Do people there speak English?

[braumeister]

Many North Americans are reluctant to try foreign travel because they are apprehensive about their ability to communicate. DW is one of them, despite much experience traveling with me.

Here is an interesting list of places where they do an outstanding job of speaking English. The list is ranked by country beginning with the best:

1. Netherlands
2. Sweden
3. Denmark
4. Norway
5. Singapore
6. Finland
7. Luxembourg
8. South Africa
9. Germany
10. Austria
11. Poland
12. Belgium
13. Malaysia
14. Switzerland
15. Philippines

The rest of the list can be found here:
The world's largest ranking of countries by English skills

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

It's amazing really so many countries can speak English. Many[most?] English speakers have difficulty picking up another language. My guess would be we are not motivated to do so. It's hard.

 

[Gotadimple]

Learning any language is hard, you have to re-wire your thinking. But learning only a few words for a country where you will be travelling isn't hard. Using them when in country will get you a lot of appreciative smiles.

- Rita

 

[travelover]

And in the hospitably / tourist areas of virtually any country the employees speak at least some English. I've never had a problem in any country with a lack of communication.

 

[Teacher Terry]

In the big cities in Italy English is spoken. In Poland English is spoken if you are in a big city. When in a town of 100k not so much.

 

[Amethyst]

In Paris many people spoke English, but only after I'd tried to speak French to them.

One man insisted on carefully correcting my French. He must have been a teacher, because he had me repeat every phrase several times till he was satisfied.

 

[ivinsfan]

It's amazing really so many countries can speak English. Many[most?] English speakers have difficulty picking up another language. My guess would be we are not motivated to do so. It's hard.

It seems like English is kind of a universal default common language..Its probably the most useful language to know when traveling. I've noticed very few native born British citizens have second languages.

Spanish is gaining ground and my dear GD is in a Spanish immersion school started the immersion in kindergarten.. I'm guessing English might be taught at an early age in many non English speaking countries.

 

[samclem]

I was in Malawi several years ago doing some w*rk. Like much of Sub-Saharan Africa, it is a poor country. When I was there (harvest time) folks seemed generally quite happy. A beautiful country. Anyway, the British colonized the place many years ago, and English is taught in school. It is not widely spoken, and even those who took English classes generally don't speak the language well.
I was in a very remote part of the country with some other folks from the US and a young girl (11 YO?) came down a path with her dog. This is not a place white people frequented. She said hello to us, then told us about her dog, smiling the whole time as she searched for the right words. She was a gutsy little kid, I know I'd be reluctant to try out my foreign language skills if I were in her shoes in a similar situation (oh, she had no shoes).
I would like to go back there.

 

[davebarnes]

My one and only complaint about our recent 3-week vacation in Portugal was that too many spoke English.
I never really had a chance to use my Português that I spent 170 hours learning.

I am now in the process of learning Euskara, Català and Español and it will probably be almost completely an intellectual exercise.

 

[athena53]

Put Iceland on that list. With so few people speaking Icelandic (the country has only around 300,000 natives), most Icelanders speak English, at least.

Sadly, the fact that English is becoming the common languages of tourists everywhere, it makes Americans even lazier about learning other languages. I say this as someone who can communicate decently in French and German (and tourist Spanish) but tend to fall back on English if someone understands me.

 

[braumeister]

In Paris many people spoke English, but only after I'd tried to speak French to them.

I was surprised that France was so far down on the list (#32).

 

[Bamaman]

When you have communication problems and adults don't understand you, the speaking to any school age kids.

 

[braumeister]

Put Iceland on that list.

Yes, Iceland should be high on the list, but it wasn't one of the 80 countries surveyed.

One of my favorite memories is from many years ago, driving through very remote parts of Brazil. Stopped for gas at a tiny town and was chatting with the station attendant when a little kid, maybe 5 years old, grabbed my wrist and started pulling me away. The gas station guy smiled and told me it was OK, so I followed the kid. He wanted to show his mother "Mom! It's a gringo and he speaks our language!" Got a good chuckle out of that and bought the kid a soda.

