swiss wrote on Mon, 3 Mar 2008 19:39:45 +0100:
sm> In Luxembourg, people speak three foreign languages,
sm> while in the Netherlands this figure is 2.2 and in
sm> Switzerland two. The European Union average before
sm> its expansion into eastern Europe was 1.14.
The Swiss I meet usually seem to know at least 2 languages in
addition to English, tho' that's not always the case away from
towns. The number of languages spoken can be intimidating. I had
dinner once with a lawyer's family in Zurich and the 16year-old
daughter of the house spoke German ( standard and Swiss),
French, Italian, Romansch and English. However in my experience,
the most likely mainland country to find someone who would use
English is Holland but, not wishing to be sarcastic, who speaks
Dutch but Dutch people and some Belgians? More's the pity, I
could get to like the language even if some of the vowel sounds
are a challenge :-)
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland
E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
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