Should I learn German or Luxembourgish?
My courses take place at your premises in 🇱🇺 Luxembourg.
Three official languages: German, French and Luxembourgish
Are there big differences between German and Luxembourgish?
Is Luxembourgish a language?
Book a German course
Attention: I offer German courses - no Luxembourgish courses !
➤ Send me an email:
- Why do you want to learn German?
- What is your current level?
➤ I’ll make you a price offer.
➤ We’ll make an appointment.
Learn German or Luxembourgish? - a decision-making aid
Important:
knowledge of German helps to understand Luxembourgish ! If you understand German grammar, this will help you to learn Luxembourgish grammar. My personal recommendation: learn German first - it is easier to switch from German to Luxembourgish than vice versa.
There are about 100 million people in the world who speak German. They live in the Federal Republic, Austria, Switzerland ... and of course Luxembourg.
Alongside French and Luxembourgish, German is one of the three official languages in Luxembourg.
Three reasons for you to take a German course:
- You will encounter the German language in your everyday life, p.ex. in the supermarket or with authorities.
- As part of your professional development, you can take a German course at your workplace: The official language in large companies is of course English, but there are many business contacts to Germany. Many colleagues also talk in German - for example during their coffee break.
- It is also interesting to explore the region on the other side of the border. A visit to the Roman monuments in Trier and a walk in the historic city center are the perfect weekend getaway - and a great opportunity to practice and improve your German!
Three reasons for you to learn Luxembourgish
- You will encounter the Luxembourgish language in your everyday life p.ex. in the supermarket or in your neighbourhood.
- If you want to apply for Luxembourg nationality, you must have a knowledge of Luxembourgish. It is part of the country, the people and the culture !
- People who already speak German and French can benefit from it and learn Luxembourgish quickly.
Luxembourgish in everyday life
More spoken than written
- You can hear a lot of Luxembourgish on the radio.
- Written texts are rarely in Luxembourgish. Major newspapers like the "Luxemburger Wort" are in German.
- The authorities speak all three languages: Citizens can contact the authorities in French, German and Luxembourgish and receive an answer in the same language!
At school
From the beginning, children learn Luxembourgish and German at school. Later, French is added. Most school books are in German. In the higher classes, the school subjects are taught partly in German and partly in French.
Where Luxembourgish is not very helpful
- Luxembourgish is spoken in a small region of the world.
- It is therefore not very useful in the rest of the world (however, there are Luxembourgers who emigrated to the USA and maintain their language!) Even in neighbouring Germany and France, Luxembourgish is not really common as a foreign language.
- Luxembourgish is rarely heard in international companies.
Similarities between German and Luxembourgish
- The grammar - for example, the declination of articles and pronouns - is at least as complicated as in German.
- This also applies to the sentence structure in which the verb is placed at the end of the sentence in subordinate clauses.
- So if you hoped that Luxembourgish would be easier, you were wrong!
A difference
Luxembourgish contains many French words. Especially "modern" words, which have only existed for two centuries, are in French (after the French Revolution, Luxembourg belonged to France) - which distinguishes Luxembourgish from the related dialects on the German side.
This brings us to the following important question:
Why can’t we say that Luxembourgish is a German dialect?
Liguistically, Luxembourgish belongs to the group of Mosel-Franconian dialects, such as the dialect spoken in Trier.
But linguistics cannot explain why Luxembourgish is so important to Luxembourgers: to understand this, we need to look at the history of Luxembourg.
Luxembourg is a small country that in the past has often become the geopolitical toy of its neighbours. Therefore, language was an important symbol of identity and belonging.
➤ Let's go back in Luxembourg's history to the beginnings ...
