Today the European Union is home to 497 million people from diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The Union is the only organization that unifies so many different countries, more precisely 23 official languages and 27 European nations (Zimmer 2007, p. 20). Driven by the common idea of creating a democratic community and a globally competitive market, the EU strongly corroborates equality of every nation's culture, values and languages.
Nevertheless the EU is currently struggling with the discrepancy between cultural and linguistic diversity and the equal integration of every member state. Additionally, the emerging English, as the international lingua franca, seems to put a strain on the peaceful cooperation of all 23 official languages. In view of this unfortunate development the question aroused if Europe needs one common language. Russian kicks off our list as THE most spoken language in Europe with 120 million native speakers. Interestingly, as most European languages use the Latin alphabet, Russian on the other hand uses the Cyrillic alphabet.
This can be quite a challenge for Europeans wanting to learn Russian as a foreign language. It is the sole official language of Russia, and one of the official languages in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus. Perhaps a surprise for many individuals, Russian tops this list as the most spoken language in Europe with roughly 140 million native speakers on the continent!
This is particularly interesting because while most languages in Europe use the Latin alphabet, Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet instead. This can be a tricky challenge for would-be Russian learners, but it doesn't hinder the millions of individuals who claim it as their mother tongue. It's the official language of Russia and Belarus, but it's also still widely used in many eastern European countries .
For those looking to travel to Russia, having some knowledge of the language is highly encouraged, as only about 5 percent of Russians can speak English. First, a full multilingual language regime is still the most effective language policy to convey information about the EU to people living in the Union among the four alternatives analysed in this study. Second, knowledge of foreign languages tends to be more common among residents belonging to the highest deciles of the income distribution, those who have achieved a tertiary level of education, and people currently employed . While the proficiency in English for northern European countries is one of the best in the world it doesn't come without limitations.
There is a current trend where people can speak up to a conversational level but fail to reach an adequate level to pursue an academic career abroad. These regulations are designed to ensure the safety and health of local consumers. This is sure to change with the European Union's proactive stance on languages setting the global standard and as a source of inspiration for the teaching of foreign languages in general, and English in particular. Although Europe speaks about 239 languages, about 47% of the EU citizens speak English, adding up the native speakers and those who speak it as their second langue. This development is also observable in the operating diplomacy of the EU.
Almost 50% of the official documents are published in English and the conferences are mostly held in English additional to only two or three other official languages. However, the EU spends about 1 billion Euros for translation services and employs about 2800 interpreters, of which about 500 to 700 work on a daily basis. The English language originated in Britain and the ever-expanding British Empire spread Modern English around the world during the 18th and 19th centuries. This is why many of the countries where English is an official language were former British colonies, including Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United States.
English is also widely spoken in India and in parts of Africa. Although Hindi is the most widely-spoken language in India today, English remains an official language in the country and is often used in university education, and within the field of politics. Officially, just 12% of Indian people speak English, with many only speaking it as a second language. Nevertheless, the country has an extremely dense population, meaning that this 12% cross-section of society exceeds 100 million people. As a result, India has one of the largest English-speaking populations on the planet. English is the preeminent language of business, diplomacy, and international communication around the world.
It is one of six official languages used by the United Nations and is used by organizations including the International Olympic Committee, the European Free Trade Association, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The region with the least Spanish speakers, Asia has hosted the Spanish language since the sixteenth century, when Spanish explorers colonised the Philippines and set about imposing their rule and spreading Christianity. Here, Spanish was spoken primarily by the elite – businesspeople, intellectuals, missionaries and the local court. Briefly in 1973, then finally in 1987, Spanish lost its title as the Philippines' official language.
Perhaps it is not merely the exposure towards English content as one might think. Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Icelandic all have close ties to the English language as they are all part of the Germanic language tree. With similarities across the board it is easier for them to learn.
In addition to their resemblance all these countries are relatively small in size compared to other nations. With Denmark, Norway and Finland combined the population is almost equivalent to that of the Netherlands (16.8 million). But in contrast that is only one quarter of the population of France. For firms there is no real benefit as to invest money in to translating their content into these languages. Despite the apparent high command of English language in the above mentioned countries, translation and localization are still very much needed for international businesses to succeed in these markets. This is because, as part of human nature, we all prefer products and services rendered in our native language.
