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Comment by Dah00n | Hacker News Reader

> introduce English as main language of schooling

Good idea - wrong language. English would make EU less European. German would be a better choice, or French or <inset an actual EU language>. Not that I believe in the idea.

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English was European before the EU existed and will still be after it is gone

the EU tries very hard to conflate itself with "Europe", but it is not Europe

it is a political entity that happens to be based in Europe, and one that does not even represent a majority of the European population

it does not get to decide what is and what is not European

English is still the most widely spoken foreign language in the EU. And with UK out, it would be an almost neutral choice for a common language.

English is the language spoken by the broadest base of people in the EU, and since Brexit lacks the kind of partisan status that e.g. French or German would have.

Ireland beg to differ.

There are 5mn people in Ireland, English is now effectively a neutral language in the EU.

After Brexit, English is as neutral of a national language for the EU as Esperanto but starts with 10,000x better adoption.

Well it should be English or Mandarin Chinese depending on which superpower they want to hitch their wagon to and trade the most with

I would even go as far as to say that whichever superpower language they pick should also be used additionally for legal contracts and government work

How many people in the EU speak English, and how many speak Mandarin??

At least in the wealthier western European countries, English is already a mandatory subject from a young age. It of course varies by country, but for example Danes are learning English by age 10, followed by German/French/Spanish by age 13.

English is taught in Norway from the the first year at school at age five or six.

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