<div dir="ltr"><h1 itemprop="name headline">Should English remain the main language for EU business after Brexit?</h1><h2 class=""><span class=""></span>English dominates to a considerable extent, but native speakers in the EU are set to drop from 14% to around 1%.</h2><ul class=""><li class=""><div itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemprop="author"><div class=""><img src="https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/thumb/1530260/andrew-linn.jpg?w=54&h=54&l=50&t=40" alt="Andrew Linn" title="Andrew Linn" itemprop="image" height="54" width="54"></div>
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<span>By </span><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/reporters/andrew-linn" class="" rel="author" itemprop="url"><span itemprop="name">Andrew Linn</span></a>
</span></div>July 4, 2016 17:46 BST </li><li class="">
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<p> <span style="font-weight:400">After Brexit, there are various things that some in the EU hope to see and hear less in the future. <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nigel-farage-quits-ukip-leader-after-doing-his-bit-help-britain-leave-eu-1568767" target="_blank">One is </a></span><span style="font-weight:400"><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nigel-farage-quits-ukip-leader-after-doing-his-bit-help-britain-leave-eu-1568767" target="_blank">Nigel Farage</a></span><span style="font-weight:400">. Another is the English language.</span></p><p>In the early hours of June 24, as the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/boris-johnson-looked-sick-because-he-has-no-idea-how-fix-national-disaster-hes-bequeathed-us-1567413" target="_blank">referendum outcome was becoming clear</a>, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, left-wing MEP and French presidential candidate, <a href="https://twitter.com/JLMelenchon/status/746300956577505280" rel="nofollow">tweeted</a> that "English cannot be the third working language of the European parliament".</p>
<div class="">More from IBTimes</div><ul itemtype="http://schema.org/WebPage" itemscope=""><li><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/germanys-vice-chancellor-calls-young-britons-be-offered-eu-citizenship-following-brexit-1568827" itemprop="relatedLink"><span class=""></span> Germany's Vice-Chancellor calls for young Britons to be offered EU citizenship following Brexit</a></li><li><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nigel-farage-resigns-five-things-we-learned-ukip-leader-steps-down-get-life-back-1568820" itemprop="relatedLink"><span class=""></span> Nigel Farage resigns: Five things we learned as Ukip leader steps down to 'get life back'</a></li><li><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nigel-farage-resigns-twitter-reacts-ukip-leader-says-he-wants-his-life-back-1568778" itemprop="relatedLink"><span class=""></span> Nigel Farage resigns: Twitter reacts as Ukip leader says he wants his life back</a></li></ul><div class="" id="div-gpt-ad-Right2-box"><div class=""><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/corporate/advertise-with-us" class="" rel="nofollow">Why advertise with us</a></div></div><p>This
is not the first time that French and German opinion has weighed in
against alleged disproportionate use of English in EU business. In 2012,
for example, a <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/section/languages-culture/news/commission-denies-english-language-favouritism/" rel="nofollow">similar point</a>
was made about key eurozone recommendations from the European
Commission being published initially "in a language which [as far as the
Euro goes] is only spoken by less than 5m Irish". With the number of
native speakers of English in the EU set to drop <a href="http://languageknowledge.eu/" rel="nofollow">from 14% to around 1%</a> of the bloc's total with the departure of the UK, this point just got a bit more traction.</p><p><strong>Translation overload</strong></p><p>Official EU language policy is multilingualism with equal rights for all languages used in member states. <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/displayFtu.html?ftuId=FTU_5.13.6.html" rel="nofollow">It recommends</a>
that "every European citizen should master two other languages in
addition to their mother tongue" – Britain's abject failure in achieving
this should make it skulk away in shame.</p>
<img class="" id="i1529913" src="https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1529913/nigel-farage.jpg?w=400" alt="Nigel Farage" title="Nigel Farage" itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage" height="493" width="736"><span class="" itemprop="caption">Nigel Farage holds a British Union Jack flag as he waits for the start of a debate at the European Parliament </span><span class="" itemprop="copyrightHolder">Vincent Kessler/ Reuters</span><p>The
EU recognises 24 "official and working" languages, a number that has
mushroomed from the original four (Dutch, French, German and Italian) as
more countries have joined. All EU citizens have a right to access EU
documents in any of those languages. This calls for a translation team
numbering around 2,500, not to mention a further 600 full-time
interpreters. In practice most day-to-day business is transacted in
