Title: Three official languages in multicultural Luxembourg

Authors: Ursula Schinzel

Addresses: University of Liverpool with Laureate Online Education, 22, Rue Adolphe Fischer, L-1520 Luxembourg

Abstract: There are three official languages in multicultural Luxembourg. The purpose of this research is to combine education with cross-cultural research by Hofstede et al. (2010) and Schein (2010). It tries an answer to the question, whether the Luxembourgish trilingual public education system is a system of success or of failure, considering the special cultural pattern following Hofstede et al. (2010) and Schein (2010). One hundred fifty four questionnaires were collected in 2014 and 36 interviews conducted also in 2014 among: 1) Luxembourgers with Luxembourgish nationality (Lux.Nat.); 2) Luxembourg residents including Lux.Nat. and foreigners who reside in Luxembourg (Lux.All.); 3) the rest of the world (World). The paper finds that most respondents prefer integration not separation of the population, consequently the system should maintain its instruction in the three official languages of the country: Luxembourgish, French, and German. Residents should adopt a multilingual and multicultural approach despite the high failure rate in mathematics, biology, chemistry, and history, and an insufficient command of English. Some of the interviews are reprinted; discussion, implications, and recommendations for future research follow.

Keywords: language and management; Hofstede; Schein; education; cross-cultural management; international business; language; trilingual public education system; Luxembourg.

DOI: 10.1504/WREMSD.2017.086296

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 2017 Vol.13 No.5/6, pp.471 - 491

Received: 31 Oct 2015
Accepted: 22 Dec 2015
Published online: 04 Sep 2017 *

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