Luxembourgish anyone?

[chokofingrz]

Learning materials:

There are plenty of resources for learning Luxembourgish, but most of them are printed, and found only in Luxembourg's bookshops, because they don't expect people all over the world to want to study their language. There are a couple of online resources which Kazumi mentioned above. The books are aimed at the large quantity of immigrants, expats and migrant workers who might get tempted to learn it one day. You can also find classes there of course.

Demography:

For people coming to Luxembourg, French is in my opinion the most useful language to know. There is an unofficial saying: Luxembourgish is the language of the home, German is the language of schooling, and French is the language of business. As an adult visiting the country, you are most likely to get by using the business language, French. But making an effort to speak Luxembourgish will often be appreciated. Keep in mind that a lot of the people who work in big shops or restaurants drive in from France or Belgium each morning, and are happy to serve you in their native language, French. Several of them also have Luxembourgish as an L2 and German or English as an L3. Then, in the smaller local shops and bars, you may be addressed primarily in Luxembourgish, although these people can also speak French and German, occasionally English. Honestly, it depends on the person, their age and background. If you meet someone from a Portuguese or Italian background, they will likely be more comfortable in French - unless they went through the Luxembourg school system fully. Older people are more likely to be native Luxembourgish-speakers, younger people could be migrant workers or at least natives with a greater facility for switching and a greater mastery of, say, English. However if you go into the countryside (particularly East/North of Luxembourg City), you will hear a lot less French and more German spoken alongside Luxembourgish. Some households there are in fact native German-speaking. Just like how near the border with France, there are native French-speaking families who have lived within Luxembourg for generations. But don't forget, a 2013 study showed that 70% of citizens spoke some Luxembourgish on a daily basis. Confused yet?

The main newspaper, Luxemburger Wort, is in German, but there are French publications too. Meanwhile the national TV and radio stations broadcast in Luxembourgish - but a lot of people prefer to watch French or German channels. Some of these inconsistencies are due to historical reasons, written Luxembourgish only having been formally accepted in recent times.

Source: lived there for 18 years, still go back

PS: Here is a nice page which tells you the official facts about languages in Luxembourg: http://www.luxembourg.public.lu/en/le-g ... index.html

[PeterMollenburg]

Once again I find myself wanderlusting after this language (or the multiple languages in one setting more so). Okay to be honest it's not so much the language itself that draws me to the language, nor the countryside (not that it's bad). The thing is, it's a multilingual society in which most citizens appear to have a working knowledge of the 3 main languages, while others may have an additional immigrant language under their belt as well having moved there from Portugal or somewhere else, and some perhaps more rural citizens may be a little weak in one of the official languages depending on which border they reside closer to (i'm hypothesizing from the information gathered in this thread and other resources, not from experience). Also, English, well, it's everywhere, so it's present in Luxembourg as well (not that I could care less about that).

On this forum many of us love the idea of living amongst and using several languages, and thus, doesn't Luxembourg sound, well, pretty cool from a linguistic perspective? I certainly think so. Problem is, I only know French to a B2 level and English, so if ever I wanted to reside there, I've some work to do. Yes German has always interested me, but not as much as say Spanish or Dutch. And Luxembourgish, well, it seems like it's a necessity. I certainly value linguistic diversity and minority languages, but having to learn it if one aimed to work there, well, it's another language and well and i'm already very very slow at learning French, so I think this is all fantasy. Still, looking at the fact that a nurse will earn around 25,000 USD on average more than an Australian graduate nurse (who are already very well paid on the world scale- not necessarily 'well paid' per sé- that's a matter of perspective and opinion). However being in nursing here for many years I can go close to that kind of pay scale anyway depending on the employment type(s), so learning 3 languages (2 more additional) in an efficient time scale without a guarantee of a job seems a little insane. I just want to be clear: I'm talking out loud (writing out loud) and fantasizing really. I'm not dead serious about this, but there is some element of seriousness/curiousness/wouldn't it be nice kind of attitude. Of course German would not be a waste by any means. Learning Luxembourgish wouldn't be either, but it's practical application in a 'real world environment' might not ever eventuate if I took too long to undertake the learning (miss the boat, i'm not spring chicken), or I simply didn't land a job. In my fantasy world I would not live in Luxembourg, we'd live across a border (most likely the French one), and southern France would still remain my ultimate goal... eventually.

Ahhh, I just like to dream I think- you can't blame me when I research French nursing and keep coming across French nurses who can't wait to get out of the place and almost every 'frontalier' ('border-crosser') I read about doesn't want to go back to work in France. After looking at the nice linguistic situation in the Swiss town of Biel/Bienne, exploring the situation in Luxembourg, maybe I need to distract myself some more with... let's say... Andorra? Realistically maybe I should look at Belgium again. I have a B2 (unconfirmed) level of French and could push for a B1 in Dutch if I revised heavily, perhaps I ought to... let's say, live just outside of Brussels where I live in a Flemish area, commute to a French job and... hmmm, what no third language (aside English)... hmmm Luxembourg, very interesting

Edit: So Andorra doesn't possess much in the way of French speaking citizens... it's predominantly Catalan, with a lot of Spanish speakers and a good amount of Portuguese. Only a hint of French.... but interestingly...

Llívia, a 12 km2 Spanish exclave a short distance from the Spanish/French border within France offers an interesting linguistic scenario- Catalan, Spanish and French are spoken there (Catalan official) while being surrounded by France. Interesting indeed. Need nurses? Hmmm... Maybe I should go back to the idea of Norway? Then I can read Danish, understand Swedish and live in a breathtakingly beautiful country with an excellent quality of life... dream dream dream, I need to get back to my studies

Another edit: I decided to start a thread dedicated to unique multilingual places in the world: http://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3315

[Systematiker]

I've dabbled in it, and with some of the resources listed earlier in this thread, I might well revisit it. Not because I am particularly attracted to it, though - my interest has mostly to do with its similarity and overlap with Siebenbürger Sächsisch, for which I've never been able to find any resources (besides the people who speak it in my wife's family). From what I've been told, Luxembourgish resources are recommended for those interested in Siebenbürger Sächsisch, because they are both Mosel-Franconian and were both standardized in a similar manner for orthography.