VUB-Advanced Masters in Linguistics 2013-2014

Prof. Piet Van der Craen

Carmen Pnu

Questionnaire
Use of Romanian in a European/multicultural environment.

Thank you for your time. Please answer the following questions by following the instructions
provided.

A. Please circle the appropriate statement.

1. Please enter your gender.

Male
Female
2. What age group do you belong to?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

20-25
25-30
30-40
40-50
50+

3. Please specify your nationality.

a) Romanian
b) Belgian
c) Other
4. Please specify your ethnicity:
1

a)
b)
c)
d)

Romanian
Hungarian
German
Other

5. What would you define as your mother tongue:

a)
b)
c)
d)

Romanian
Hungarian
German
Other

6. For how long have you been working for the European Institutions?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

1-2 years
3-6 years
6-8 years
8-10
10+

7. Do you live in Brussels?

Yes
No
8. Do you hold a full time position?
Yes
No
9. Do you have a so-called contractual position?
Yes
No
10. Do you hold an interim position?
Yes
No
11. Do you have studies in your native country (Romania)?
Yes
No
2

12. If yes, was it a public or a private institution?

Private
Public
13. Do you have studies in a country different than your home country?
Yes
No
14. If yes, in what country?

15. Have you ever participated in an Erasmus program as a student?

Yes
No
16. How would you define your Erasmus experience linguistically:
Enriching
Fair
Non-existent
17. Did the Erasmus experience, if any helped you acquire/improve your knowledge of
English?
Yes, to a great degree
Yes, somewhat
Yes, very little
No, not at all
18. Did the Erasmus experience help you acquire/improve your knowledge of the hosts
countrys language?
Yes, fluent
Yes, conversational
Yes, basic
No, not at all
19. During the Erasmus experience did you ever use your mother tongue/Romanian?
3

a) In an academic context
b) In a social context
c) Only when talking to the family at home
20. Where the studies in your mother tongue/Romanian?
Yes
No
21. Where the studies held in English?
Yes
No
22. If the studies were held in English, did you use Romanian at all?
Yes, during some lectures
No, not at all
Yes, for administrative purposes
23. Where the studies in one of the official languages of the European Union?
Yes
No
24. Do you feel that your studies helped (if they were in English or other EU language
besides Romanian) you/ prepared you for the work in the European Institutions?
Yes
No
25. How many languages do you speak?
a.)
b.)
c.)
d.)
e.)

Romanian and English

Romanian, English and French
Romanian, English and Dutch
Romanian, English and notions of at least two other Latin languages
Romanian, English, French and another

26. While in your native country, do you use any other language?
a)
b)
c)
d)

English in a an academic environment

Other official language of the EU
Other
One of the official language of the minorities of Romania
4

e) No other language except when speaking with tourists

27. Did you study Dutch as a part of integrating in the multicultural environment that
is Brussels?
Yes
No
28. European Institutions offer amongst others, language courses. Did you ever
participate in a language course?
Yes
No
29. If yes, what language course did you attend?

30. If you didnt participate in any courses, would you consider attending one? Which
one?
Yes, for
No
31. If you never consider participating in language courses, what would be the reason?

32. Theoretically, while working for the EU institutions, one could use not only English
in communication, but any other official EU language. From your experience do
you find this statement true?
a)
b)
c)
d)

Yes, entirely true

Yes, somewhat true
No, seldom
Not at all

33. Approximately, how often would you use English for verbal communication at
work?
a) 100% of the time
5

b) 90% of the time

c) 80% of the time
d) Less than 50% of the time (I use French/Italian)
34. Approximately, how often would you say that you use English outside work in
Brussels?
a)
b)
c)
d)

100%
90%
80%
Less than 50%. I use French/Italian

35. Approximately, how often would you say that you use mother tongue/Romanian at
work?
a)
b)
c)
d)

100%
90%
80%
Less than 10%.

36. Approximately, how often would you say that you use mother tongue/Romanian
outside work, in Brussels?
a)
b)
c)
d)

100%
90%
80%
Less than 50%. I use French/Dutch

37. How often do you use Romanian while talking to the colleagues?
a)
b)
c)
d)

100%
90%
80%
Less than 10%. I use French/Dutch

38. Have you ever used Romanian while talking to superiors?

Yes
No
39. Have you ever used Romanian in an official email?
Yes
6

No
40. Have you ever used Romanian while out in Brussels?
Yes
No
41. Have you ever met in Brussels a person that is learning Romanian?
Yes
No

42. Speaking at least two languages, do you feel that its easier to learn others?
a. Yes
b. no
43. What language do you feel, now after a few years in a multicultural environment
that is easier to speak?

44. Do you think that a multicultural environment such as Brussels helped you develop
your language skills?
a. Yes
b. no