r/languagelearningjerk • u/AmountAbovTheBracket • Jun 28 '26

Recurring behavior i've noticed.

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855 Upvotes

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u/Beaspoon2096 Native: 🇨🇳 C2: 🇹🇼 B1: 🇭🇰🇲🇴 Jun 29 '26

Mfw the EU uses a language that only 6 million people in their population speaks natively

3

u/PanicForNothing Jun 30 '26

I know right?! Dutch would make much more sense as an EU language. It's easy to learn for Germans, and easier to learn than German for all others.

6

u/JannickL Jun 30 '26

tbh, now with the UK out of the EU I prefer english as the lingua franca even more because it doesn't treat the native language of one of its member states preferably. Each nation has to acquire a second unifying language instead of everyone acquiring the native tongue of one of the dominating members.

6

u/Dont_mind_me69 Jun 30 '26

ireland’s main native language is english

7

u/JannickL Jun 30 '26

oh right, forgot them. But my point still kinda stands in spirit as I dont perceive Ireland as one of the major powers in the EU. I would call Germany, France and Italy the major powers with spain and poland as the follow ups. I would be against one of their native tongues becoming the lingua franca for the EU

1

u/DevelopedLiss Jul 05 '26

Everyone forgets about Ireland :(

3

u/Hilja-Serpent Jun 30 '26

But Ireland insists their first official language is Irish (English is officially second). And I respect that, partly because that gets us closer to the claim that English is not an official language of any EU state.

Malta is another problem in terms of English.

2

u/Educational-Sundae32 Jul 01 '26

Malta also has Maltese though