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I went to Paris a decade ago and remember that it was one of the most difficult places to be because absolutely no one knew English. I recently just came back and the difference is staggering. The majority of service workers in Paris know English and I found that to be true all over Europe as well. Even in places as far off as Ukraine, all the restaurants had menus in English and at least one staff member spoke it.
Did Europe learn English because of America's culture exports or was it because of England's presence on the continent?
I went to Paris a decade ago and remember that it was one of the most difficult places to be because absolutely no one knew English. I recently just came back and the difference is staggering. The majority of service workers in Paris know English and I found that to be true all over Europe as well. Even in places as far off as Ukraine, all the restaurants had menus in English and at least one staff member spoke it.
Did Europe learn English because of America's culture exports or was it because of England's presence on the continent?
Bit of both, I have been visiting other parts of Europe for 30 years and I've always found plenty of English speakers, I've always found English menu's, but there again I've often (but not always) gone to parts of Europe that are popular with English tourists (I find many menu's also have French and German options). I first visited Paris in around 1981 as a boy and I remember a lot of people there spoke English then, the thing is though they rather wanted us to speak to them in French first (and why not considering WE were the ones visiting their country), they would use English to 'help us along', the Dutch and Scandinavians (to name but a few Euro countries) have been highly proficient in English for decades (the skill of our European cousins when it comes to foreign languages puts us British to shame) :-)
I can´t speak for the rest of Europe, but it might have something to do with Germany not being the hottest thing in 1945.
Sweden was heavily into german culture after the french revolution, but not so much after WWII.
Same in Germany. My parents never learned English. I learned English in 5th grade. My nieces from grade 2 on. You need English skills in many professions. So to be more competitive, they teach kids English. More and more words are not even getting translated anymore, they just get adopted. You see the word "shop" on some stores, which they didn't have when I was a kid. "Chilling" is now commonly used, I did not grow up with this.
I think the main reason is the globalization through internet and people easily traveling to other countries.
I used to go to Italy for vacation as a kid and learned some words before hand to get around and not get lost. Now you can go there and communicate in English with them.
I can´t speak for the rest of Europe, but it might have something to do with Germany not being the hottest thing in 1945.
Sweden was heavily into german culture after the french revolution, but not so much after WWII.
can you elaborate?
The German language is spoken (a little bit) in many countries also because Germans travel everywhere. Wherever you go, and it could be the tiniest country in the world, you'll find some German tourists. Anyway, to accommodate them and make money, a lot of people in foreign countries in tourist areas learn a little bit of German.
It may be the same with English. People want to make money, so to communicate, they learn the language of the people they want to have business with.
I used to do business in Europe in the 80's, and 90's, and all the business people in which I dealt spoke English. I never had a problem getting along. Yes, they are motivated to speak English for business reasons.
People in most European countries can speak at least basic English, with many being completely fluent. In the larger countries such as France, Spain & Italy I would say less people can speak English, but even here many can, especially in the larger cities & tourist areas.
Knowing the spattering of language western Europeans knw, English is just a pidgin,,same goes with the rest
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