Skip to main content
Knowledge Centre on Interpretation

‘To have another language is to possess a second soul’: multilingualism and mother tongue

In a survey conducted by the EC in 2006, 56% of respondents reported being able to speak in a language other than their mother tongue - Majorcadailybulletin.com

We are surrounded by language during nearly every waking moment of our lives. We use language to communicate our thoughts and feelings, to connect with others and identify with our culture, and to understand the world around us.

For many people, this rich linguistic environment involves not just one language but two or more. In fact, the majority of the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual. In a survey conducted by the European Commission in 2006, 56 percent of respondents reported being able to speak in a language other than their mother tongue. In many countries that percentage is even higher—for instance, 99 percent of Luxembourgers and 95 percent of Latvians speak more than one language.

Read more

Give feedback on this page

mandatory field