Should english be the official language in EU?

[Deleted]

Most EU countries have their own language which makes communication difficult between citizens within EU. If all countires had english as a 2nd language with their original primary language it would benefit everyone. Travelling around EU, finding jobs, diplomatic relations would benefit greatly from english being the language all knew. English is already very popular in the internet and it's the language for science.

In small countries like Finland and Scandinavia english is more important than Germany, France and Italy because they have large number of native speakers. It's a problem, Finnish people know english better than Italians partly because of necessity and education system.

So, I'd seriously want to see a future where english is an official 2nd language in every nation in EU. I'd want it to be taught as an important subject from young age everywhere. I feel the effect on economy and communication would greatly benefit from it happening. On this note I'd want to be able to speak with people from countires outside EU too, many Asian countries are off the radar for me because of the language barrier. So while unrealistic english being 2nd language in All countries in the world would be great.

Does anyone share my belief?

[Badpaladin]

I agree, although I doubt most people would be willing to cooperate, at least for some time. We need a generation that has grown up with the online community to be "in charge of things" before that could reasonably happen, because they're most likely to have communicated a lot in English.

[smelltheglove]

such an attempt would only be good for lolz, i can only imagine the outrage from france in particular. imo no, would serve no purpose, and would be fighting too many cultures to try

[eriseis]

I just want to point out that miscommunication will occur even when people have the same tongue. A little funny fact about Spanish, for instance, the word Colombians use to mean "to fail a class" means "to fuck" in the Domincan Republic and "to scrape" in Mexico. Languages have a divergent nature, so even if we all spoke the same language, differences would arise eventually.

[Kalis]

such an attempt would only be good for lolz, i can only imagine the outrage from france in particular. imo no, would serve no purpose, and would be fighting too many cultures to try

Simply for the reaction of the French, I'm all for this idea.

[Spectral]

I think people learning English is a good idea in general, since it's so widely used for commerce, science, and other important applications. I think requiring people to learn it is a pretty poor idea in general.

[Deleted]

Let's stick to our 23 official languages, no need to cause unnecessary outrages.

[Sunseeker]

No. German should be. Because they're paying for it all. Or Russian, because they'll get you eventually, might as well be prepared for your new Russian overlords.

[Namarus]

Pretty much is anyway. When I toured Europe I never had to bother with their native tongue. Everyone spoke at least some English.

[Baloneyz]

No, just to many nations in the EU. Slavs have their Slavic languages and will not accept English as their official language, so will say Germans and France. I have doubt that even Spain, Italy and Romania will accept English as their official language. Too much language culture for EACH European countries to make OFFICIAL place for English.

Maybe Albania and other kiss-ass countries, but generally no.

inb4
i know that the topic is to add the language as the SECOND one.

[Deleted]

Let's stick to our 23 official languages, no need to cause unnecessary outrages.

Idea is to push countries to set english as a 2nd official language alongside with their unique snowflake language and to have english as a semi-mandatory subject. You can have tools like requiring EU officials and diplomats to be able to speak english. Adding english guidelines to roads, directions in english etc. Removing the already existing languages would be impossible.

[Dassen]

YES. PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YES. I hate the Swedish language. It's just... blargh. I find it so much easier to express myself in English and the feeling and sound of speaking it is just... so much nicer than Swedish. I often wish that I would wake up one day and find that everyone here spoke English.

[Ethes]

How about no, and how about no!

What about making German the EU's second language. Makes way more sense however, I'm still against it. German is not only the official language in Germany, also in Austria and the main parts of Switzerland. Besides that, from my experience (so this might be wrong, don't take it as a fact) eastern european countries generally know their way around better in German than in English. Besides that, Germany is Europe's biggest economy

But the main thing is, you can't force people to learn a language. Even if you teach them at school! In Holland for example, we learn English from the age of 6 or so. Nonetheless, this doesn't mean everyone is actually any good at speaking English. The only people who will reach a decent level of English are the ones that use it outside of school.

The other thing is that the EU already enforces plenty of crap without this "oh, everybody needs to learn English from age X onwards in school" thing. And you know what the funny thing is OP? In most European countries people already learn English. So why make an official hass out of this by trying to force this down people their throats. By actually trying to do this you would probably have to fight pretty much most countries for this.

Oh yea, the economy. Why exactly do you think the economy would benefit greatly if everybody in the EU would speak English? Are you unaware that trade within the EU already is much bigger than from the EU to anywhere else in the world? According to your logic that English would benefit trade greatly, we would find way more trade with the USA than there is. And don't forget that people who work in trade usually speak a pretty decent level of English to start with...

Oh and the last thing... If you wish to speak with people from other countries... You won't do them a favor by enforcing English on them and then start talking English to them. If they're interested in English, they'll learn it (Even in Japan for example, where people also learn English from a young age onwards)! However, many don't care so they can't speak any. You will be way better of showing you've done some effort trying to learn their language and then communicate with them. Then the people of this country (whichever country really) will be way more open to you. Because for communicating with people, the same is true as for everything. If you want something to happen, you can't wait until it happens. You have to put effort in and make it happen.

Also, just out of interest... Where are you from OP?

[Kalis]

How about no, and how about no!

What about making German the EU's second language. Makes way more sense however, I'm still against it. German is not only the official language in Germany, also in Austria and the main parts of Switzerland. Besides that, from my experience (so this might be wrong, don't take it as a fact) eastern european countries generally know their way around better in German than in English. Besides that, Germany is Europe's biggest economy
...

The percentage of people in the EU who have English as their first or second language is almost twice that of Germany or France.

[Deleted]

Idea is to push countries to set english as a 2nd official language alongside with their unique snowflake language and to have english as a semi-mandatory subject. You can have tools like requiring EU officials and diplomats to be able to speak english. Adding english guidelines to roads, directions in english etc. Removing the already existing languages would be impossible.

It is a good idea, but the EU can't afford to lose more public support.

[Vladinator]

Learning English should be your choice, not something that is enforced by others. I am sure you wouldn't like it if China takes over EU and makes it so everyone must learn Chinese because they say so. It's better to let things go their natural way, more and more people learn English anyway so it's not as bad as it was 50 years ago, imagine in 50 more years I guess nearly everyone in EU will be able to speak English as a secondary language at least.

[Deleted]

What about making German the EU's second language.

I think there was strong objection that happening in the late 30's and early 40's.

[Ethes]

The percentage of people in the EU who have English as their first or second language is almost twice that of Germany or France.

I was talking about first language. Not second! Plus I still think there is no point in enforcing a language law within the EU as most people already learn English at school.

I think there was strong objection that happening in the late 30's and early 40's.

Yes, but we don't live in WW2 now do we. Plus it was merrely a example of the kind of arguement you would get for introducing something like this.

[mindp]

Well played.

[Alilei32]

Cant most Europeans already speak multiple languages? I mean it only makes sense because your countries are so close together. Most people I have met from Europe can speak English, their native language, and then usually one other.