Spaniards are low down on the language barometer

WITH only 36 percent of the population claiming to be able to hold a conversation in another language, the Spanish figure amongst European nations who display the least knowledge of other languages. A “Eurobarometer” study published yesterday to coincide with Monday's celebration of European Language Diversity also revealed that 9 percent of Spanish people considered Castillian to be their second language, as they upheld their regional language as their mother tongue. Some 20 percent said they could express themselves in English and 8 percent claimed to have ability to speak French. The Spanish, along with the Italians and Portuguese, the British (30%) and Hungarians (29%), are shown to be those with the least knowledge of languages other than their own. At the other end of the scale, people from Luxembourg (99%), Latvia and Malta (93%), Holland (91%), Lithuania (90%), Sweden (89%) and Estonia (87%) are Europeans who are, for the most part, able to speak at least two languages. Reearch demonstrates that the highest linguistic ability appears to lie in the smaller European member states where the national language is little used outside its borders. Statistics also show that with the enlargement of the European Union to incorporate the old “Eastern bloc” states, Spanish is now spoken by only 5 percent of the EU population who do not have Castillian as their mother tongue, as is the case with Russian.
WIDELY USED
Some 34 percent of people in the EU are able to converse in English, even though it is not their native idiom, making it the most widely-used second language, spoken in 16 of the Unions's member states. Figures show that German and French are spoken by 12 and 11 percent, respectively, of the EU population where these languages are not the mother tongue. Slovakia is the only country where English doesn't figure among the most-spoken languages. In the United Kingdom, French is the most widely-used language among citizens who have knowledge of other languages. From a professional viewpoint, students are those who are most likely to be able to speak a foreign language. Nearly 8 out of 10 are able to hold a conversation in the language of at least one of the EU member states.