←back to thread

231 points rntn | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.599s | source
Show context
cm2187 ◴[] No.35413324[source]
Whether the UK is part of the EU or not is irrelevant to using english as a mean of communication between europeans. I remember a study from the French ministry of education which estimated for each language, what was the percentage of the EU population, to which it is not a native language, that studied it as a foreign language either in high school or university.

German and italian are in the 15-20% range, french and spanish in the 30% area, english north of 90%.

When you have 27 different EU nationals in a room, there is just one language they can practically speak among themselves. The EU will not go anywhere if its countries resist adopting english.

replies(3): >>35413357 #>>35413612 #>>35414936 #
kuboble ◴[] No.35413357[source]
My personal hope is that the EU would make a plan to adopt English as the only official language.

Now that UK is gone it can't be seen as unfairly promoting one country.

I think the example of Switzerland shows that there is no problem if spoken language is different from official language.

replies(6): >>35413469 #>>35413495 #>>35413518 #>>35413852 #>>35414632 #>>35416460 #
908B64B197 ◴[] No.35414632[source]
> think the example of Switzerland shows that there is no problem if spoken language is different from official language.

Most Swiss speak at least two of their four official languages. It's actually an example of how having multiple official languages isn't expensive nor hard to achieve (and the country is on top of most human index charts).

But the EU should make Latin it's official language.

replies(2): >>35415102 #>>35419132 #
1. Foobar8568 ◴[] No.35419132[source]
Most Swiss people don't speak two of their official language
replies(2): >>35420113 #>>35424792 #
2. kuboble ◴[] No.35420113[source]
Most swiss I met do.

It feels like a random non-educated person in the city speaks at least German and French. Any person working is services like a supermarket cashier normally speaks 3+ languages (which you know as they usually are indicated on their badges).

3. 908B64B197 ◴[] No.35424792[source]
What I found was that they often did but wouldn't claim to speak it. As in couldn't discuss literature or hold a job in language X but fluent enough that they had no issues reading directions or interacting with locals.