Foreign-Language Learning Low

  • 2 Aug 2017 9:38 AM
Foreign-Language Learning Low
Barely more than one-fifth of university students studied a foreign language at higher education institutions in the 2016-17 school year, according to data from the Education Office.

Of the 190,000 daytime students, 44,400 studied a foreign language. The number does not include those students who major in a foreign language.

English continues to be the most popular foreign-language among students, with 24,000 – 54% of those not majoring in a foreign language – taking courses.

German is in second place with about 6,100 students taking courses, compared to 11,000 in the 2012-13 academic year.

Some 5,400 were studying Latin, as this is a requirement for law students and students of some foreign languages.

Zoltán Rozgonyi, president of the Language Skills Association, said students enter university education without useful foreign-language skills, partly due to their own fault and partly due to the language-teaching standards in secondary schools.

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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