Official languages in schools as well as government

[Ostpuff]

While Swedish is the official language, Sweden has a couple of minority languages, including Finnish, Sami, Meänkieli, Yiddish and Romani Chib. The first three are only minority languages in certain areas, while the latter two are not, as they are not specifically spoken in any specific areas. (Yiddish is spoken by very very few). No signs or so are signed in any other language than Swedish.

As for the schools, you learn English from first grade and then a so called B-Språk (meaning B-Language), either German, French or Spanish from 6th grade. Some schools offer an even bigger selection, for example Chinese has appeared in some schools. In high school or Gymnasium in Swedish, the third language is optional but it does give extra points, so I think it's definitely worth it.

The third language can also be replaced by extra-English if needed.

[Roro44]

I didn't know but the Vatican have 4 offical languages for less than 1000 peoples
Italian : for the state, they speak italian, they are in Roma, so ..... logic
Latin : official language for Catholic Church
French : Diplomacy
German : for the army, the Swiss guards

[n4gix.bill.leaming]

This has been a throughly interesting exchange of information! It is truly remarkable for having been conducted in English...

Back in the Late Dark Ages (1962-1966) I attended the Leysin-American School in Leysin-Feydey*, Switzerland. Students were from literally all over the world. Some of my classmates were even sons or daughters of a few notorious bannana-republic dictators, but let's not go into that any further! No politics.

What was interesting to me is the school's approach to languages. Since Switzerland has three official languages, it is not surprising that students were required to learn German, Italian and French, as well as English. In fact, anyone who's native language was one of those four soon found out that all of their regular classes were taught in the other three! Talk about being a trial by fire!

Thus, my chemistry, geology, physics and other hard-science classes were taught entirely in German.
All of my other classes save philosophy and literature were taught in French. The latter two classes were taught in Italian and Latin for the most part, with some French thrown in for good measure.

I've always thought of the irony of me being taught German by an English woman, in a Swiss/American school, who was herself a retired professional Italian Opera singer.

Do watch this short video and you will see why I loved being a student there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtUPM3db ... r_embedded

This image gallery is very nice as well:
* http://www.las.ch/media_gallery

[ZelvaCZ]

I've always thought of the irony of me being taught German by an English woman, in a Swiss/American school, who was herself a retired professional Italian Opera singer.

Oh god

[LA-MJ]

Even though it's not an official language, I still am obliged to learn Ancient Greek at high school, I think in some classes in senior high it's optional (that I WON'T select).

now that explains why I couldn't get a single word of English from almost all the Greek I've ever met

The french is the only official languages in France

In France, English is compulsory up to age 18 and a second language (Spanish or German) between 13 years and 18 years for most students.
Then students continue to learn language or no according to their studies
But in the region where I live (north-west), we can learn language Brittany from 5/6 years to 15 years olds with history Taught in brittany!
I think it's the same in south west of France with Catalan language or in north east with german and also in corsican, maybe .......

And yet we all know how you guys like pretending you don't speak a word of it

Yeah, yeah I know, /stereotypes

[tkk7406]

now that explains why I couldn't get a single word of English from almost all the Greek I've ever met

The Greeks have a very unusual accent when they speak English. That's because they don't have some specific sounds like in the English language. That didn't stop the creation of new words back then though. In Greek the sound "ē" (as in e-mail) can be written in 5 different ways in Modern Greek, whereas in Ancient Greek it can be written in 7 different ways. Also the sound "e" (as in echo) and the sound "o" (almost identical to clock) can be written in 2 different ways. And that's before you get to the grammar. That's why many people here, regardless of their age, can't always spell correctly. The teachers were quite surprised when I was making very few mistakes in the spelling, less than the locals for that matter, when I've been here for only 6 years.

Conclusion: The Greeks might not have as many sounds as other languages, but there are many ways to write one sound. And so, it's easier for a foreign person to speak Greek fluently, than a Greek to speak a foreign language fluently. That's what I've learnt here.

[La_FuAzz]

I learn ancient Greek at school and It's grammatically very difficult, but not as difficult as Latin. We don't learn how to speak because it's simply impossible for most of us. In ancient Greek you have a lot of words which don't mean anything at all. Is this still the case in modern Greek? I often hear modern Greek is more English-like than ancient Greek (grammatically and the words-that-don't-mean-anything). Is that true?

[tkk7406]

In ancient Greek you have a lot of words which don't mean anything at all. Is this still the case in modern Greek? I often hear modern Greek is more English-like than ancient Greek (grammatically and the words-that-don't-mean-anything). Is that true?

I think what you're talking about is the tiny 2 lettered or 3 lettered words that go in the beginning of the verb or sentence. In that case, it's both yes and no. Yes because those words don't really translate into English but no because they are essential for the sentence to make sense. You get more of those words in Ancient Greek. As for the grammar, you're right. Modern Greek is a lot easier than Ancient Greek but I wouldn't go so far as to saying it's English-like. Yes, they do share more grammatical rules with each other than Ancient Greek but not that many to be honest.

[volan123]

What about Slovenian language having besides singular and plural another form called dual?

Example: Midva greva ven.
Translation: We two are going out.

*troll face*

[Roro44]

Even though it's not an official language, I still am obliged to learn Ancient Greek at high school, I think in some classes in senior high it's optional (that I WON'T select).

now that explains why I couldn't get a single word of English from almost all the Greek I've ever met

The french is the only official languages in France

In France, English is compulsory up to age 18 and a second language (Spanish or German) between 13 years and 18 years for most students.
Then students continue to learn language or no according to their studies
But in the region where I live (north-west), we can learn language Brittany from 5/6 years to 15 years olds with history Taught in brittany!
I think it's the same in south west of France with Catalan language or in north east with german and also in corsican, maybe .......

And yet we all know how you guys like pretending you don't speak a word of it

Yeah, yeah I know, /stereotypes

It's not because English is compulsory that we know speak english