And you, what languages do you study?
Why the second most studied language and not the first? Basically because the English I would cover the entire map by being the first foreign language studied in the vast majority of European Union countries.
At least that's what the data says. Eurostat 2016 on which the map is based Most Studied Modern Foreign Language Except English in Lower Secondary Education who has published Jakub Marian on his website.
“I usually publish maps (I have published more than 200) and I am very interested in foreign languages and language study” This Czech linguist, mathematician, cartographer and musician explains to Traveler.es.
The map, which shows what percentage of students in the first cycle of Secondary study a language as a second foreign language, reveals that in Spain we opted for French, with 42% of the students dedicated to this activity.
French, Norwegians and Swedes opt for Spanish
And what about Spanish? No. This is not Eurovision and our Portuguese neighbors are not going to give us the 12 points. They also opt for French.
Those who do bet on studying the language of Cervantes as a second foreign language are the French (39%), the Swedes (43%) and the Norwegians (32%).
Apart from these three countries, Spanish is dwarfed by the French , studied as a second foreign language in twelve European countries, and the German , in ten.
“The data that most caught my attention are those of Luxembourg , where each student has to study french and german and most of them also study English ”, tells Marian.
“Bearing in mind that Luxembourg's native language is Luxembourgish, this means that on average Luxembourgers learn four languages at school. Other surveys show that the majority of Luxembourgers continue to speak at least four languages throughout their lives”, he says.
French and German win the game