Is English a foreign language?

The Irish Times · Irlanda · Prensahace 3 horas

Sir, – I read with interest your article headlined “‘The focus is finding people from Ireland’: The EU’s big ask for new English translators,” (Business, October 26th). It is noted in the article that Ireland has the lowest proportion of secondary school students who study two or more foreign languages.

Is English not technically a foreign language? In Ireland, most secondary school students study either French, German or Spanish in addition to English and our native Irish.

If English were to be correctly classified as a foreign language, then the statement that Ireland has the lowest proportion of teenagers who study two or more foreign languages would not hold true. – Yours, etc, THOMAS HAYDEN,Carrickmines,Dublin.

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