The future belongs to those who speak several languages!

 

According to the European Union, “multilingual citizens are better placed to take advantage of the educational, professional and economic opportunities created by an integrated Europe”. That’s why the ability to speak several languages is the major goal of European language policy.

According to a 2012 report, more than seven in ten Europeans agree that people in the EU should be able to speak more than one language in addition to their mother tongue. And yet, at present, only a quarter of Europeans can do that.

The European Union’s policy proposes that every citizen should speak their mother tongue, a neighboring language and a third, international language.

Multilingualism gives you access to the world. Countries where the main language is spoken by relatively few people recognized this a long time ago, which is why the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland have some of the highest rates of multilingualism in Europe. Their economies have also been consistently among the strongest in Europe in recent decades. Perhaps with this in mind, newer member states such as Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are now among the most multilingual of all, with more than 50% of respondents in each country able to speak three languages.

In contrast, countries with a dominant official language that has a large number of native speakers have not been so proactive in encouraging multilingualism. Britain, France, Portugal, Italy and Spain are all well below the European average when it comes to multilingualism. Their economies have also been suffering for much of the last decade. That’s not to suggest that the cause for the countries’ economic problems has been a lack of language skills, but perhaps that the approach to languages could reflect something larger; perhaps to do with global outlook. Germany and Austria, both officially monolingual countries, have suffered less in the recent economic turmoil, and both have higher rates of multilingualism. Their economic strength has been based on exports.

On an individual level, each language you speak opens up new places to travel, new people to meet and new possibilities for work. When you are able to speak more languages, you’re able to interact with more people and understand their realities. Each language is a lens through which we view the world.

The future belongs to those who speak several languages!