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English among the youth in Eastern Europe | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6315 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 1 of 10 31 July 2010 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I was going to post this question as a quickie on Yahoo! Answers, but I have literally two points (you need at least five to post a question) and I figure I'll almost certainly get more thoughtful, substantial, useful replies by posting it here.
I'm basically curious to know what the level of English generally is throughout Eastern Europe. Given that there are many different countries in this region, presumably with differing levels of education, I hope this question isn't too vague or general. How common is it to find young people, in the 15-30 range say, that speak little to no English? I'd be particularly interested in Bulgaria, but only because I'm learning the language. Bear in mind I've never set foot in Europe, in fact I've never even yet been to a country whose official language is not English, so I have no experience in communicating or attempting to communicate in countries which do not officially use English. I simply have no idea what it's like or what to expect. My question is therefore one of sheer curiosity. Is it possible to give a general indication of the standard of English among the "Eastern European youth" of today? Is it common to find young adults who are truly monolingual or barely bilingual (beyond a few English phrases)? Edited by ChristopherB on 31 July 2010 at 6:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6033 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 2 of 10 31 July 2010 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
In Bulgaria foreign language is a compulsory subject, and most schools offer only English. However, the quality of teaching is rather poor. The majority of youngsters know *some* English but are not fluent. A few public schools have excellent language teachers (remnants of the communist past ;). Also, there are many private language schools. You'll find there are some young people who speak very good English. But not everybody - far from it. The percentage dramatically drops for people in their 30s and older, who have all studied a different compulsory language. Ако знаеш поне малко български, хората ще ти отговорят на български. Няма да превключват на английски, спокойно :-). Edited by Sennin on 31 July 2010 at 7:26pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5307 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 3 of 10 31 July 2010 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I think a huge percentage of the youth are on a basic conversation level of English. It'd be best to get some sourvey statistical data, but on a rough guess - as regards the spoken language - it basically shapes like this: 5% - basic fluency or better 40% - basic conversation 40% - basic Q&A 15% - A few phrases [I'm basing it on my knowledge of Poland, Czech Rep. and the Ukraine] The level of understanding written texts is far better than the level of understanding spoken English. And what's very significant - people find it a hellova lot easier to communicate with other non-native speakers of English using English than with the native speakers. Well, the big flaw of foreign language teaching in schools not only in Poland or the Eastern Europe, but - from what I hear - in most parts of the world is that it's focused on doing grammatical excercises and getting the pupils to memorize excessive amounts of vocabulary, without teaching the practical use of language, which is speaking. And, since English is so different from our own languages (especially the phonological system), then even being good at English at school, doesn't mean one won't be in deep trouble when having to speak to a native for the first time, especially a British person [the american accent is easier for us to grasp]. Generally, if you were a tourist and was seeking assistance, then you would have no problem with that if you had some 15-30-year-olds to turn to. Edited by Derian on 31 July 2010 at 7:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6033 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 4 of 10 31 July 2010 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Haha, so true. Supposedly we're learning British English, we live Europe after all. But I've watched 10 seasons of Stargete Atlantis, so yeah, no problem with AE. And BE was much harder until I had the chance to spend some time in the UK. Edited by Sennin on 31 July 2010 at 8:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| hanni aka cordelia0507 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5603 days ago 69 posts - 92 votes Speaks: Dutch* | Message 5 of 10 31 July 2010 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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English must be so much harder for Slavic language speakers than other Europeans. Also, I actually got the impression that some people in Eastern Europe are better at German than English, or am I imagining? I wonder if the Russian skills of over 30s is useful nowadays or if it feels completely wasted?
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| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5307 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 6 of 10 31 July 2010 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
The whole western Europe consists of either Germanic countries (centre and north) or Latin countries (centre and south). And English is a Germanic language with Latin vocabulary. So this needs no further explaination.
German, with its complex grammar, is more compatible with the Slavic grammar. Thus, a great deal of phrases and expressions can be translated word-for-word from German to Polish and vice versa, whereas it never works like this with English. On a side note: It's funny how texts in the Old English can easily be literally translated to Polish, but it's usually impossible to translate them like that using modern English.
Russia is rarely a touristic destination for Poles, nor is it a popular destination for seeking job opportunities. And also, the cultural exchange between our countries (TV, cinema, popular music) seems almost non-existent. The tv channels offer of the Polish kabel operators where I live (southern Poland) looks like that: 45% Polish language channels 30% German 20% English 5% Czech And it's pretty much the same throughout Poland (with the exception of Czech programming, which in this case is due to me living near the Czech boarder). Edited by Derian on 31 July 2010 at 9:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6456 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 7 of 10 31 July 2010 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Yeah, Dutch is much closer to English than Slavic is, but there are other Europeans that speak non-Germanic language as their mother tongue (not to mention Finns, Estonians and Hungarians). So, "other Europeans"?
That German thing applies for those over 40, I assume, because in many places that was the foreign language they had to learn in school. Now the compulsory one is English. Russian skills are definitely useful. Especially for those of over 30s who know no English. There's loads of literature (especially specialised books) available in Russian, TV and stuff. In my country now many Latvian youngsters in their early 20ies find it a big disadvantage not to know Russian, because for customer related jobs you just need to speak Russian (because of the monolingual Russian speaking Latvian citizens in their 50ies). But the last bit is probably just Latvia-related. OK, did't see the previous post. In my country cabel TV operators offer, like, 30% of Russian TV channels. Anyway, Eastern Europe varies greatly country to country. Poland and, say, Ukraine have loads of differences. Edited by aru-aru on 31 July 2010 at 9:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6033 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 8 of 10 31 July 2010 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
blah, it's not so much harder - perhaps a wee bit ;-). also there's the compensating advantage of Russian being easier. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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