3B. Situations of Use

- Foreign languages are mostly used when on holiday abroad –

The use of languages other than the mother tongue currently takes place most often on holiday abroad. 42% of Europeans state that they use their first foreign language when on holiday while 44% indicate this to be the case for the second foreign language.

Approximately a quarter of Europeans indicate that they use their first foreign language while watching television or films or listening to the radio (26%), communicating with friends (25%) or while having conversations at work (25%).

The least frequently mentioned situations to practise foreign language skills are studying something else in a language other than the mother tongue (8%) and while travelling abroad on business (10%).

7% of the respondents say that they do not use their first foreign language in any of these situations whereas 14% indicate this to be the case for the second foreign language.

When it comes to the differences between the first and the second foreign language, excluding use on holiday, the first language is more frequently used in every situation mentioned here.

Over the last four years, some differences in the situations where Europeans use their language competences can be detected.

Focusing on the first foreign language, fewer respondents (42%) say that they use their first language apart from their mother tongue while travelling abroad (-5 points). On the other hand, more Europeans are using foreign languages in every other situation than in 2001. This is the case especially while they are using the internet (23%, +7 points) or communicating with friends (25%, +6 points) and in work related situations such as having a conversation (25%) and writing e-mails or letters at work (15%), with a 4-point increase for each.

These changes are partly explained by the enlargement of the EU, since some differences in the ways of use can be detected between the Member States of EU 15 and the 10 new Member States. Citizens of EU15 are significantly more likely to practise their foreign language skills on holidays abroad (45% against 27% in the new Member States).

On the other hand, the citizens of the 10 new Member States are significantly more active in using foreign languages while studying them (21% compared with 11% among the citizens of the old Member States).

At the country level, Danes (74%), Swedes (67%) and Austrians (66%) most often use languages other than their mother tongue on holiday, while this is the case for only 2% of Italians and 6% of Latvians.

68% of the population of Luxembourg and 67% of Malta state that they put their language competences to use while watching or listening to programmes in foreign languages. The Cypriots and Estonians (49% each) most frequently use their language skills in work-related conversations.

In the acceding and candidate countries the use of languages other than the mother tongue in the situations mentioned here appears to be modest. Among the group with the highest use, 37% of Croatians, 33% of Bulgarians and 30% of Romanians indicate that that they use foreign languages while watching television or films or listening to the radio, whereas 29% of Turkish have conversations with friends in a language other than their mother tongue.

As a general rule, men use foreign languages more in work-related situations whereas women tend to speak foreign languages in informal communication situations. Not surprisingly, young respondents use languages mainly while studying. This is also the case for active language learners who also put their language skills into practice at work.