Читать книгу The Mysteries of Bilingualism. Unresolved Issues онлайн

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In 2012, a survey conducted for the European Commission interviewed some 26,751 respondents in 27 member states of the European Union. The results appeared in a report that same year, Europeans and their languages (TNS Opinion & Social 2012 ). Even though not as a complete as a census with good language questions (but see above for the problems many have), it is a fine base to get a feel for the status of bi- and multilingualism in Europe. The report contains several sections and we will concentrate once again on language knowledge, and on language use, so as to be able to compare, when possible, the results with those from North America.

To the language knowledge question, “… which other languages, if any, do you speak well enough in order to be able to have a conversation?,” 54% of the respondents are able to hold a conversation in at least one additional language, 25% are able to speak at least two additional languages, and 10% are conversant in at least three languages. This confirms what everyone knows: many Europeans know other languages! Of course, there is a great deal of variability with countries like Luxemburg, Latvia, The Netherlands, Malta, Slovenia and Sweden having percentages of “at least one other language” above 90%, and countries like Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Portugal having less than 40%. English dominates as the most common language that Europeans are most likely to be able to speak (38%), followed by French (12%), German (11%), Spanish (7%) and Russian (5%).