Brexit: the referendum

That would leave only the Republic of Ireland as the mainstay of the English language :D as official in the EU, and such a strange situation might very well cause a huge rise in the number of people in that island using Gaelic.
 
Craig B said:
That would leave only the Republic of Ireland as the mainstay of the English language :D as official in the EU, and such a strange situation might very well cause a huge rise in the number of people in that island using Gaelic.
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Nope.
 
MCel58 said:
But there is talk of this in most pubs and cafes in Brussels over the past week and seemingly there have been a number of request from constituents to their MEPs to have it raised in the EU parliament.
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A bit silly. In my travels to various sites (big pharma, biotech, and academic institutes running biotech studies) I have found English being used as the common tongue. For instance, in Basel, the workforce is pretty evenly split between French and German speakers. Unless all of the people in a conversation are known to be bi-lingual, then the assumption is made that they will speak in English. It isn't really a case that English is a major international language, but it is the primary one when you factor in those that speak it as a second language.

The EU is going to have to make itself well understood internationally even when the UK finally leaves. The other thing to thing about is what would replace it? Arguably Spanish as it has more speakers than French or German. I doubt most German speakers wouldn't care a damn as they are typically very pragmatic, but the French would have a hissy fit! ;)
 
Mikemcc said:
A bit silly. In my travels to various sites (big pharma, biotech, and academic institutes running biotech studies) I have found English being used as the common tongue. For instance, in Basel, the workforce is pretty evenly split between French and German speakers. Unless all of the people in a conversation are known to be bi-lingual, then the assumption is made that they will speak in English. It isn't really a case that English is a major international language, but it is the primary one when you factor in those that speak it as a second language.

The EU is going to have to make itself well understood internationally even when the UK finally leaves. The other thing to thing about is what would replace it? Arguably Spanish as it has more speakers than French or German. I doubt most German speakers wouldn't care a damn as they are typically very pragmatic, but the French would have a hissy fit! ;)
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Yes, the current position of the UK in the EU is not the primary reason why English is the current international language of business.

ETA: This week I have had teleconference calls with Germany, the Netherlands, the US and Taiwan - all use English as the lingua franca.
 
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