers seems to be stagnating (if not in a decline) here, too.

>>The study says 55 percent of EU citizens believe all EU communication should be handled in just one language, but the commission avoided the sensitive question of "which one?"<<

Perhaps the Commission should consider providing an option for the easiest European language to learn (based on the attested average time of acquiring relative fluency in individual languages) being promoted along with English, German and French, and let the people decide after a probation period of, say, ten years. I guess Spanish or Italian would be likely candidates, once one gets beyond the peculiarities of verb use. ;-) I doubt that things will move into this direction, though.

>>The model polyglot is likely to have been born outside his country of residence and to live in a small member state that has more than one official language, such as Belgium, or in a country that has strong ties with neighbours, such as Slovenia.<<

Or The Netherlands or Luxembourg. The Dutch in particular have a tendency to pick up languages with remarkable ease (doubtless due to having had "strong ties" with their neighbours in the past and present as well). Once I read an interview with an English lorry driver who reported that a Dutch driver translated in not less than eight languages for others at the Spanish border. I know a Dutch girl who used to spent some months at the company where I worked, and besides having already spoken a number of languages, she picked up Hungarian with amazing ease. In Central Europe, it is indeed the Slovenians (inhabitants of the smallest country in the area) who seem to pick up languages the most quickly, closely followed by Romanians.
greg   Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:07 am GMT
J'aurai parié que ce sujet était inévitablement soumis par notre autiste anglais de service. Une info pour sa gouverne : le français reste toujours la 2e la plus apprise dans le monde. Y compris par Adam ?
Guest   Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:13 am GMT
just one thing, GERMAN doesn't exist in most school from Central and Eastern Europe, English and French are still the most popular.
Frank   Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:00 am GMT
Why do Slovenians and Romanians the best in picking up languages in Eastern Europe? Is it connected with the fact that movies are subtitled in these two countries?
I have been to Romania, and I met quite a number of people who could speak English.. not everyone, though. For example taxi drivers usually were not good in English. And a friend of mine also visited Romania, some town at the seaside, and he said that most people couldn't speak English there.

P.S. Shouldn't this tpoci be moved into Language section?
Guest   Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:20 pm GMT
**Shouldn't this tpoci be moved into Language section?**

Yes, it should be!
Easterner   Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:05 pm GMT
Greg: >>J'aurai parié que ce sujet était inévitablement soumis par notre autiste anglais de service. Une info pour sa gouverne : le français reste toujours la 2e la plus apprise dans le monde. Y compris par Adam ?<<

Whatever Adam's point may have been in posting the article, it seems that Europe is divided as to which second language is learnt the most besides English. In West Europe, it seems to be French, in Central Europe, German, and in former (non-Russian) Soviet countries, Russian. Even if Central Europeans get down to learning a Romance language, it is more likely to be Italian or Spanish than French, although French is a second language option in high schools, and of course there are students who do take it. However, the use of French seems to be restricted to people with a special interest in French culture, and of course to French companies present in the area - whereas English and German are more likely to occur as lingua francas, in practically all domains.

Frank: >>Why do Slovenians and Romanians the best in picking up languages in Eastern Europe? Is it connected with the fact that movies are subtitled in these two countries?<<

There does seem to be a correlation between subtitled films and language proficiency. In Hungary, where almost all films are dubbed, the percentage of people with proficiency in any foreign language is the lowest in all Europe - same as in the UK. In ex-Yugoslavia, there seem to be more people with good foreign language skills, and one reason may be that films are subtitled there, and are therefore more likely to arouse interest in one or the other language. Generally, however, you are less likely to run into somebody with good language skills in the area, but the situation is changing for educated young people.

What I said about Slovenians and Romanians is true in a restricted sense, they seem to be comparatively better in picking up foreign languages than people in other countries, except perhaps for the Czech Republic (the people I have met from Romania were all very fluent in English, and some also in French, in Slovenia the usual combination is English-German). I do think this has something to do with practical adaptability and flexibility, a sort of pragmatic attitude which people from diffrent backgrounds possess to a different extent. I have noticed the same thing with Chinese and Koreans, especially the latter (to a somewhat lesser extent, with the Japanese as well) - they seem to master very quickly the language of the country where they get settled.
Student   Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:25 am GMT
So which language do you think I should learn, German or French?
German seems to be more important in sciences and french more important in humanities(culture). French is also the official language of many international organization.
Larissa   Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:16 am GMT
Personally I think German is useless these days.
Frank   Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:40 am GMT
Larissa, why do you think so?
Damian in Edinburgh   Sun Mar 12, 2006 12:31 pm GMT
When I was in Germany more or less everybody was speaking German, so it can't be useless! I was the useless one not being able to speak anything but pidgin Deutsch. We were on our way to Vienna, and I was equally useless....they all spoke German there as well! I HATE having to hope that "they all speak English" as a cop out. :-(
Larissa   Sun Mar 12, 2006 1:45 pm GMT
Frank Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:40 am GMT
Larissa, why do you think so?
I don't know why but it's useless. It's not spoken outside of Europe, but also in Europe there are few people who speak it.
Student   Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:32 am GMT
So this debate on whether french or german is better will never end?