Languages - EU: English becoming the main language spoken in the EU

A recent survey showed that in the EU, where there are some 40 languages and dialects spoken, 51% of the population now mainly communicate in the English language. Other major languages people communicate in are German (32%), French (24%), Italian (16%) and Spanish (15%).

This number of people communicating in English is expected to increase every year.  becoming

EU-Digest 

Englishisms in France: Readers' franglais favourites

A row over plans to teach some courses at French universities in English has outraged some defenders of the language of Moliere - but plenty of French people habitually sprinkle their speech with franglais. Here, readers share their favourite anglicisms.

Read more: BBC News - Englishisms in France: Readers' franglais favourites

Literature: Britain's Stiff Upper Lip Is Real—at Least in Literature - Olga Khazan

Britain's literature has grown less emotional since the 1960s, but American literature has become more so.  

Overall, English-language literature has used far fewer emotionally-charged words over time, but American writers have bucked the trend: They've ramped up their use of "mood words" in the past few decades as Brits have grown more stoic.

The only emotion that's become more prevalent over time is "fear," which has occurred in books much more frequently since the 1970s. Maybe we can thank Stephen King for that.

Read more: Britain's Stiff Upper Lip Is Real—at Least in Literature - Olga Khazan - The Atlantic

The Baltic Course: English is the most studied language in EU schools - by Danuta Pavilenene

For the complete report from The Baltic Course click on this link

English is the most studied language in EU schools - by Danuta Pavilenene

English is the most studied language in schools in the European Union, but over 35% of adults only speak their mother tongue, fresh data released by Eurostat shows.

English is also the most commonly spoken foreign language among adults aged 25 to 64 years, except for Bulgaria, the Baltic States and Poland, where Russian predominates. While English may be the de facto EU lingua franca, in Great Britain, half of the pupils are learning no foreign languages at all, while in Ireland, one in five school children are not taking classes in overseas tongues. Among the pupils who do study foreign languages in these two countries, French is the most common choice. In contrast, all students in upper secondary education in the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Finland study two foreign languages, followed closely by Slovenia and Slovakia (98%) and Estonia (97%).

Spiegel: The Globalization of College: English Becomes Lingua Franca at Dutch Universities - by Marlies Hagers

For the complete report from SPIEGEL ONLINE click on this link

English Becomes Lingua Franca at Dutch Universities - by Marlies Hagers

As education becomes an export product, Dutch universities are increasingly switching to English as the language of instruction -- some say that higher education is suffering as a result.The proposal to make English the official language of instruction at Dutch universities was first introduced in 1990 by the country's education minister at the time, Jo Ritzen. If Dutch higher education wanted to continue to pull its weight in the sciences, Ritzen argued, it had to become more international.

Internationalization is the magic word everywhere. Education has become an export product and a university's competitiveness is measured, particularly by the executive boards, by the number of foreign students it hosts. At many faculties, deans are charged with tasks like organizing partnerships and student and faculty exchange programs with universities around the world. "It is part of globalization," says Gerry Wakker, deputy dean of education and internationalization in Groningen. "More and more people are working abroad for a long or short time or they are studying there for a year. We prepare them for that by creating groups of students that are as mixed as possible."