Which are Europe's most-talked
languages?
Cikkek
Which western European language gives you most people to speak to?
A survey in 2005 of languages spoken by people in the European Union (EU)
+ candidate coountries (Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey) asked EU
citizens which language they spoke as their Mother Tongue (MT) and first
Foreign Language (FL).
The figures for the main languages are:
English: 51% (MT 13%, FL 38%)
German: 32% (MT 18%, FL 14%)
French: 25% (MT 12%, FL 13%)
Italian: 16% (MT 13%, FL 3%)
Spanish: 15% (MT 9%, FL 6%)
This Eurobarometer survey was published in February 2006.
Overall English is spoken almost everywhere in the countries surveyed
- generally by younger, better educated people.
There are more German MT speakers, followed by English and Italian speakers.
Italian speakers are concentrated in and around Italy, while German speakers
are spread more widely. Studying languages at school
Overall, 77% of European citizens considered that children should learn
English as their first FL. Only the UK, Ireland (64%) and Luxembourg (8%)
considered French to be the first FL that children should learn.
When asked which two FLs UK children should learn at school, UK citizens
answered:
French: 77%
Spanish 39%
German: 34%
German came higher in most other European countries and French and Spanish
came lower.
|
