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English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 9:42:07 AM   
Greta75


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Status: offline 		Wow! This is seriously accurate.

I think about my experiences with different nationalities. Also, I didn't know much about Switzerland before I visited there. Prior to going there. I have met alot of Swedish in Singapore who speak very good English. Of course I know Swiss and Swede are two different nationalities, but somehow, I just assume, if Swedes were so good in English, the Swiss must be as good, being like one of the more prosperous nations of the world.

But looking at the rankings. Swede rank so high and Swiss rank so low. It all made sense!

It also made sense that Germany rank higher than Switzerland because I felt like when I was in Germany, suddenly, everybody understood English compared to Switzerland anyway.

Even like the guy at the petrol station in Germany speak such fluent and clear English, I was so impressed! Lol! Just because it's not their first language.

And in Malaysia, many speak good English, so the fact that Malaysia ranked better than Switzerland makes sense too!

Every dutch person I met also speaks perfect English, so their number 1 ranking makes sense!

It's like super accurate!

And Hong Kong ranking being so damn bad, makes ALOT of sense. I always had the impression Hong Kong is like Singapore. X-British Colony, so like, I expected all Hong Kong people to speak perfect English, maybe even better English than us fully with British Accents. Was kinda shock that even at famous restaurants. Nobody speaks English. Like they may have one only 1 manager or something in the ENTIRE restaurant that speaks English and I gotta wait for that person to be available.

Of course I was shock policemen don't speak English in Hong Kong.

As a Chinese person traveling outside of our country, it is quite often that we believe people intentionally pretend they can't speak English because of racism and just do not want to help us or communicate with us. Doesn't really bother me, but I'm always curious if they really cannot speak English or are refusing to speak English.

And in Hong Kong, we think they understand us but again, Hong Kong hates Mandarin Speaking Chinese people, so I would wonder. Because they would speak Cantonese back to you and if you can't communicate with them in Cantonese, they would be like screw you! Of course they will only have this attitude towards fellow Chinese. If the person is of other race, I reckon they will then transition into English and communicate with them in English.

But these rankings seem to tell me that those nationalities genuinely cannot speak English ha.

Anyway, here are the rankings. Hong Kong is Number 30 or something. Damn way down there.


01 Netherlands
02 Denmark
03 Sweden
04 Norway
05 Finland
06 Singapore
07 Luxembourg
08 Austria
09 Germany
10 Poland
11 Belgium
12 Malaysia
13 Philippines
14 Switzerland
15 Portugal
16 Czech Republic
17 Serbia
18 Hungary
19 Argentina
20 Romania

http://www.ef.sg/epi/


< Message edited by Greta75 -- 11/17/2016 9:48:33 AM >
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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 9:55:49 AM   
tamaka


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Status: offline 		Well my maternal great grandparents came here from Finland and my paternal great grandparents came from the Netherlands so it's good to know that if i ever get over there to find my roots, the language issue won't be a problem.

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 10:07:09 AM   
UllrsIshtar


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Status: offline 		The Dutch (and the Flemish part of Belgium, which by itself would have a similar ranking as the Netherlands) speak English that well because their language is too small to have much good tv, or music available to them in that language, and so they import almost all their entertainment from English speaking countries.
However, unless most other European countries which do this, they don't dub anything, but subtitle it instead. So if you're a kid wanting to watch The Simpsons, you either learn English really quickly, or you're stuck reading all the time (it also results in kids who are at the top of the world as far as reading skills go, btw).

I grew up watching British, Australian, and American tv shows, movies, and listening to English songs. By the time I was 12 I could speak English well enough to blow away most English speaking adults, despite never having a single lesson in it. I learned to read it in my later teens by starting to read the Gor series, and write it by engaging on this, and other fora. To this day, my own class in English has been English 101 in a college in Chicago.



< Message edited by UllrsIshtar -- 11/17/2016 10:10:49 AM >

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 10:26:13 AM   
WhoreMods


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Greta75
Of course I know Swiss and Swede are two different nationalities, but somehow, I just assume, if Swedes were so good in English, the Swiss must be as good, being like one of the more prosperous nations of the world.

But looking at the rankings. Swede rank so high and Swiss rank so low. It all made sense!

The Swiss are more interested in pretending to be German than speaking English.

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 11:08:25 AM   
PeonForHer


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quote:

Every dutch person I met also speaks perfect English, so their number 1 ranking makes sense!


