European Day of Languages

Today was European Day of Languages.  It began in 2001 and each year there are various activities that promote language diversity.

Europe has something like 225 indigenous languages.  The most common native languages are Russian (about 150 million people), German (approximately 95 million), English and French (about 65 million people each), Italian (60 million), Spanish and Polish (40 million each), Ukrainian (30 million) and Romanian (26 million).  English is the most popular first foreign language in the European Union. 

In Slovakia, Czech is the most commonly spoken foreign language.

In the EU, German, French and Spanish are the most common 2nd foreign languages.  In Czechland, Slovak is the third most commonly spoken foreign language.  

Update:  2022 European Day of Languages.