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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

Probably by far the biggest and most positive thing the EU could do to ensure EU startups come anywhere close to US startups in growth is to mandate English as the second official language for all EU members.

The language barrier is a HUGE problem for EU businesses. It's the main reason why online services grow 100x slower in the "European Union" compared to the same service being offered in the US, where a "state's language" makes no difference, because it's the same everywhere.

Because there isn't such "high scalability potential" as it is in the US, due to the language barrier, you also don't see as many investors throwing millions of euro at "ideas with potential".

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While no doubt helpful it’s also completely unrealistic as a number of commenters have pointed out.

There are however many things the EU could work on that would help: - common market for financial financial services (why does a FinTech company have to register in every country it wants to do business in?) - common market for media rights (why do I have different rules to license a song or movie in different countries? We don’t need 27 iTunes Stores) - common market for telecommunication (ISPs and mobile operators still function independently even if they share a brand) - common labor market - make it easier to hire across borders (my employer is having a tough time hiring regional employees as we have to get set up in every country with a legal entity and register for taxes, social security)

It’s also important to acknowledge how far Europe has gotten. The common Customs area, the Euro, SEPA, Schengen all help make doing business in Europe across countries a lot easier. The also help make talent more mobile as it’s easier to move across borders.

This would help businesses, but it would take a long time to pay off. Furthermore, just because a language is taught in schools doesn't mean people become competent at it. Schools don't give students the experience required to become confident in the use of the language. If you don't achieve that then people will prefer their native language solution instead.

That aside, there's a much bigger problem: sovereignty. How many Europeans would just accept a foreign language being made mandatory in their country? Eastern Europe still remembers Russification. We also have the example of French and its spread in France. I'm afraid that this kind of a rule would threaten the entire European Union project.

> Schools don't give students the experience required to become confident in the use of the language

Some countries are way, way better than others at teaching English. You can check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_English_Proficiency_Index.

Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway are at the top with very high proficiency. France is 31st and is famously terrible at teaching English. Spain is 35th, Italy 36th. So it seems to be possible to have good English from school when done correctly.

> How many Europeans would just accept a foreign language being made mandatory in their country?

Yep, almost nobody would accept this, that's for sure. People in France are already angry toward Ursula von der Leyen because she didn't speak enough French during the recent State of the Union... I personally don't care that much about my own native language and would love to see English be used instead, but that's clearly not the way others see it.

Not sure why you've got downvoated into oblivion. Factually right, practically not possible (EU doesn't have that power). Also hugely unpopular, maybe that's why the dv happened.

a) That would kill the EU in an instance. Most people don't identify with the Bloc, they do with their countries and language is such an important fact of that.

b) The EU has exactly as much power as their member states (which are sovereign, see Brexit) give her. And the members have decided to not give her that particular ability.

Despite what you might read on the Internet the EU is NOT the United States of Europe. It (or a successor) may be one day, but that day is at least a century away.

I think you would have to mandate English as the first language to get on level terms with the USA.

Most educated Europeans already speak English as a second (or third, fourth, …) language, but many still prefer to be spoken to in their first language (historically often because they don’t speak English that well, but that already has been slowly changing for decades)

This exact idea is something i m advocating for decades. Some countries already have english as a sec language (cyprus and i think malta).

The countries which have English as a second language.... were both British colonies until the 1960's. Malta had once even pondered integrating into the United Kingdom, though later gained independence and became a Republic. Cyprus has some undergraduate education in English (a friend of mine from Kuwait had gone to college there).

Other European countries don't have that history.

That just means that 3 or more are already on the plan. With the UK gone it s not even an issue of rivalry anymore. The eu could promote this as a means to facilitate international trade, and frankly i dont see why members would disagree since it s already de facto happening

Similar story for Ireland.

Seems unlikely. Translations aren’t that expensive. Different laws and regulations between EU members is a bigger problem. Take GDPR for example. One law, 27 agencies interpreting it in a different way.

The language fragmentation has quite a lot of associated costs. Translations are in fact quite expensive if you want to keep the quality of the messaging. But beyond that, the lack of common language means it is quite difficult to develop a common culture between Europeans countries. Between France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxemburg we have a somewhat shared culture because French is common to us, even if we have important local differences. For example as a swiss I consumed French and Belgian media my entire childhood, so I'm familiar with cultural references. When you move to Germany for example, you are now in a completely different bubble with very little shared context.

That's my personal experience at least.

Belgium is a good example of how languages aren't such a big deal. Most websites here are either Dutch & French or only one language if you only want to sell to your own language community. There is not much shared culture between Flemings and Walloons. I have no idea what kind of music, tv shows, movies are popular in Wallonia nor could I tell you the name of 5 famous Walloons. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Yet we can do business with each other just fine.

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