German is the second most popular foreing language in the UK

Newscaster   Mon Jul 27, 2009 11:50 am GMT
Popular Languages

A popular language is defined as one that is offered in pretty much every school that offers a foreign language. Most schools offer a choice of two out of the three popular languages, although many will offer a choice of all three at GCSE level. French, German and Spanish - the three in this category - are the most popular languages taken by British pupils.

French

French is the most common language for a pupil to learn at any level. In the year 2004, 320,818 pupils entered at GCSE level and 35,753 at A Level (20,580 at AS and 15,173 at A2). There are a number of reasons for it being popular; firstly, France is the most popular holiday destination for British tourists. As well as this, relations between France and Britain are always developing; although many French people speak English, there is always a demand for bilingual English and French speakers in industry. French is also one of the most popular languages for carrying on to degree level; in 2003, there were 21,255 students studying French is any combination (ie by itself, with another language or as part of another course). French is offered in most schools around the country; it is often chosen by pupils as the only language they carry on to GCSE study.

German

German is the second commonest MFL offered for school pupils, alongside French. Though it may be less popular than French, it still attracted 90,311 to take it at GCSE level in 2006. Part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, it is spoken by approximately 110 million native speakers and 18 million non-native speakers in the world and is an important business language.

Spanish

Spoken by around 400 million people, the distribution of the Spanish language is widely spread, ranging from Europe to South America. In 2007, 63978 students took GCSE Spanish, and the majority of students gained a grade C (20.7%).

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Modern_Foreign_Languages
Commentator   Mon Jul 27, 2009 12:05 pm GMT
I thought it was Spanish. Anyway it was a fakse alarm that German slipped into third position.
bai   Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:16 am GMT
Italian is the 4th popular language in UK? What about 5th and 6th?
Usāmah   Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:24 am GMT
بپرس آنچه ندانی که ذل پرسیدن دلیل راه تو باشد بعّز دانائی. - سعدی
EU   Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:28 am GMT
According to http://www.journal-online.co.uk/article/5535-polish-most-popular-foreign-language-in-scottish-schools

Polish most popular foreign language in Scottish schools
K. T.   Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:39 pm GMT
Is that Farsi?
sam   Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:20 pm GMT
good for german language!!! I'm happy!!
bai   Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:06 am GMT
Italian is the 4th popular language in UK? What about 5th and 6th?
Super Mario   Thu Jul 30, 2009 6:04 am GMT
Number of pupils who take GCSE Foreign Languages

1993 : French 315246, German 107561, Spanish 32148(30% of German takers)

2005 : French 272140, German 105288, Spanish 62456(59%)
2006 : French 236189, German 90311, Spanish 62143(69%)
2007 : French 216718, German 81061, Spanish 63978(79%)
2008 : French 201940, German 76695, Spanish 67092(87%)

http://www.bstubbs.co.uk/gcse.htm


German has always been the second most popular GCSE language choice definitely, but I think it would be overtaken by Spanish around 2010 or 2011. Can't wait to see the 2009 results.
encore   Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:21 am GMT
Germany must strive to spread German language over the world more decidedly,like France spread French language. German language must be one of UNO official languages.
Commentator   Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:08 am GMT
<< Number of pupils who take GCSE Foreign Languages

1993 : French 315246, German 107561, Spanish 32148(30% of German takers)

2005 : French 272140, German 105288, Spanish 62456(59%)
2006 : French 236189, German 90311, Spanish 62143(69%)
2007 : French 216718, German 81061, Spanish 63978(79%)
2008 : French 201940, German 76695, Spanish 67092(87%)

http://www.bstubbs.co.uk/gcse.htm >>

This is silly. OK, granting that German or French might have declined in UK in GCSE but only in percentage and they would still increase and would slow down just inpercentage. I would have believed if the data looked like these:

2005 : French 272,140, German 105,288, Spanish 62,456(59%)
2006 : French 275,189, German 106,311, Spanish 70,143(69%)
2007 : French 276,718, German 107,061, Spanish 75,978(79%)
2008 : French 279,940, German 110,695, Spanish 80,092(87%)

I believe that the link is crap and was made again by hispanic fanatic who's working in Instituto Cervantes just to make the people of the entire world that Spanish is rising so fast in becoming the world's second most important.

Nice try, but I'm not gullible enough to believe the table. Full of discrepancies and it seems that it's not credible.
Super Mario   Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:48 am GMT
Wow you think that is fake made by some hispanic fanatic?? Then you

should check out the BBC or JCQ datas which are extremely 'credible'.

I don't agree that Spanish is the world's second most important

language and I'm well aware of the fact that Germany is Britain's most

important trade partner. HOWEVER, it's true that number of pupils who

take French and German have dramatically declined since 2004, when the

requirement on all 16-year-olds to sit a language exam was shelved. Are

JCQ and BBC working for Instituto Cervantes?

http://www.jcq.org.uk/national_results/gcses/

And thanks to you, I've just found that Spanish overtook German at

A-level since 2005.
Commentator   Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:53 am GMT
Yes, I believe that the data in those links were not the actual GSCE data. It was made by hispanic fanatic.
Super Mario   Fri Jul 31, 2009 12:45 pm GMT
Forget it, I won't talk to you again. Are you working for Goethe Institute?

Find some 'real data' by yourself and prove it before you blame the Joint

Council for Qualifications who releases the official exam results.
rep   Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:32 pm GMT
English language is descendant of languages of North West Germanic tribes- Saxon,Angles,Jutes,Frisians,whose lived in Northern Germany. English and German have strong historic relations.