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From: dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
Subject: Re: Single European Language
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References: <DUNCAN.95Jun14125806@lightning.eee.strath.ac.uk> <souters-1606952034060001@mac16lvl2-3s.edfac.usyd.edu.au> <3rt4nj$38e@blackrabbit.cs.uoregon.edu>
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 1995 01:35:09 GMT
Lines: 63

Not very relevant to sci.lang, but a short response:

In article <3rt4nj$38e@blackrabbit.cs.uoregon.edu> bhelm@cs.uoregon.edu (B. Robert Helm) writes:
 > If the EU member states instead required the _same_ first foreign
 > language -- artificial or otherwise -- the students would be more
 > likely to really learn, use, and retain that language, all other
 > things being equal.
 > 
Current policy in the Netherlands is that everybody learns at least
one foreign language (and for those that speak Frisian, Dutch is not
counted as a foreign language).  But this choice comes only in at
later stages.  Three foreign languages are still tought at lower
levels (French, German and English required, some other languages
optional in addition to the standard curriculum).  When finally making
a choice English is the language choosen most, with German coming as
second and, alas, French as a small third.  (But you may chose more than
one foreign language.)

The reasons to chose a language are manyfold; I will name a few:
1.  English is many times chosen because it is the language one is most
    confronted with in the Netherlands.
2.  English is chosen because it is a requirement for the follow-up study.
    Most texts are in English so somebody doing mathematics, physics or
    chemistry is at least required to have the ability to read English.
    70 years ago the requirement would have been German for those studies.
    Only when most texts have been translated to Esperanto that would be
    a viable alternative.  (And, no, there are in most cases no Dutch
    translations; that would be prohibitively expensive.)
3.  German is chosen because it is perceived to be the easiest language
    amongst the foreign languages.  Also that the Netherlands border with
    Germany helps quite a lot.
4.  French is not chosen because it is perceived to be the most difficult
    of the three.
[ I do neither agree with 3 nor 4; I think that spoken French is easier
than spoken German.  But in my time we had all three languages until the
final exams. My son, who is 15 now, comes to the choice next year; his
intention is to retain as many languages as possible, although he also
intends to do a university study in the direction of mathematics. ]

Somebody else claimed that Belgians were mostly monolingual.  I do not
know where he found the figures, but he is dead wrong.  Nearly all
Flemish speakers know Walloon, and very many Walloon speakers know
Flemish.  In fact, all get both languages at school.

And again something else; about the Esperanto speaking population on
the net.  It is correct that there are very many Esperanto speakers in
eastern Europe.  It was encouraged to the extreme by the governments.
For instance, all workers with railway (railroad) companies were
required to know Esperanto if they would have work-related cross-border
connections.  I do not know how that is nowadays, but I found that
English would get me pretty far in Saint Petersburg.

I think Esperanto is a dead end as a first foreign language in Europe.
It would require an investment of a tremendous amount of money to
teach the teachers (at least in the Netherlands) without any perceived
immediate need.  Try to get around anywhere when the only languages
you (pretend) to know are Dutch and Esperanto.  How would I go around
in the US with those two languages (and, yes, I have no wish to look
around for people of the same mind; I want to wander around and see where
I get).
-- 
dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj  amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn  amsterdam, nederland; e-mail: dik@cwi.nl