You even have to listen for a while to hear an accent, I've found. Same has been true, for me, with the Danish.

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 12:14:33 PM   
blnymph


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quote:

ORIGINAL: WhoreMods


quote:

ORIGINAL: Greta75
Of course I know Swiss and Swede are two different nationalities, but somehow, I just assume, if Swedes were so good in English, the Swiss must be as good, being like one of the more prosperous nations of the world.

But looking at the rankings. Swede rank so high and Swiss rank so low. It all made sense!

The Swiss are more interested in pretending to be German than speaking English.



Most Swiss from either side of the Röschtigraben are bilingual in German and French, and quite a few are fluent in Italian too. In a country with four national languages English is not the average Swiss' "second" language but fourth or fifth and certainly not top priority in everyday life ...




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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 6:16:20 PM   
Greta75


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quote:

ORIGINAL: tamaka

Well my maternal great grandparents came here from Finland and my paternal great grandparents came from the Netherlands so it's good to know that if i ever get over there to find my roots, the language issue won't be a problem.

I know! This guide is great for me to plan my holidays too! I really only want to go to countries where people easily speak English. As I am terrible with directions and need alot of help to get around! Even following google maps gets me totally lost.
In Malaysia, I always hire a local driver to chauffeur me around. It's affordable there. And make sure he can speak Malay and translate for me.

I am surprise Thailand doesn't rank well though. In tourist areas like Phuket and Bangkok, everybody speaks English though, although, yea...., it's really very very basic, not fluent.

< Message edited by Greta75 -- 11/17/2016 6:18:09 PM >

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 10:09:05 PM   
ManOeuvre


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Greta75
Of course I know Swiss and Swede are two different nationalities, but somehow, I just assume, if Swedes were so good in English, the Swiss must be as good, being like one of the more prosperous nations of the world.



To continue the SW trend connection, you'll be happy to note that the English is pretty solid in Swaziland also, but with more than a few local colloquials for flavour.

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 10:14:28 PM   
Dvr22999874


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Status: offline 		I notice Australia didn't get a mention in that list *smile*. When I come to think about it, I can understand that though. Isn't unrespectedman supposed to be from Australia someplace ?

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/17/2016 10:40:12 PM   
Alecta


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quote:

I always had the impression Hong Kong is like Singapore. X-British Colony, so like, I expected all Hong Kong people to speak perfect English, maybe even better English than us fully with British Accents. Was kinda shock that even at famous restaurants. Nobody speaks English. Like they may have one only 1 manager or something in the ENTIRE restaurant that speaks English and I gotta wait for that person to be available.


Hong Kong was colonized under a different set of circumstances from the case of Singapore, which made for very different attitudes towards the English Masters and their language. For HK, most common people resented the British rule and the privileges accorded to British Citizens in HK, which continued all the way until '97. Comparatively, Singapore has had 30 odd years' headstart in forgetting the old indignations, as well, Singapore was a purchased colony. HK was the spoils of war, etc.

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 12:45:46 AM   
MercTech


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Status: offline 		Hmmm, the English proficiency rankings rather track with my experience with techs from other countries. I'm not talking selling stuff to English speaking countries I'm thinking supplying specialized workers for projects in English Speaking countries.

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 1:05:57 AM   
Greta75


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Dvr22999874

I notice Australia didn't get a mention in that list *smile*. When I come to think about it, I can understand that though. Isn't unrespectedman supposed to be from Australia someplace ?

English Speaking country will not be included of course! Like Canada, US, UK and Australia.
Singapore is kinda weird, because, in a way, our national language is Malay I *think*. But English is the main language. And many people speak in their second language with each other still, and not in English. But in schools, and road signs and everything is in English.
I mean, considering I work for a boss who refuse to converse with me in English. He can speak English, but he just refuse to speak it unless he is talking to a Westerner or other races.

I reckon basically all the countries that are not multi-lingual are excluded in the list! And it seems like only English language based countries can't be bothered being multi-lingual.


< Message edited by Greta75 -- 11/18/2016 1:15:10 AM >

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 1:34:17 AM   
blnymph


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Status: offline 		It is a list about efficiency of school education of English as a foreign language, maybe based on TOEFL.

Any non English speaking country is on the list whether these countries are monolingual (like Denmark) or multilingual.

It would of course be interesting to see the results of those blank "English speaking" countries' language proficiency too, whether in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the US, or other.

