European Day of Languages: what already speaking several languages changes when you learn French

On 26 September Europe celebrates its languages: 59.3 % of EU upper secondary pupils learn two or more foreign languages.

On 26 September, Europe celebrates its languages. According to Eurostat data extracted in April 2026, 59.3 % of upper secondary students in general programmes across the EU were learning at least two foreign languages in 2024, and French remains one of the three most studied. Here is what that multilingualism changes when you start French.

What does the European Day of Languages on 26 September celebrate?

The European Day of Languages was first celebrated in 2001, during the European Year of Languages. At the end of that campaign, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to make it an annual event, fixed on 26 September. The 2025 edition marked its twenty fifth anniversary.

Its aims are explicit. According to the Council of Europe, the day exists to raise awareness of Europe's linguistic and cultural diversity, and of the need to diversify the range of languages people learn throughout their lives. The same page gives a figure most people underestimate: over 225 languages are native to Europe alone, not counting those that arrived through migration.

So this is not a day about one language. It is a day about the idea that you can learn several, and that the second or third costs less effort than the first.

How many European pupils actually learn several languages?

The clearest figure comes from Eurostat: in 2024, 59.3 % of pupils in general upper secondary education across the EU were learning two or more foreign languages. Roughly six in ten, not everyone. The gap between countries is wide, and that is what the average hides:

more than 98 % of upper secondary pupils in France, Romania, Czechia and Slovakia learn at least two foreign languages;
in six EU countries, fewer than half of upper secondary pupils do;
three are far below: Spain (18.8 %), Ireland (10.3 %) and Portugal (7.2 %).

For readers in Ireland or the United Kingdom, that second group matters. Growing up speaking English is an enormous practical advantage, but it also means most English speakers reach adulthood having studied one foreign language at most, and often none seriously. Starting French later is the norm, not a handicap.

Primary school tells another story. A Eurostat release published on 26 September 2025, timed for the European Day of Languages, reported that only 6.4 % of EU primary pupils were learning two or more foreign languages, up from 4.6 % ten years earlier. European multilingualism starts late.

Where does French rank among languages learned in Europe?

In general upper secondary education in 2024, English is learned by 96.3 % of pupils. Far behind come Spanish (27.6 %), German (20.2 %) and French (20.1 %). French and German sit one tenth of a point apart, which makes any ranking between them fragile: the useful takeaway is that about one European upper secondary pupil in five learns French.

The geography is more informative than the average. A majority of upper secondary pupils learn French in Romania (84.7 %), Luxembourg (70.5 %), Cyprus (69.2 %) and Belgium (52.6 %). French is concentrated, not evenly spread.

To place that European picture inside the wider French speaking world, our article French is now the 4th most spoken language in the world gives the speaker counts, which follow a very different logic from European classrooms.

How do your other languages help you learn French?

This is the point the European Day of Languages defends, and the companion volume to the Common European Framework of Reference put it in writing: the Council of Europe added descriptor scales for plurilingual comprehension and for building on a plurilingual and a pluricultural repertoire. Plurilingual competence is described there as uneven and changing, with resources that differ from one language to another.

In practice that means three things:

partial competence counts. Reading French without speaking it fluently is a real resource, not a failure;
English is a bigger head start than most learners believe. Roughly a third of English vocabulary came into the language from French, which is why words like nation, justice, restaurant and government need almost no learning. The traps are the words that drifted, and our article on French and English false friends covers the main ones;
the experience of a first foreign language is itself a method. Knowing what worked for you and what wasted your time is something an absolute beginner does not have, and it is one reason timelines vary so much, as our article How long does it really take to learn French explains.

What these figures do not tell you

These statistics measure enrolments, not ability. A pupil counted as learning French may have had two hours a week for three years and never reached A2. Eurostat counts headcounts, not levels.

They also say nothing about adults. Every figure here is about school, while a large share of people learning French today do so after their studies, for a job, a move or an exam.

Finally, multilingualism makes the entrance easier, not the whole journey. Guessing a text through Spanish produces neither pronunciation nor grammar nor fluency. Other languages save you weeks at the start, rarely months at the finish. If you are not sure where you stand, our level test gives you a starting point in a few minutes.

At Frenchee, classes are live by video with qualified native teachers, one to one or in small groups of 3 to 5 students, with no subscription. A teacher who knows which languages you already speak can build on them from the first lesson instead of starting you from zero.