A QUARTER of people living in Newport have decided to learn Spanish over the past 12 months.

That is according to a study by linguists at Busuu for the languages being learnt during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Seventeen per cent really challenged themselves by learning Japanese – said to be one of the hardest languages for English speakers to study. French was learned by 16 per cent and 15 per cent learned English – mainly those studying it as a second language.

Newport fell in line with the majority of the UK – where Spanish came out as the top choice amongst almost all the cities in the study.

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Co-founder of Busuu, Bernhard Niesner, said: “With travel being the most popular reason for learning among our UK users, it comes as no surprise that Spanish was a top choice over the last year.

“The Spanish language often reminds us of a sunny getaway and I’m sure that the thought of a future holiday has motivated to improve their skills in the language.

“Interestingly, we’ve also seen the pandemic mark a behavioural shift in the UK – not only are more people learning a language here, they’re learning for longer and making more progress too. The UK still has a long way to go before it can shake off its monolingual reputation though.”