Knowing a second language has become commonplace in the European Union but Italians continue to be holdouts, although they recognise the importance of speaking at least two languages, a new study has found.
Based on a poll by the Eurobarometer group, the study found that only 46% of Italians claimed to have picked up at least some knowledge of another language at school, compared to a European average of 65%.
An average of 56% of Europeans claimed to speak two languages and 28% knew three or more.
Nevertheless, Italians are full of good intensions with 82% of the population convinced it is important to speak a second language and 61% believing that all EU citizens should speak a common language.
The poll was taken between November 4 and December 7 of last year on a cross section of 30,000 EU citizens and those of four candidate-members; Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey.
The majority of Italians, 59% admitted speaking only one language. The percentage was only higher among the Irish, 66%, and the British, 62%, who in any case speak the language spoken by 51% of Europeans, English. English was the best known foreign language, spoken by 38% of Europeans as a second or third language, compared to only 3% of non-Italians who speak Italian.
German and French were the second best-known second languages, both spoken by 14% of non-mother tongue Europeans.
