What language do they learn rather than English in SPAIN?????

[RTKangaMummy]

What is the language the children learn as a 2nd language in SPAIN

1. english

2. portugese

3. french

Or do they learn 2 lang??????

Lots of Spanish people speak French, so I think it might be French ...

RTKM - is this vital to your tv guiding abilities?

Some might learn Catalan I suppose

no WSK

it in answer to another mumsnetter

she has a spanish au pair BUT she doesnt speak english so I was wondering what 2nd language she would have learnt at school?

I see, you're branching out

Remember many parts of Spain are bilingual, so the kids will be learning their own language + Spanish (Castillian).

My guess would be a choice between French and English. Many people I know of my age or younger speak excellent English, but Spanish people in general don't speak as much English as I've found in other European countries. Nothing wrong with that - their language is spoken throughout the world after all!

she is 26

I think portugese is an unlikely answer, as Portugese really isn't very different from Spanish. I certainly found that even in the very south of Spain, people spoke French. And train stations had signs in French and Spanish.

Depends where you are, but at the school near my dad (mallorca) they have their main lessons in Catalan, learn Spanish too (like the Welsh-medium schools here) and then have a choice of French/English/German.

It would be French or English usually.

But remember - doing it at school doesn't mean very much. How many 26 year old English people can genuinely communicate in another language?!

I've received quite a bit of interest from prospective Spanish au pairs recently, and they've all claimed to have either a good or basic knowledge of both French and English.

I don't think it's totally fair to compare English speakers with non-English speakers. We have a lot less exposure to foreign languges than other Europeans have to English/American.

I'm 40 and can speak French - was actually able to use my school French to work in a factory in France between the ages of 23 and 26. Were I applying for an au pair position, I would have happily declared that I could speak half-decent French.

I worked as an Au PAir in Spain 10 years ago and German was growing in popularity as a third language, english being the second language they learnt.

French used to be the second langauge they learnt until English overtook that. I got the impression the popularity of learning French was dying.

I asked DH to ask the Language teachers at his school

He asked the Head of Spanish what is the 2nd Language that children learn in Spain

He was told English

Message withdrawn

Schools round here teach English as a second language. Sometimes they often French too, but usually just English. The local language academy has about 15 English classes and 2 French ones. No German or portuguese, although portuguese might be more common near the border.

I've read that in parts of Cataluña, some children don't even learn Spanish - their main lessons are in Catalan and they choose English (rather than Spanish) as a second language