either English, French or German and then translated, but it is true
that English dominates to a considerable extent.</p><p>The preponderance
of English has nothing to do with the influence of Britain or even
Britain's membership of the EU. Historically, the expansion of the
British empire, the impact of the industrial revolution and the
emergence of the US as a world power have embedded English in the
language repertoire of speakers across the globe.</p><blockquote class=""><p><strong><em>English is the most widely spoken foreign language in 19 of the member states where it is not an official language. </em></strong></p></blockquote><p>Unlike
Latin, which outlived the Roman empire as the lingua franca of medieval
and renaissance Europe, English of course has native speakers (who may
be unfairly advantaged), but it is those who have learned English as a
foreign language – "<a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=125584&fileId=S0266078401004023" rel="nofollow">Euro-English</a>" or "<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2009.01582.x/abstract;jsessionid=16AE55089FD1D1F37390E68675283539.f02t04" rel="nofollow">English as a lingua franca</a>" – who now constitute the majority of users.</p><p>According to the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_en.pdf" rel="nofollow">2012 Special Eurobarometer on Europeans and their Languages</a>,
English is the most widely spoken foreign language in 19 of the member
states where it is not an official language. Across Europe, 38% of
people speak English well enough as a foreign language to have a
conversation, compared to 12% speaking French and 11% in German.</p><p>The
report also found that 67% of Europeans consider English the most
useful foreign language, and that the numbers favouring German (17%) or
French (16%) have declined. As a result, 79% of Europeans want their
children to learn English, compared to 20% for French and German.</p><p><strong>Too much invested in English</strong></p><p>Huge
sums have been invested in English teaching by both national
governments and private enterprise. As the demand for learning English
has increased, so has the supply. English language learning worldwide <a href="http://www.ednetinsight.com/news-alerts/voice-from-the-industry/the-global-english-language-learning--ell--market.html" rel="nofollow">was estimated</a>
to be worth US$63.3 billion (£47.5 billion) in 2012, and it is expected
that this market will rise to US$193.2 billion (£145.6 billion) by
2017. The value of English for speakers of other languages is not going
to diminish any time soon. There is simply too much invested in it.</p><blockquote class=""><p><strong><em>The
value of English for speakers of other languages is not going to
diminish any time soon. There is simply too much invested in it.</em></strong></p></blockquote><p>Speakers of English as a second language outnumber first-language English <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/language/eng" rel="nofollow">speakers by a ratio of 2:1</a>
both in Europe and globally. For many Europeans, and especially those
employed in the EU, English is a useful piece in a toolbox of languages
to be pressed into service when needed – a point which was evident in a <a href="http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/433577" rel="nofollow">recent project</a>
on whether the use of English in Europe was an opportunity or a threat.
So in the majority of cases using English has precisely nothing to do
with the UK or Britishness. The EU needs practical solutions and English
provides one.</p><p>English is unchallenged as the lingua franca of
Europe. It has even been suggested that in some countries of northern
Europe it has become a second rather than a foreign language. Jan
Paternotte, D66 party leader in Amsterdam, <a href="http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2008/08/make_english_second_official_l/" rel="nofollow">has proposed</a> that English should be decreed the official second language of that city.</p><p>English
has not always held its current privileged status. French and German
have both functioned as common languages for high-profile fields such as
philosophy, science and technology, politics and diplomacy, not to
mention Church Slavonic, Russian, Portuguese and other languages in
different times and places.</p><p>We can assume that English will not
maintain its privileged position forever. Who benefits now, however, are
not the predominantly monolingual British, but European anglocrats
whose multilingualism provides them with a key to international
education and employment.</p><p><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/strategic-error-deceit-boris-johnson-michael-gove-led-this-brexit-mess-uk-must-reconsider-1568302" target="_blank">Much about the EU may be about to change</a>,
but right now an anti-English language policy so dramatically out of
step with practice would simply make the post-Brexit hangover more
painful.</p><p><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/should-english-remain-main-language-eu-business-1568858">http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/should-english-remain-main-language-eu-business-1568858</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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