Editing Multilingualism (section)

==Europe==
[[File:Bilingualism boosts grades at Treorchy Comprehensive.webm|thumb|A Welsh Government video of an English medium school in [[Wales]], where introducing a second language ([[Welsh language|Welsh]]) has boosted the exam results]]

Languages that are used in multiple countries include:

* [[Arabic]] in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman; and to a co-official extent in Mali, Chad, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Zanzibar, and the Comoros.
* [[Chinese language|Chinese]] in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and to a co-official extent in Malaysia and Brunei.
* [[List of countries and territories where German is an official language|German]] in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Belgium.
* [[Greek language|Greek]] in Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, and Italy (in Calabria and Salento).
* [[List of countries and territories where French is an official language|French]] in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Andorra, and Switzerland; and to a co-official extent in Canada, as well as much of Francophone Africa including Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles, and Togo.
* [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and São Tomé e Príncipe.
* [[List of countries and territories where English is an official language|English]] in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, India, Antigua and Barbuda,The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Dominica, Eswatini, Fiji, the Gambia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malta.
* [[Dutch language|Dutch]] in the Netherlands, Belgium, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and Suriname.
* [[Swedish language|Swedish]] in Sweden and Finland.
* [[Italian language|Italian]] in Italy, Switzerland, and San Marino; and to a co-official in Malta.
* [[Russian language|Russian]] in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine; and to a co-official extent in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, and Israel.
* [[Persian language|Persian]] in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.

English is a commonly taught second language at schools, so it is also the most common choice for two speakers, whose native languages are different. However, some languages are so close to each other that it is generally more common when meeting to use their mother tongue rather than English. These language groups include:

* [[Danish language|Danish]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]
* Arabic dialectic continuum
* [[Czech language|Czech]] and [[Slovak language|Slovak]].
* [[Serbian language|Serbian]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]], [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]] and [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]]: standardized in the 19th century and throughout the existence of [[Yugoslavia]], Croatian and Serbian were considered as Western and Eastern variants of a common, [[Serbo-Croatian]] language. After the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]], each successor state [[Language secessionism#In Serbo-Croatian|proclaimed and codified]] its own official language. In [[sociolinguistics]], however, these are still considered standardized varieties of one [[pluricentric language]], all based on [[Shtokavian]] dialect, with the biggest distinction being between the [[Ekavian]] and [[Ijekavian]] pronunciation. Cyrillic and Latin writing scripts are official in Montenegrin and Serbian, while Latin is exclusively official in Bosnian and Croatian.

In multilingual countries such as Belgium (Dutch, French, and German), Finland (Finnish and Swedish), Switzerland (German, French, Italian, and Romansh), Luxembourg (Luxembourgish, French, and German), Spain (Spanish, Catalan, Basque, and Galician), and Malta (Maltese, English, and Italian), it is common to see people who have mastered two or even three of their country's chief languages.

Many minor [[Russians|Russian]] ethnic groups, such as [[Tatars]], [[Bashkirs]] and others, are also multilingual. Moreover, with the beginning of the compulsory study of the [[Tatar language]] in [[Tatarstan]], there has been an increase in knowledge of Tatar among the natively Russian-speaking population of the republic.<ref>{{Cite thesis |url=http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/94828.html |last=Khabibrakhmanovna <!-- Хабибрахмановна --> |first=Sharipova Nailya <!-- Шарыпова Наиля --> |title=Dvuyazıçiye v Tatarstane <!--|script-title=tt:Двуязычие в Татарстане can't include because the template doesn't currently (as of June 2022) recognise the Tatar language code, tt --> |trans-title=Bilingualism in Tatarstan |year=2004 |language=tt |url-status=dead |degree=PhD Science |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305190550/http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/94828.html |archive-date=2016-03-05}}</ref>

Continued global [[diversity (business)|diversity]] has led to an increasingly multilingual population. Europe has become an excellent model to observe this newly diversified culture. The expansion of the European Union with its open labour market has provided opportunities both for well-trained professionals and unskilled workers to move to new countries to seek employment. Political changes and turmoil have also led to migration and the creation of new and more complex multilingual workplaces. In most wealthy and secure countries, immigrants are found mostly in low-paid jobs but also, increasingly, in high-status positions.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gunnarsson|first1=Britt-Louise|title=Multilingualism in European Workplaces |date=2014 |volume=33 |issue=1–2 |pages=11–33 |doi=10.1515/multi-2014-0002 |journal=Multilingua |s2cid=144233073}}</ref>