How many Spanish people are fluent in English?

[irish_bob]

Originally Posted by Sickandtiredofthis

I disagree, i've visited Murcia, Alicante, Barcelona, Valencia and the Canary islands. Good luck with getting even simple English in rural areas! In the cities its not good either but alot of people will know the basics but thats bad for a 21st century country..

do you not see the irony of a brit taking shots at other Europeans for their inability to speak a second language

[Sickandtiredofthis]

No. I'm simply answering the question that has been asked and they are getting uptight because they don't like the truth.

We all know that English usage in Spain is terrible.

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by kessel

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and I found this thread really interesting, as I'm a native Spaniard living in Germany for some years now and thinking about going to the USA in the future.

Well, I must agree myself that most people in Spain do have a poor level in English, I suffered myself the disadvantages of learning English in Spain, it really helped me a lot more to watch movies, read books and listening to music in English than to go to school and try to learn the language there.

As I know Spanish culture as a native, I can assure you that it's not only a bad school system behind it, it has something to do with Spanish mentality too. As I was at school I had the feeling, that people were kind of ashamed to speak English correctly, it were cooler to speak with a hard Spanish accent on it.

Now,since I'm living in Germany and had the chance to know a different culture I've seen that people here are very different about this matter. Germans may know just three words in English, or Spanish, but they will try to make the best out of them, they will trty to pronounce them correctly and try to get a conversation with a native speaker as far as possible, as Spanish people might have more knowledge in English than some German but often won't try to use it or will feel this weird shame when trying to speak it correctly.

I did even have a weird experience in Spain as I was still learning German, which I did in a school, were people took courses of German voluntarily. Our teacher, a native German woman, would ask us some Questions in German, and as she didn't want me to answer everything she just asked the rest of the students, and no one got a word out of their mouths. The teacher was upset and asked the people why the hell did they take German lessons voluntarily? So, maybe you can understand now a little bit more, why people in Spain don't speak English that good.

A bit off topic, but how do you find the level of English in Germany?

[kessel]

Originally Posted by Marmel

A bit off topic, but how do you find the level of English in Germany?

I'd say it's good if you compare it to Spain, then German is related to English in its origin and I think this makes it easier for the Germans to learn English than it is for Spanish people, which would be better at learning related languages as Italian, Portuguese or French.

But I've always heard that Europeans who speak English the best are Scandinavians - of course I'm not considering English, Irish and so...

[forgotten username]

Meanwhile I'm thinking about an Italian friend who is fluent in Spanish, German, English, but is sorry because she doesn't know French.

Or about that other Italian who took Arabic lessons and can converse with migrants from that part of the world.

Then there are brits who lament about the rest of the continent not being as fluent as they are in their own language, even if this board is filled with people whose English is not a mother tongue.