How do other Europeans feel about the dominance of English in Europe and the world? (cultures, speak)
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Well, in Spain they dub everything. In Portugal they use subtitles.
That probably makes the difference.
On the other hand, if we look at the latest Eurobarometer survey, both countries rank low in terms of English proficiency and are actually not far apart. In Portugal, only 27% claim to speak English, in Spain 22%.
Both are overaged countries, Portugal more so than Spain, not least because Spain has received many immigrants, but many of them are from countries where they barely speak any English, so that hasn't boosted Spain's percentage of people speaking English. 20 or 30 years from now, when the old generations have died, statistics will look much different.
Both are overaged countries, Portugal more so than Spain, not least because Spain has received many immigrants, but many of them are from countries where they barely speak any English, so that hasn't boosted Spain's percentage of people speaking English. 20 or 30 years from now, when the old generations have died, statistics will look much different.
So what do you think is the percentage of English proficiency among the younger people -- let's say those who are under 40? Both in Spain and Portugal, if you can give some estimates.
People older than 40 at least in Spain have better French than English because it was the language studied at school.
In these countries English is not useful in daily life, because our mother tongues are big, spoken by too many people in the world another reason for this fact of lack of profidency.
Usually, Portugal has the better English level among South Europe, here´s another example, translation instead of dubbing is one of the reasons, if compared to the other countries
Interesting statistics and map. In another thread on a similar topic someone claimed that Indians are fluent in English and speak English all the time because it is one of the national languages there. I told him that is not the case, lots of Indians speak only very broken English. And those statistics confirm my experience. Even people in Argentina are more fluent in English than Indians
Interesting statistics and map. In another thread on a similar topic someone claimed that Indians are fluent in English and speak English all the time because it is one of the national languages there. I told him that is not the case, lots of Indians speak only very broken English. And those statistics confirm my experience. Even people in Argentina are more fluent in English than Indians
Some have this idea that since India was a British colony that English is widespread there. Also English is a de-facto official language in government.etc, but I'd say only a minority are fluent. Many can speak very basic 'broken' English and many almost none at all.
It's not like Singapore or Malaysia where English is widespread, more widespread than in most of Europe. As a first language it's the most English-speaking part of the mainland Old World.
German isn't as popular as English, because English is the de facto international language of business and trade. It has over 340 million native speakers and over 420 million L2 speakers - German doesn't even compare in terms of numbers.
German is still spoken by a lot of people in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic though. Over 50% of people in the Netherlands and Denmark can speak German.
German is too difficult to learn, plus there is a certain historical reluctance to learn German...
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Under age 30 probably 80% or more...
