Multilingualism

Tri-lingualism is a feature of the state education system, and of Luxembourgish society in general.

From pre-school onwards, Luxembourgish is spoken with the children. For the large number of foreign children in the country, this may be their first exposure to Luxembourgish. From the age of 6, children are taught to read and write German. The year after, French is introduced, while the vehicular language of teaching is German.

In secondary school, German is the vehicular language in the Lycées techniques, and in the lower years of the Lycées classiques. From the age of 15, however, French is used in Lycées classiques. English is added as a further obligatory language in all secondary schools. In Lycées classiques, pupils may optionally also choose to take lessons in Latin, Spanish or Italian. The number of hours per week devoted to language teaching at all levels of school is high, at 50% of teaching time.

Similarly, for the University of Luxembourg, one of its defining features is its "multi-lingual character": it uses English, French and German.