What is the most common foreign language taught in the UK?

While the main languages taught in UK schools are French, German and Spanish, UK learners benefit from the availability of GCSE and A level qualifications in a much wider range of languages, reflecting the multicultural and multilingual nature of the UK.

What is the most learned foreign language in the UK?

“English is, of course, very important for the job market globally,” Espinosa explains. “It's a common lingua franca for business and tourism worldwide.” Meanwhile, Spanish has taken second place, and stands as the most popular foreign language to learn in the UK.

Which foreign language is most commonly taught in British schools?

England. At Key Stage 2 it is compulsory to for primary schools to study ancient and modern languages. French is offered at around 75% of primary schools, with Spanish at about 25% and German at about 5%, with about 45 minutes per week of language learning per school.

What is the most common language spoken in UK?

English, in various dialects, is the most widely spoken language of the United Kingdom, but a number of regional and migrant languages are also spoken. Regional indigenous languages are Scots and Ulster Scots and the Celtic languages, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and, as a revived language with few speakers, Cornish.

What foreign languages are taught in UK schools?

Most schools teach one or more of French, German and Spanish, but the Government does not promote the teaching of particular languages.

What languages do people in the UK speak?

What second language do British people learn?

Spanish – Britain's favourite foreign language

The most popular was Spanish at 25% followed by French at 21%, Italian at 14%, German at 13% and Japanese at 10%. Unsurprisingly, Spanish is the most popular A-level language in England. It is likely to overtake French as the most popular language at GCSE by 2026.

What language do British students learn?

While the main languages taught in UK schools are French, German and Spanish, UK learners benefit from the availability of GCSE and A level qualifications in a much wider range of languages, reflecting the multicultural and multilingual nature of the UK.

What are the top 3 languages spoken in UK?

What is the closest language to British?

Exploring the Closest Languages to English

Dutch, Frisian, and German stand as the nearest kin to English, with Frisian holding the strongest resemblance. The syntax, lexicon, and phonetics of both Frisian and English demonstrate their shared lineage.

What is the most British accent?

Perhaps the most famous British accent other than R.P. is Cockney. It developed as the dialect of the poorer working classes in the East End of London, and it's still regarded as a marker of 'true' East London heritage.

What is the most taught foreign language?

What is the most commonly taught foreign language?

Spanish is the one of the most popular languages to learn and is the most studied language in the US and UK. It's also the second most spoken language in the world. Spanish has also been ranked as the top 'Language for the Future' by the British Council due to its expected rising global influence.

Why is French taught in UK schools?

Why do they still teach French in UK schools, instead of Spanish and Chinese? The UK is within a 2–3 hour journey of two French speaking countries; and a knowledge of French is useful in at least 5 countries within easy reach of the UK (France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxemburg and Monaco.

What is the most learned foreign language in Europe?

The most common foreign language chosen is increasingly English (the most popular first foreign language in 23 of the 25 member states of the European Union which do not have English as the language of instruction), followed by French and German.

What language is most useful in Europe?

What is the best language for a British person to learn?

As the third most common language used on the Internet, learning Spanish is highly accessible and one of the best for English speakers to pick up compared to the likes of Mandarin, Korean, Arabic, or Hindi. According to the British Council, 34% of UK businesses agreed that Spanish was “useful to their organisation”.

What language is most like Italian?

According to Ethnologue, lexical similarity is 89% with French, 87% with Catalan, 85% with Sardinian, 82% with Spanish, 80% with Portuguese, 78% with Ladin, 77% with Romanian. Estimates may differ according to sources.

Which European language is most similar to English?

However, the closest major language to English, is Dutch. With 23 million native speakers, and an additional 5 million who speak it as a second language, Dutch is the 3rd most-widely spoken Germanic language in the world after English and German.

What is the hardest language to learn?

Mandarin Chinese

Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the writing system is extremely difficult for English speakers (and anyone else) accustomed to the Latin alphabet.

What language is spoken in Italy?

Italian is the official language of Italy, and 93% of population are native Italian speakers. Around 50% of population speak a regional dialect as mother tongue. Many dialects are mutually unintelligible and thus considered by linguists as separate languages, but are not officially recognised.

What is the easiest language to learn UK?

What are the top 3 easiest languages to learn for English speakers? Spanish, Italian and French are some of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn as a second language.

What percent of UK speaks French?

French is the most commonly spoken foreign language in the UK – used by 15 per cent of people – followed by just over one-in-20 who can understand German. But almost every other major language such as Mandarin, Arabic and Japanese is alien to the vast majority of English speakers in Britain.

What languages are taught in Italy?

Italian students keep studying English through middle school—in addition to another language, most often French, German, or Spanish—and high school. In high school, the number of languages and the amount of hours devoted to languages vary according to the type of school.

What percentage of Brits speak a foreign language?

Over a third (36%) of UK adults can speak more than one language fluently. This means that there are around 24.5 million bilingual adults in the UK. 17.5% are bilingual, so can fluently speak 2 languages. And 6.5% of people in the UK are multilingual, as they can speak 3 or more languages fluently.

How many Brits speak German?

There are sizable German-speaking populations in the Netherlands (12 million), Poland (7.2 million), France (4 million), the United Kingdom (4 million), Denmark (2.8 million), Sweden (2.7 million), Belgium (2.5 million), Russia (2 million), Hungary (1.8 million), Czechia (1.6 million), Italy (1.6 million), Croatia (1.5 ...