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Two figures stick out in the rich material:
When surfing the Internet, only 15,6% will use their first foreign language and a mere 9,3% their second foreign language. All others will use their mother tongue, i.e. 84% or more. This a lot more more than previously known and accentuates the need for website translation.
The Eurobarometer survey was conducted last December among 16 000 citizens of the European Union, and provides information on the language knowledge of Europeans, their opportunities to use the foreign languages they know, their opinions on the usefulness of speaking other languages, their interest in speaking these languages and the ways in which languages are learned in the various Member States.
The 15 EU member states are: United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Notable non-members in western Europe are Norway and Switzerland.
The results of this Eurobarometer survey include the following findings:
41% of the people interviewed said that they speak English, which was more than French (19%), German (10%) or Spanish (7%). The proportion of Europeans who can only speak their mother tongue is 47%, which is an average that hides major differences between Luxembourg where just 2% can only speak their mother tongue and the United Kingdom, where 66% of the British people can only speak their mother tongue. In Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, less than 15% of citizens cannot express themselves in another language, while this is the case for 56% of Portuguese people, 53% of Spaniards and 51% of French people.
74% of Europeans cannot speak a second foreign language and 92% cannot speak a third foreign language. And yet, a considerable majority of Europeans considers that everyone should know a foreign language: 71% take this view, the least convinced being the Germans (64%) and Austrians (55%), and the most convinced the Luxembourgers (96%) and Greeks (86%). When parents are asked why their children should learn other European languages at school or university, the main reason given is the opportunities that this opens up on the labour market (74%), followed by the number of speakers of this language.
22% of Europeans do not consider themselves to be "good at languages". The people with the most confidence in their abilities are the Danes, Greeks and Luxembourgers. The people with the least confidence in their abilities are the French and Germans.
Europeans learn foreign languages mainly at secondary school (59%), much more so than on holiday (20%). The proportion of people who learn languages at work is low (17%), but with major differences between Spain (38%) or Italy (40%) and Portugal (2%) or France (3%). The Member States in which children often start learning their first foreign language at primary school are Ireland, Luxembourg and Austria.
The reasons that deter European citizens from learning a foreign language are, first, a lack of time (34%), followed by a lack of motivation (31%). The cost of language training is another factor that discourages people from learning languages, especially in the countries of southern Europe.
47% of Europeans think that the enlargement of the European Union should not result in a decision to choose only one common language of communication. 38% of the people interviewed believe that this will be inevitable, especially the Italians (60%) and the Greeks (48%).
At the time of writing, a sicx page executive summary is available in English in pdf-format, while the whole 91-page report is in French. More languages will become available soon.
[edited by: Rumbas at 12:40 pm (utc) on Nov. 26, 2003]
[edit reason] Removed link - "different" content now [/edit]
It once again puts emphasis on the importance of language specific web sites if you want to target the european market.
We (think) we're so good at english but we tend not to use it for information gathering and rarely for shopping the net.
I participated in a similar survey some time ago - wondering if this were the one..
Probably. Here is an interesting cultural difference for you: 36,7% of the Danes said that they speak English "very well" and 34,9% "well". Total 71,6%. By contrast, only 0,1% of the Swedes responded "very well", but 88,4% said "well". The total is the highest in Europe, but touting your horn is a mortal sin in this country...
[edited by: Rumbas at 12:34 pm (utc) on Nov. 26, 2003]
[edit reason] Removed link - "different" content now [/edit]
This study shows with convincing majority that if you want to target Europeans - you need to have the taget country set up with target language. I.e using mother tongue.
Clearly you could get in touch with Europeans using US/UK language only. A whopping 16%..
Not only using local language will be benificial, so will the ability to perform on the local SE's in addtion to providing local content to both SE and user.
[europa.eu.int...]
Thanks renke!
<added> OOps! did not see the update, sorry!</added>
