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Which European Countries Speak the Most English?

Which European Countries Speak the Most English?

Old Nov 18th, 2014, 03:43 PM
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Which European Countries Speak the Most English?

that is according to an EU site "the % of the populace who is able to hold a conversation in English?

figures for non-EU countries like Norway and Switzerland are not included but I would think Norway as much as any and Switzerland fairly high as I have heard in Switzerland many times German-speaking Swiss conversing with say French-speaking Swiss in English, not knowing their country counterpart's tongue.

Surprise - only 85 % of Brits and Irish can carry on a conversation in English - well in the Midlands area I'd say it would be much higher - at least understandable English! as most of us would call it!

The lowest country is kind of a surprise to me - lower than Romania, Bulgaria even!

But for the perennial question will I need to know the local language and the angst it may provoke - you may feel comfy going to countries where English is widely spoken (unfortunately these seem to be the most expensive countries!

Note my theory the bigger and more population a country the less likely they are to speak English!

any commens invited!

Prost!

https://www.google.com/search?q=cefa...w=1455&bih=977
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 03:43 PM
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well not an EU site officially but about the EU.
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 03:45 PM
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http://jakubmarian.com/map-of-the-pe...eu-by-country/

Zut alors! Came out with the wrong link in my OP - Cefalu is a wonderful town in Sicily but this site gives the % of folks in each EU country "speak English"?
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 03:47 PM
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Aw all kinds of mistakes - 95% of Brits and Irish can carry on a conversation in English, not 85%!
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 04:26 PM
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Please note - the UK and Ireland are GREATER than 95% - not sure what the others are speaking.

I'm surprised at hoe low Germany is (but maybe a function of Russian being the required language in east Germany for 40 years) since my German greatgrandfather told me English was required in the gymasium when he went there (in the 1880s).
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 04:28 PM
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The Dutch could be considered, as school kids take English from the 5th grade on.
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 04:30 PM
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From our travels, I would say Norway,Sweden,Denmark and The Netherlands, including humor and idioms perfectly.
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 04:45 PM
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We also had no problems in Scandinavia.
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 06:57 PM
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The key is whether they dub tv or not.

Norway would be comparable to Sweden and Denmark. Switzerland would be somewhat higher than Germany, but it is not at the level of the Scandinavian countries or the Netherlands.
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 09:07 PM
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Yes, English is required in German Gymnasium -- but if the adult doesn't use English often, s/he loses ability in it. My neighbor is a white-collar professional and learned English, but he can't converse in English at all and actually can rarely find an English word he needs.

Further, most Germans do not attend Gymnasium, which is only the university path. Probably more Germans attend Realschule and other trade schools with much less emphasis on languages. The craftsmen/handymen do not speak English, and the owners of the small mom-and-pop guesthouses may not speak English either.

s
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 09:30 PM
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I'm surprised at hoe low Germany is (but maybe a function of Russian being the required language in east Germany for 40 years) since my German greatgrandfather told me English was required in the gymasium when he went there (in the 1880s).

Easily explained when you realize that former East Germans were generally not taught English in school. Also, although these days "everyone" takes English classes, many forget what they learned as soon as they leave school because they don't end up using it regularly. And there is a sizable portion of Germans that can speak fairly well but won't because they feel their skills aren't up to muster.

As swandav2000 pointed out, they are less likely to be good speakers if they did not take the university track.
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 09:48 PM
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Germans start learning English in elementary school these days (Grundschule, the first four years). But it all depends on how much you use a language. I took Spanish for a number of years waaay back in the day, and couldn't really speak it now, although I can read it and understand it more or less.
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 10:08 PM
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One of the local English language newspapers last week ran a story on this topic; the survey they cited is perhaps another datapoint. http://www.ef.co.uk/epi/
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Old Nov 18th, 2014, 10:19 PM
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I'm actually surprised how high the figure for Germany is.
I would have guessed that it was below 50 percent.

The reasons why it is not higher are probably a sum of several smaller contributing factors:

1. No necessity for leisure activities. Like in the US (and against your perception at that pool at the Costa del Sol), the majority of vacation trips are spent in sum at domestic or German-speaking destinations like Austria.
There is also no need to learn neither English nor the local language to visit the major tourist hubs from Spain to Turkey. The command of Dutch or Finnish is somewhat limited among waitstaff on Gran Canary or in Antalya.

2. TV is not dubbed - but TV also has a much higher share of domestic content. Unlike the Nordics, for example, where are a larger share is licensed content from the UK or US. It is also quite costly to dub movies and series.

3. No English at school. Actually, there was usually an option to learn English in highschool in the ex-GDR. But given the rather remote option to actually use it (before the Wall came down), it was more an exotic choice.

4. Against common believe, Germans do not necessarily even speak German (or don't speak it fluently as their mother tongue). During the last decades we had lots of immigration, e.g. from the ex Soviet Union, from other EU countries or Turkey, and from further afar. For most of the immigrants it is already quite an effort to learn German.

5. No necessity on the job. Even at well-known multi-nationals like Volkswagen or Siemens, at huge chunk even of very well-paid jobs at HQ do not require foreign language skills. Or it's the other way around that skilled employees that want a job will learn German. Unless you work in the international sales department, the overseas subsidiaries or already quite high in management, the ability to converse in English is no relevant asset.

So to some extent it is a bit more like in the US where I also find that most if not all of my acquaintances DID learn a foreign language, mostly Spanish, at school. But have little opportunity or necessity to practice.
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Old Nov 19th, 2014, 01:36 AM
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This self-diagnosed enquiries have low level of significance, although I recognize that the countries who rank high (UK, Ireland mostly) should be the countries where English is more widely spoken.
I can easily think of 2 countries with similar usage of English and completely different ranks, just because of idiosyncratic reasons.
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Old Nov 19th, 2014, 04:25 AM
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All the Danes I know speak English better than most of the English and most Americans. I find the Dutch speak a more garbled version with hints of some American accent. The Dutch published a technical translation for the EU for taking English as spoken by the English into English as spoken by Continentals
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Old Nov 19th, 2014, 04:41 AM
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I'm with Cowboy. I am very surprised at Germany being over 50%. That is not our experience at all.
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Old Nov 19th, 2014, 04:48 AM
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It's not my experience either. It's not a criticism, just an observation.
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Old Nov 19th, 2014, 05:08 AM
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Well I find that the /dutch are the best English speakers - many don;t even have much of an accent - since their pronunciation is closer to the english with Vs and Ws - versus the opposite as in German.

Also found no one in Denmark who didn't speak English - but we were mostly in Copenhagen. But even random locals we spoke to - mailmen, a kid riding a bike who asked us for the time - all had perfect English - most with practically no accent.

English was also very common in Scand countries - but tended to have some accent

Our experience with Germany was that younger people almost all spoke English but that in smaller towns it was rarer among older people. Had to use sign language to have my sandal strap prepared at a local cobblers in a small town in the Black Forest.

I guess I just see it a more common since we have offices all over europe that we often share projects with and everyone is all of them is perfectly fluent - many with not much of an accent. Same with our clients and english - at least for the marketing and research people - since the whole industry worldwide is conducted in English. We tend to have issues only with colleagues from China - and some from Japan - who think they speak English but are often incomprehensible.
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Old Nov 19th, 2014, 05:18 AM
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Had to use sign language to have my sandal strap prepared at a local cobblers in a small town in the Black Forest.

It's all part of the travel experience and now you have a story.
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