This means customers are more likely to buy if a product is packaged and presented in Dutch in the Netherlands rather than in English or French. For example, despite the Netherlands having one of the highest commands of English, it has also been regarded as not so receptive towards solely English speaking visitors. In this day and age, students from around the world are learning English, and it has become a mainstay within many curricula. Children from all over study English in schools from early ages, and the global population of fluent English-speakers is constantly growing still. In 2012, the five European countries with the highest percentages of pupils learning English as a second language were the Czech Republic, Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Liechtenstein.
All of these countries have well-developed economies with healthy international relations. They are major participants in the global marketplace, and many of their students participate in exchange programs in English-speaking countries as well. Imagine every EU citizen would have to choose between one advantageous common language, the EU should only operate in, or all nation's languages as EU official languages. A survey of the European Commission called 'Eurobarometer' shows, that 55% of the respondent demand one language for all EU institution, while all binding agreements should be accessible in the reader's mother tongue. Following this idea, the expensive administration could be simplified and conflicts prevented, without renouncing the rights of the EU citizens. I think all europeans who are not in education should be allowed to join language courses of one or more EU languages, if possible for free (or at least deductible from taxes?).
To be more realistic, I actually think that in order to have financed a course of a "smaller" european language, it should be compulsory to do a course in one of the EU procedural languages . Moreover I think these citizens should always be allowed to test their language skills over their lives, to keep track of their learning even after finishing the course. These tests could be provided by the cities so that the local institutions could then provide statistics on the results to the EU.
The EU has 23 official languages, but only three of these are considered 'working languages' - English, French and German. Germans, not known for their language pride, have never pushed for German to be used as a common language in the EU institutions. This is another country with a high percentage of English speakers.
Higher education is free for Austrian nationals and students from the EU. Students from non-EU countries can expect to pay €726.72 (~US$815) per semester. Some native English speakers' attitude towards learning foreign languages could be summarized as "why should I learn a foreign language if pretty much everybody speaks English? " While it is true that English is among the most commonly learned second languages in the world, only a small percentage of the world population are able to speak it at a conversational level. English is, in the minds of European citizens and in all countries in the world, the language of the UK and the US.
The UK, the country which leaves our union and mock us since then, and does not respect the treaties we signed with it. The US, which was always against the diplomatic/economic/military... Independence of the EU, and will do everything it can to prevent it. And we are supposed to make this language official in our countries ??
What European Countries Speak Mostly English Now that the UK left, it's a foreign language for 99% of EU citizens. English as the unique language of the EU would give an enormous & unfair advantage to the 1% English native speakers. Despite having two different official languages, Canada has the third largest English-speaking population, with somewhere in the region of 20 million native speakers, while Australia is next in the list, with around 17 million.
More than 300 million people speak French on the five continents. The OIF, an international organisation of French-speaking countries, comprises 88 member States and governments. French is the second most widely learned foreign language after English, and the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. English language, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family that is closely related to the Frisian, German, and Dutch languages. English originated in England and is the dominant language of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and various island nations in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is also an official language of India, the Philippines, Singapore, and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa.
English is the first choice of foreign language in most other countries of the world, and it is that status that has given it the position of a global lingua franca. It is estimated that about a third of the world's population, some two billion persons, now use English. Of course such a European lingua franca would have to meet certain requirements, such as neutrality, historical background, flexibility and easy acquirement, in order to be suitable for European Community. The ancient lingua franca Latin, the artificial language Esperanto and the current international lingua franca English were considered as a potential lingua franca.
However none of them is able to meet the requirements and foster the European integration at the same time. Not even English, which proved to be a commonly used working language in the EU, is able to create a European identity. In addition, choosing English as the European lingua franca would discriminate all other countries not having English as their national language. This hegemonic language allocation would likely end in an international conflict and eventually threaten the cultural diversity. So in the end a monolingual solution cannot be the future of the EU and its citizens. Speaking of Romance languages, 45 million Europeans claim Spanish as their mother tongue.
Not only is Spain one of Europes most popular travel destinations, but learning Spanish will also open up whole continents to you. Spanish is the official language in 21 different countries and is the second-most spoken native language in the world, behind Mandarin Chinese. Spanish also has lexical influences from Arabic with 8% of the Spanish dictionary originating from Arabic – the second-largest lexical influence on Spanish behind Latin. You had to be expecting this one to pop up somewhere on the list, right? English is the fourth most widely spoken language in Europe with approximately 70 million native English speakers – the number of English-speaking expats residing in Europe significantly adds to this figure. It is one of the official languages of Ireland, along with Irish, and is the de facto language of the United Kingdom.
