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by danmaz74 3615 days ago
I was thinking how useful it would be to have some "bilingual districts" in at least the top EU cities - areas where you could expect everything to also work in English (including doctors, shops, schools, etc.).

For example, I'm considering relocating with my family from Rome and would prefer to stay in the EU, but the UK isn't an option anymore. I'm not planning to move permanently, so, being sure to be able to do everything (not just work) in a comfortable enough way without having to learn the local language would be great.
1 comments
wolfgke 3615 days ago
> I was thinking how useful it would be to have some "bilingual districts" in at least the top EU cities

There are many people who (in my opinion rightfully) complain that when English speaking people talk of "bilingual"/"multilingual" they nearly always mean "native language + English" instead of "native language + another common language". For example in the southwest of Germany many people will understand French, too. But you stated clearly that this is exactly not what you mean.

> I'm considering relocating with my family from Rome

Here also Italian + French or Italian + German would be a very natural combinations for a bilingual district in Rome or Italy (Austria, Switzerland and France border to Italy - thus these combinations would be very natural).

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danmaz74 3615 days ago
Yes we could also create N! districts, where N is the number of languages spoken in the EU...

On a more practical level, I and my wife already speak English fluently, I have two remote teams composed with people from three different nations with whom I speak English, and having to learn eg German would make me need to use 3 different languages (4 for my wife, who is Russian). Seriously, the only shot we have at a European lingua franca at the moment is English.

Well, maybe I'll just have to move to Ireland or Canada if I actually move.

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wolfgke 3615 days ago
> Seriously, the only shot we have at a European lingua franca at the moment is English.

If we look at the language knowledge in the EU

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Unio...

51% knowledge for English is far from a lingua franca in Europe. At least German (32%) and French (26%) are also very common to know. In this sense you shouldn't think that there is some European lingua franca, but rather a small set of languages which has the property that if you know them, the probability is high that you will be understood.

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danmaz74 3615 days ago
As a matter of fact I wrote that English is our only shot (= hope) to have a lingua franca. If it has to be two separate languages... that means you just don't want a lingua franca. Which of course is perfectly legitimate, but I look forward to a future where my daughter will be able to work and live in any EU country without having to learn dozens of languages.
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solidsnack9000 3615 days ago
> ...I look forward to a future where my daughter will be able to work and live in any EU country without having to learn dozens of languages.

But that is already true. Learn German, French, maybe Russian or English -- and you can speak with a lot of people.

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