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 2:54:39 AM   
Edwird


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quote:

ORIGINAL: blnymph
It would of course be interesting to see the results of those blank "English speaking" countries' language proficiency too, whether in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the US, or other.


I fully agree.

In the US, at any rate, there is such an emphasis on instilling all these obtuse 'concepts' or whatnot at the earliest age, and this not held to just the written/spoken language but now even in math. Actual understanding of the underlying subjects themselves not being the priority, so it seems.

This hasn't yet made its way to the foreign languages, that notion of 'early as possible' mind corruption. It wasn't until my fifth semester of German at the Uni that we were presented with the question of (paraphrasing here) "Was Switzerland right in remaining neutral in WW II?," with some short intro on the issue. I'm certain that the authors (or my instructor) had not any clue what a loaded question that was. I'm sure that the intention was to draw out a purely moral/political/philisophical response, which of course made the English department happy, as evidenced by their stamp of 'critical thinking through writing' that those idiots succeeded in imposing on subjects (highlighted at top or bottom of course description) like economics, German, etc, of which few or none of them had the first experience themselves.

My mind was already polluted too much by study of historical events and realpolitik and economics to give an answer they would have preferred, but I somehow muddled along with some semi-coherent (in required deutsche Sprache) explanation of Swiss ball bearings and rifle scope factories being bombed by US and RAF planes and that Switzerland was doing the best thing for their citizens in not doing anything much to invite German invasion (which would have come quickly in event of any Swiss active assistance to the allies), even as they shot down German planes over their air space. I had an understanding instructor and got a good grade on my paper, thank goodness he wasn't in the English department.

Asking this question with clearly moral/philosophical intent as to why a country of 4 million (at the time) was right, or otherwise, in not actively defying a dictator-governed supremely armed and highly belligerent and aggressive border country of 63 million (at the time). One has to ask; how much 'critical thinking' was involved in asking such an unfathomably idiotic question in the first place?




< Message edited by Edwird -- 11/18/2016 3:05:33 AM >

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 4:00:45 AM   
WhoreMods


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Greta75
English Speaking country will not be included of course! Like Canada, US, UK and Australia.

Only one of those is an English speaking country, Greta.


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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 4:30:19 AM   
freedomdwarf1


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Status: offline 		Considering Singapore is #6 in the list, I presume you skipped English classes??

Either that or the list is horribly inaccurate.


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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 4:34:58 AM   
Edwird


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One thing refreshing in learning German is that I never once came across such blatant disparagement of Austrians, Swiss, Luxembourger, Liechtensteiner, etc. in their various permutations of the language, especially not the first.

Not to say that all of the aforementioned didn't have some chuckles regarding the others, sometimes.

Keep that last one in mind.

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 4:42:19 AM   
Greta75


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quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

Considering Singapore is #6 in the list, I presume you skipped English classes??

Either that or the list is horribly inaccurate.

I think my English is pretty good since, since my English education ended at 12 yr old! Pretty much my entire education ended at 12 yr old. I am not an educated person in terms of paper education. I don't have any paper qualifications.
My standard of English is the English standard of a 12 yr old Singaporean with bad grades for English. Borderline 60%. And at that age, most of us have a second language too, and a third language that we gotta learn from home, at least just verbally. So I got Mandarin as second language, and both my parents speak two different dialects, so I gotta learn them both. I got 4 languages to get the hang of since a kid. So imagine a regular 12 yr old with top grades around here, where they will be.

I feel absolutely no shame in my terrible English. English speakers should be more concern that all they can manage in their entire life is one language while the rest of the world, can handle easily 3.


< Message edited by Greta75 -- 11/18/2016 4:51:15 AM >

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 4:50:07 AM   
Edwird


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quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1
Considering Singapore is #6 in the list, I presume you skipped English classes??

Either that or the list is horribly inaccurate.


Not only will Greta tell you that, from half way around the world, she knows English better than you do, but she also knows your own country's history better than you do, and if you were to give description of what happens in your own neighborhood by eye ball and ears description, she is quite eager, from 11,000 miles away, to explain it all to you by way of fantasy in her head, in a way that leaves you scratching your head as to how such a creature could have ever arrived at this juncture of evolution in the first place.


< Message edited by Edwird -- 11/18/2016 4:53:14 AM >

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RE: English Proficiency Ranking by Countries - 11/18/2016 4:51:42 AM   
mnottertail


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Status: offline 		I find it strange that England and the USA are not on the list.

Wassup wid dat, OI? I'm bleedin chuffed to bits.

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