Europe is a diverse and beautiful continent with the languages to match. But people who speak Welsh, Flemish or Catalan at home have mostly figured out it might be wise to add some other linguistic strings to their bows.

This infographic from Statista which shows what European citizens think of as the most useful second language to learn might not come as much surprise:

Luxembourg is the only non-English speaking country that ranked a different language apart from English as the top foreign tongue to master - but seeing as the tiny nation of 550,000 already speaks French as an official language and borders the country, learning French makes a lot of sense.

Taking a look at the languages Europe thinks of as most useful after English is far more illuminating:

While Mandarin is the most widely spoken native language in the world, the country that thought it was the most useful was Spain - and even then they only ranked it at 13 per cent (behind French)

Russian's neighbours Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania ranked Russian as their next language to learn, as well as the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus.

German was the most popular third language choice ranked at 17 per cent across the continent and top after English by business minded people in Greece, Poland and Ireland, while Brits would learn Spanish after French.

Source European Commission and HT Jaukb Marian