Answer: “Abolish the teaching of German, French and Spanish”

English is the language of Europe Translation Today, nothing else. If Swedes, Germans, French, Italians and Dutch meet in Berlin, Amsterdam, Lisbon or Paris, the language they speak to each other will be English. If you study a master’s program today, you will often sit in a class with people from all corners of Europe and the world, and the language all these students speak to each other is English.

Although Great Britain is no longer a member of the Union, English is the language spoken in EU institutions. In all countries in the European Union English is the most common second language. When Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin and our then Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson held a joint press conference on the countries’ NATO applications, they spoke in English.

English is already the most important language in Europe. The problem is that the level is not high enough in large parts of Europe, and the level needs to be increased in Sweden as well. However, this is improving significantly over time, but it needs to happen faster and more widely.

Birgitta Hellquist writes Inside An answer On that day My submitter “The first and most basic function of language is communication”. That is why we need a common language across Europe, which all citizens can master at a high level – so that we can communicate with each other and understand each other seamlessly. But to increase mobility between member states and attract skilled and highly educated people from other countries.

Germany is overhauling its immigration system as it struggles with a major labor shortage. Currently under discussion That English-speaking jobs are in high demand in Germany The country can attract more people and compete with countries like the US and the Netherlands for attractive workers.

Even keeping English as a second language is not a problem, no one is advocating the elimination of national languages. My argument is that English should be mastered at mother tongue level along with national languages ​​across Europe. To reach that point, we need to focus on only one foreign language, namely English, and not another third language. After all, it would be a gain in EU countries where the level of English is significantly lower than in Sweden.

in another Answer In my submission, CG Pernbring writes that it is embarrassing to hear ministers from various EU member states speak poor English. The reason for this in many cases is precisely because of insufficient mastery of English. If they had learned enough English, it wouldn’t have sounded like that, and then the nuances would have come out even when they spoke English.

In secondary school, the subject of modern languages ​​is compulsory in all four university preparatory programmes. There, students must study 100 or 200 credits in modern languages. I see no reason why studying German, French or Spanish should be compulsory. These credits should be replaced with English so that the level of English will increase further.

If students are particularly interested in the language, you can make it more optional. That way, EU citizens will be able to learn English at a higher level than is the case today in many EU countries; One learns English halfway and spends years in a third language, but still cannot speak. In Sweden, many people learn German, French or Spanish for five years, but later in life know nothing of the language.

to learn Learning a language from scratch is very demanding and takes a long time. According to linguists It takes between 7 and 15 years to reach a high level in Swedish, Swedish is often one of the easiest languages ​​for someone who is fluent in English to learn. For example, the grammar in Swedish is significantly easier than in German and the pronunciation is easier than in Danish or French.

There are 24 official languages ​​in the European Union, and to communicate with each other, the solution is not to learn more languages, as Birgitta Hellqvist suggests, because we cannot learn all of these languages. The solution is that we learn a common language across Europe, and then English is more reasonable.

This is how you respond to submissions and comments