English is the most spoken second language in Europe followed by German and French. Coming in third after Russian and German is French, with the number of native speakers at about 80 million. It is the official language of France, and a co-official language of Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. French's global reach is most impressive as 29 countries claim it as an official language and about 45% of modern English words are of French origin. French is a primary language of many international organizations including the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization. There is a great deal of diversity in India, both in terms of culture and language – hundreds of dialects are used here, and in fact the 2001 census identified no less than 26 different mother tongues with more than a million speakers.
However, in Indian universities, the language of instruction is largely English, especially at postgraduate level, and there are often language classes available for non-native speakers to strengthen their knowledge of the language. The costs of living in India is very affordable, and tuition fees are also on the low side, with courses usually costing US$3,300-7,800. The list presented here comes from the CIA World Factbook, a widely recognized source of data on countries around the globe. The table below lists the official language of each country, if there is one, as well as other languages spoken. In selected countries, the percent of the population that speaks each language is also given. This covers all of the major recognized languages in each country.
Following the globalization of higher management education and the view of academics as autonomous professionals, academic careers in business schools are deemed to typify the boundaryless careers of the 21 st century. We scrutinize the validity of this assumption, focusing on the language barriers internationally mobile management scholars are facing. On this basis, we develop important practical recommendations for internationally mobile management scholars and business schools aiming to attract international faculty. Ii The USA represents a country where the academic lingua franca English coincides with the local language. Finland has a high proportion of second language English speakers among her citizens , whereas Finnish is very difficult to learn and therefore spoken only by very few foreigners on a professional level (Ethnologue.com 2017a).
With the ongoing evolutions of foreign relations and market place dynamics globally, even in Europe countries with the lowest rates of pupils learning English today, such numbers likely will be increasing in the coming years. Around the globe, almost everywhere you go, whether on vacation or on business trips, English language proficiency can prove to be a helpful tool. Those with English as a first language must adapt to global multilingual trends, and the faster the better. Learning English from an early age could very well be key to better communication and job opportunities throughout life, and the same is true for other internationally important languages, such as Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, and German. Since a child is typically able to learn languages much faster and better than an adult, multilingual interventions early in life should be goals of educational systems and parents everywhere.
We live in a society that is always in the midst of progressive change and development. The interactions that occur within the modern marketplace have increasingly linked people together from between different countries, and this constitutes a greater need for multilingual communication abilities between these peoples. During the course of such processes, the English language has become an internationally important one in the business world. From Eurostat data, we have taken a look at the European countries where English as a second language is most widely taught in secondary school. If you want to study in English in Singapore, the good news is that English is one of its official languages, with around 80 percent of the population fluent, and it's also the official language of instruction at universities.
However, costs in Singapore are relatively high – as an example, undergraduate tuition fees at NUS started at S$17,550 (~US$13,000) in 2018, and the high standard of living is matched by high living costs. There are also nations in which English is a de facto national language, meaning that it exists in reality and is practiced, even though it is not officially recognized by law. This is especially true in countries that have no official language. For example, even though English is the most commonly spoken language in the United States, the country actually has no legally declared official language at the federal level.
Of the nations where English is a de facto national language, the United States is the most populous with an estimated 332 million people. Below, we provide a breakdown of some of the most significant countries that have English as either a de jure or a de facto official language. The countries have been sorted based on their geographical location. An official language is defined as a language used by the citizens of that country during interactions with their government. It should be noted that some of the countries listed have more than one official language and, therefore, English may not necessarily be their most common native language. In Spain, roughly eight-in-ten adults speak Castilian Spanish – the country's only official language at the national level – when they are at home.
But Spain also has numerous regional-level official languages that are spoken in the country's autonomous areas, including Catalan (8%), Valencian (a dialect of Catalan, spoken at home by 4% of adults), Galician (3%) and Basque (1%). In 2018, 51% of foreign-born adults reported a language other than English as their first language at home. If we exclude those born in Ireland, North America and Oceania, the percentage is similar, at 55%.
