French in Luxembourg
Posted on 07. May, 2012 by Sean Young in Culture, Geography, People
Castle Luxembourg
When you go to Luxembourg, you will notice right away that several languages are spoken and written at the same time in the same place. Names of streets, shops, travel tickets, hotel registries and menus are mostly in French (some street and place names are also added in Lëtzebuergesch). Newspapers are mostly in German, but some cultural articles, many advertisements and social announcements are in French.
Although Luxembourgish is the national language, French has been enjoying the greatest prestige upon the founding of the country, and therefore gained preferential use as the official and administrative language. Parliamentary documents, proposed bills, procedures in court, administrative and judicial acts, are held and written in French, but the synoptic accounts of parliamentary debates are printed in German because they are distributed to all households in the country.
However, everything from road signs, to menus to information in stores will appear in French. It is also the language used to converse with foreigners, making it the most useful of the three languages to know. English is widely understood by such personnel as bus drivers, but many shop assistants will only respond if addressed in French or German. Apart from the more elderly inhabitants, virtually every Luxembourger understands and speaks standard French.
Education
From the second year of primary school onwards, French is added as a discipline to the general program of education which, at this stage, is still taught in German. Over the years, however, and particularly in secondary education, French gets an ever bigger share until it completely replaces German as the language of instruction, German being limited to the specialized courses in German language and literature. English too, it should be added, is required as a compulsory language throughout most of secondary education, and students choosing language studies also have the option to add Latin and/or ancient Greek.
French books and publications are widely read, written communication is mostly in French. Most of the Luxembourg periodicals aimed at the intellectual are almost entirely written in French, and so are the literary reviews and student magazines.
About Sean Young
Learning languages since 1978 and studying over 50 (achieving fluency in 10). Sean L. Young loves giving tips, advice and the secrets you need to learn a language successfully no matter what language you're learning. Currently studying Hindi and blogging his progress right here at Transparent Language - http://blogs.transparent.com/language-news.2 Responses to “French in Luxembourg”
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ASSALAMUALAIKUM WARAHMATULLAH HI TAALA WABAROKATUH
Bonjour Catalin. Parlez-vous français? Je parle et comprends l’arabe, mais, beaucoup de lecteurs ne connaissent pas l’arabe.