“EUROPE – ITALY: The multilingualism challenge” (2012)

Which and how many foreign languages are known by the citizens of Rome? The Dossier “EUROPE – ITALY: The challenge of multilingualism” presented in Rome, on Monday, 12 March 2012, at the European Commission – Italian Office, offers interesting answers and very precise cognitive and analytical indications. The opinion poll, conducted among citizens and managers of public and private libraries in Rome on the interest, dissemination and learning of foreign languages, was carried out by Eurispes in collaboration with the Istituzione Biblioteche del Comune di Roma. It provides a cognitive contribution to the initiatives of EUNIC, the network of foreign cultural institutes operating in the capital, and of the European Commission in the field of multilingualism.
The aim of the survey was to understand the prevailing attitude of public library users towards the problem of multilingualism, what interests, stimuli and incentives they had to learn foreign languages and to take advantage of the opportunities linked to their knowledge. At the same time, specific elements were looked for in order to understand what kind of incentive might come to the frequenter of a library in the Capital, given the great variety of services it offers.