Estonia scored highly in a recent survey of linguistic skills across the European Union. Among the 29 countries surveyed (the EU 27 plus Croatia and Norway), Estonia placed 6th in the percentage of the population speaking two or more foreign languages, and 7th in the proportion of secondary students who study two or more foreign languages.
The percentage of Estonian adults speaking two or more foreign languages was 55.9%, which positioned Estonia above other acknowledged polyglot nations Latvia (54.9%), Belgium (51.5%), and Sweden (50.4%), and far above such linguistic laggards as Spain (17.9%), Greece (11.9%), and Hungary (7.7%). The European leader on this measure was non-EU member Norway (74.7%), followed by Slovenia (71.8%), Slovakia (68.0%), Finland (67.9%), and Lithuania (66.1%). The EU average was 28.1%.
The survey was published last month by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Commission. Details are here.
The survey also revealed each country’s best known foreign language. Unsurprisingly, for most countries, and for the EU as a whole, the most popular foreign language was English. The only exceptions were the UK (French), Slovakia (Czech), and five countries, including Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, where the best known foreign language is Russian. But the survey also found that Estonia’s most studied foreign language is English, so at some point soon, English is likely to become Estonia’s best known foreign language as well.
