Spain is not the only European country where you can hardly communicate with native people in English. The EU language policy “promotes multilingualism and aims for a situation in which every EU citizen can speak at least two foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue”. This is not the case in countries like Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain or Czech Repulic, and that is really bad if we are sharing common spaces and policies in Europe.
Comparisions are odious but when it´s all about communitation tools, we need to set common standards because we have to understand each other, being independent at the same time. The efforts of the European Commission in this field are not enough to sorthen the gaps among citizens of different countries and this is not about who speaks the best or which national educational policy is working and which one isn´t. It´s much more complicated and it should be in the European political agenda. Less interest in language learning means a loss of interest in the EU itself and their citizens. For an English native speaker this may not be a problem but, on the other hand it could develop some feelings of superiority in the international context. There are also good English speakers in Sweeden, Luxembourg or even in Portugal. In countries like Spain you would have to be really passionate about languages if you want to learn a second one, or let´s just say English, and here are some of the possible causes, from my point of view:
1.-Our language is romance-based. Qu’est-ce que vous voulais?
2.- This is a big country (for the European standard) and our language is the third most spoken language in the World.
3.- For a long time, even now, Spanish have made mockery about any other spanish talking in a foreign language, even if he/she is minister, prime minister, etc (wacth the videos below)
4.- There is no undertitled tv programmes and a few cinemas with original versions.
5.- English is not a subject in most of the University studies in Spain
6.- As a consequence of that, levels of English in primary and secondary school are extravagantly lower than the European standards.
While citizens are not interested in paying for learning and politics themselves don´t speak foreign languages, we can watch some videos and keep on laughing.
Jose María Aznar, former Spanish Prime Minister
José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spanish Prime Minister
Emilio Botín, chairman of Banco de Santander
(13 votes, average: 3.62 out of 5)
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Thank you for this interesting writing about a subject that needs to be discussed!
I would disagree that in Bulgaria (and eastern Europe as a whole) there is a problem with multilingualism. The facts are that a lot of Bulgarians seek their livelihood outside of the country and despite the lack of formal certificates, they manage to learn foreign languages at a decent level. Moreover the foreign language schools attract enjoy the greatest interest from the applying pupils.
Apart from that, I think that the article points out an important issue. One thing I noticed in Brussels is how little do the citizens speak English. I witnessed personally that in all EU institutions - the Council, the Commission and the Parliament the personal was speaking only French.
Some friends of mine suggested that they were protective of their language and simply refused to speak another language, although they knew it. Isn’t that however even worse? I am not saying that it should necessarily be English that everyone should speak, but at least those working in the EU institutions must speak at least 3 languages. It is a requirement for the flight attendants!
A similar problem could be seen in the translations of the subpages if the EU websites. Currently most of them support only 3-4 languages out of the 20+ that are used. A typical example would be the websites of the EP parties.
I am also not so sure about Czech Republic. My experience is that many people spak or English or German or some other Slavic language. But maybe someone from the country can explain better. But definitely Italy can be considered as a country where multilinguism might be a problem.
I’m totaly agree. Here in Spain, most of us are very bad in english…. Y creo que es español debería ser también una lengua de trabajo en las instituciones.
Sure, I would like spanish to be one of the working languages, why not? It is a universal language after all, and we can see it becoming more and more popular, at least here in Finland, I’m not so sure is this the situation in other countries too? Please let me know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTnm7zylJJc
Sure, I would like spanish to be one of the working languages, why not? It is a universal language after all, and we can see it becoming more and more popular, at least here in Finland, I’m not so sure is this the situation in other countries too? Please let me know.
Hakunamatata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTnm7zylJJc
Here´s another funny video about languages in our current global world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdf2eLeCLHI
Well, I must admit that, as for a foreing language, we don’t show great enthusiasm -though we can’t generalize like that. As you said, Spanish is so spoken that a lot of people think that they don’t need to speak English. That’s a big mistake. Though Spanish is spoken all over the world, we’re not just Spaniards, but also Europeans, and we must learn other European language (at least) in order to participate actively in the EU.
It’s a shame we don’t have a unique European language -Eurolingua doesn’t seem to be working very well.
So, in my view, the problem is that, linguistically, we don’t share culture. We don’t watch TV programs in foreing languages -subtitled, at least-, we don’t watch films in their original versions, we don’t listen to music in other languages -but in English-, we don’t read books in other languages, etc. Generally speaking, we don’t have a multilinguistic culture, so we can’t afford to have great multilinguistic cooperation. And besides, we can’t afford to have a trully European feeling, because the different languages and the determination of some people to use their own language at all costs -maybe as an attepmt at protecting it, so to say it- is blocking the flow of culture and ideas that would lead us to share a really European identity. But I must give another slant on this issue: we shouldn’t obligate -not directly, but for example, giving advantages to the speakers of language in question, as happens in Spain- the use of a language. Ultimately, citizens should decide whether they want to speak a language or not.
Another point is that the EU should also encourage the learning of Spanish in the rest of Europe, as it’s one of the most spoken languages in the world. The problem is that everybody want their language to be used -not only in theory, but also in practice- and at last, it is unprofitable to use so many languages.
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