Do children in Italy, Germany and Spain learn foreign languages like English and French?

Question

Are they able to speak these languages properly later on?

Answer 1

Yes. In the area of Spain where I live they are taught 3 languages - all Compulsory.
They are Standard Spanish
Valenciano (a Spanish dialect)
English
Most people speak the first two fluently.
Many people speak English fluently because it is the international business language.

Answer 2

I'm Italian.
Yes, they have to study at least one of them for 5+3+5 years, starting when they're 6.
Studying another is a quite common choice (10-20% do) in the last 3+5 years.
The first language of choice is English; as second language, French, German and Spanish share the "market".
Are they able to speak properly later on... Good question, it's hard to say. This law is not 13 years old yet, so the first ones who had to study them for 13 years haven't come out of school yet. In general, they learn very little at school; yet 13 years are a lot of time. I'd expect them - on average - to be able to read well, write acceptably, understand a speaker only if he wants to be understood, and speak very bad. Of course, some will come out very fluent, some won't ever be able to read a magazine.
Bear in mind that in small European countries speaking their own language like e.g. Netherlands, English is far better spoken, for the simple question that their language is so little spoken that most TV movies aren't translated (just subtitles), so they listen to English speakers many hours a day since they're babies. This does not hold in German, French, Spanish, and Italian speaking countries.

Answer 3

Here in Austria we speak German as first language.
Every kid has to learn English starting from 1st grade on (very simple of course more to get used to hearing it and speaking some words, singing some songs only spoken for the first three or four years to avoid confusion with the first language).
So English is taught from the first until the last year of school.
Depending on the type of school you attend after primary school you will either learn no third language or one or two or three additional languages for differently long periodes of time (between 2 and 6 years).
How well these languages can be spoken later on depends on how much you use them.
Most common 3rd, 4th etc. languages are here: French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, some ancient Latin, some ancient Greek

Answer 4

You bet they do. Depending on the country in question, there may be a manadated foreign language, or it might be left up to the students. Also, the number of foreign languages may vary.

Whether a student can speak the language properly later on depends on the student. No different than how well you can do long division, versus how well a friend of your's can... it all depends on your abilities, interests, and diligence in studying the subject.

Answer 5

Yes, they have to study foreign languages. The Germans are particularly good students of languages. Whether or not they are able to speak these languages later on depends on how much they need to -- in other words, motivation. If they do not travel widely or need the foreign language for their work, they are likely to become rusty.

Answer 6

yes. my daughter and I are English and live in Spain. She goes to a local Spanish school, shes 8 1/2 and they teach English and french. Her friends practice on me ( English ) and my daughter has to go to English classes even though she speaks perfect English. her friends are the same age and they speak English quite well.

Answer 7

Yeah, I had a host family in Germany. The girl my age could speak English. She said that they started learning it around 5th grade.

Answer 8

Spanish is the 0.33 maximum used language in the international,French is #11.except you're able to have the flexibility to apply French then decide for Spanish.Spanish and French proportion some issues in effortless yet they are very diverse to boot.