I'll take that back and apologise to any Esperanto speakers. The EU are required to allocate some resources hence cost, to Esperanto I suppose as there are 100k speakers and the EU have people working witb EEU for example. Even though they dont promote it, as you say. However I think only 0.2 percent speak it... Vs over 50pc speak English.

BTW I also heard that over 80pc of web sites are in English

Jon

I'm afraid it's a fact of life that people aspire to learn/speak English. Maltese is Arabic based, but a close 2nd is English.
Esperanto was tried but failed miserably. Where do you go to practise it?
I don't agree with people who say the British are lazy at languages; for too long French dominated language learning in schools, when in fact there are more Spanish speakers.
English is so adaptable; thank goodness we don't have institutions like "L'académie francaise" or "Real Academia Española" that constrict language usage.

So an artificial language invented in 1887 is a money wasting idea of the EU, didn't realise the EU had been around that long..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

Well Ive publicly apologised..... You probably missed that. I don't see a lot of apology here but will step up when necessary. To recap.

I personally think any investment for this 'initiative' is a waste. But supposed that with 100k people speaking the EU have to give them some right to be heard and therefore invested in (like the people working with the EEU) as the EU have to be 'fair'. You may be too young to remember the 70s but there was an initiative to have a common language. National pride stopped a selection of one of the biggies already there and widely spoken. Eg. English, Spanish, French, German etc. I would have accepted a 'grand lottery' to pick one rather than invest in something else.Even if we 'lost' that ' I still feel for all the reasons I gave and were the bulk of the post (rather than the one-liner) that English would remain THE common language and Brexit wont make a hoot of difference to that

Anyway subject of Esperanto closed for me.
Jon

Just an observation. I recently visited Portugal for the first time. From my (admittedly) limited exposure, my feeling is that the Portuguese use, and are far more acceptive of the English language than Spain.

Dearie me,when I suggested Esperanto it was a joke!

Jon-Bxl,If you think the Maltese(or Gibraltarians) think"English first" perhaps you haven`t had a conversation with a bus driver in either places recently.

Because as the most widely spoken second language within the EU and the world it's both the European and global lingua franca. That it is also the UK's native language may make life easier for Britons but it hasn't been done for our benefit.

Britinparis answered it for me in post 23, thanks. You started this thread with the question of English after brexit. And to quote you 'I believe the usual language used in Brussels meetings of ministers is English.' I didn't realise you also were including Maltese bus drivers in these ministerial meetings!

As we've discussed, in answer to your query, brexit won't make a hoot of a difference, English remains THE common 2nd language and it will remain an official language in the EU post-brexit. The preponderance of English as I mentioned in my posts, will keep it in demand and the most attractive language to learn as a 2nd and thus a way to bridge and communicate between other nationals. At least in the EU..... Let alone a bunch of countries wwide outside the EU.

You've totally misunderstood if you think I believe in (quote) 'English first'... I keep saying it is English second, and thus to quote britinparis the 'lingual franca' between nationalities. I certainly have never said it's done for our benefit.... Just a fact of life/reality that (for this generation,at least) it is the lingual franca.

And to be a cracked record, brexit won't make a hoot of a difference........ and so I hope we've answered your query in the OP

Jon