|
 |
West Europeans that know least English | ||
Tags: English | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| madass88 Diglot Groupie NorwayRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 871 days ago 83 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English, Norwegian* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 1 of 64 18 June 2008 at 6:55am | IP Logged | ||
|
Which Europeans can speak least English?
This is important to know, if for example you are travelling around Europe and have spent alot of time learning German, and every German you meet can speak English. | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Pro Member Scotland Joined 814 days ago 2673 posts - 904 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 64 18 June 2008 at 7:29am | IP Logged | ||
|
Spain is currently going through a massive push of English teaching, because they historically haven't learnt as much as most European countries. They were historically big on French (next door neighbours) and also quite big on German. (During the Franco era, post WWII, a number of Germans are reputed to have moved there due to their unpopular political affiliations. Teaching provided an opportunity to earn a living.)
| |||
| LanguageGeek Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 910 days ago 151 posts - 3 votes 4 sounds Speaks: German*, English, Hungarian Studies: French, Russian | Message 3 of 64 18 June 2008 at 7:38am | IP Logged | ||
|
Every German you meet speaking English?
They won't, trust me. This is not Scandinavia. ;) Edited by LanguageGeek on 18 June 2008 at 7:39am | |||
| madass88 Diglot Groupie NorwayRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 871 days ago 83 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English, Norwegian* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 4 of 64 18 June 2008 at 8:00am | IP Logged | ||
|
hehe, it was just an example ;) you tell me how good the Germans are.
But the thing is, that in the big countries in europe, they dubb the movies in their own language. Only cartoons and child movies get dubbed in scandinavia, so we have lots of "passive" English. | |||
| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 845 days ago 332 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 5 of 64 18 June 2008 at 8:41am | IP Logged | ||
|
Spanish people and French people. They think their languages are too good to be true so they don't learn any other ones. Small countries like the Czech Republic tend to know English the best.
| |||
| Marc Frisch Pentaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 1468 days ago 922 posts - 60 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Turkish, Italian, Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 64 18 June 2008 at 11:44am | IP Logged | ||
|
Have a look at the Eurobarometer
To sum it up, the countries in Western Europe with the worst English skills are (see p.4 of the report): Spain (only 20% of the population speaks English) Portugal (26%) Italy (29%) France (34%) However, if you look at Central and Eastern Europe as well, you'll find some countries with equally low (or even lower) proportions of English speakers, e.g. Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey. | |||
| Marc Frisch Pentaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 1468 days ago 922 posts - 60 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Turkish, Italian, Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 64 18 June 2008 at 11:46am | IP Logged | ||
The study I quoted gives only a percentage of 24% of English speakers in the Czech Republic... | |||
| Sennin Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 837 days ago 1273 posts - 129 votes 5 sounds Logged on | Message 8 of 64 18 June 2008 at 2:01pm | IP Logged | ||
This sounds rather dramatic, I would like to elaborate a bit. According to Eurobarometer 59% of Bulgarians speak at least one foreign language. This is not particularly impressive, nonetheless it is slightly above average value for the EU (which is 56%). See page 12 of the full report. Most of them have English as their foreign language, I'm pretty sure (not that it matters.) Edited by Sennin on 18 June 2008 at 2:12pm |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2010 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