 

[Souschef]

On my last j*b, I had customers all over the world. I had a series of books called "Just Enough" that would fit in a pocket. When traveling, I always had the ones I needed with me.
I agree, if you learn hello, goodbye, please and thank you in the country's language it will be appreciated.
my funniest experience was going to a pharmacy in Russia and asking for cold medicine in Russian from my little book. I got the medicine, but there was a man behind me smiling, probably because my pronunciation was so bad

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

We we're in the Netherlands a few months ago, and I asked some guy if he spoke English. He replied, "Of course I do. I'm Dutch!"

 

[ElizabethT]

In Paris many people spoke English, but only after I'd tried to speak French to them.

One man insisted on carefully correcting my French. He must have been a teacher, because he had me repeat every phrase several times till he was satisfied.

What a wonderful exchange that must have been! I would be so appreciative that someone cared enough to spend their time doing so.

I've experienced this when speaking (attempting to speak?) Spanish, and as long as I'm not being chastised by the other person, I so appreciate it.

 

[athena53]

My funniest experience was going to a pharmacy in Russia and asking for cold medicine in Russian from my little book. I got the medicine, but there was a man behind me smiling, probably because my pronunciation was so bad

My Dad once resorted to writing down the chemical formula for Milk of Magnesia (MgOH2- maybe that was just the active ingredient) to get what he needed at a pharmacy in Germany.

I always get a laugh out of Lonely Planet guides. I like them for their practicality (reasonably-priced restaurants and accommodations, how not to get arrested, public transportation basics) but their languages guides include phrases I may never need. They include pickup lines and "I'm addicted to ..." with a list of various substances.

 

[Amethyst]

Once you get out of the cities - as others have noted - English-speakers are far less common and you really do need some French.

I was surprised that France was so far down on the list (#32).

 

[Amethyst]

It was! I felt like a character in a movie.

What a wonderful exchange that must have been! I would be so appreciative that someone cared enough to spend their time doing so.

 

[MRG]

We we're in the Netherlands a few months ago, and I asked some guy if he spoke English. He replied, "Of course I do. I'm Dutch!"

I spent a lot of time in the Netherlands for Megacorp. Everyone appeared to speak English very well. One older gentleman, who was trying to explain some complex notions about how people work, apologized for his. His education was mostly pre WWII and apparently that was a point where English taught more frequently.

We got through it alright, his English much better than no Dutch from me. Interesting too was his thoughts about how his workforce would use our software. Different from the US view.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Put Iceland on that list. With so few people speaking Icelandic (the country has only around 300,000 natives), most Icelanders speak English, at least.

Sadly, the fact that English is becoming the common languages of tourists everywhere, it makes Americans even lazier about learning other languages. I say this as someone who can communicate decently in French and German (and tourist Spanish) but tend to fall back on English if someone understands me.

+1. I'm surprised they didn't even put Iceland anywhere on the complete list. We met almost no one who did not speak English and English seemed almost more common than Icelandic.

 

[audreyh1]

In Paris many people spoke English, but only after I'd tried to speak French to them.

One man insisted on carefully correcting my French. He must have been a teacher, because he had me repeat every phrase several times till he was satisfied.

Oh that sounds so French!

 

[audreyh1]

We we're in the Netherlands a few months ago, and I asked some guy if he spoke English. He replied, "Of course I do. I'm Dutch!"

LOL! That sound typical!

 

[audreyh1]

It seems like English is kind of a universal default common language..Its probably the most useful language to know when traveling. I've noticed very few native born British citizens have second languages.

Spanish is gaining ground and my dear GD is in a Spanish immersion school started the immersion in kindergarten.. I'm guessing English might be taught at an early age in many non English speaking countries.

One time in Nice there was a table next to us it looked like a business dinner. Two French women, two German men. They spoke to each other in English.

 

[CardsFan]

On the professional side, this is no surprise. The universal language of business is english. Maybe not in the contracts (in Tunisia and Morocco all contracts had to be in French, for example), but in practice around the table.

Example: In Tunisia negotiating a contract. Nationalities: Chinese (several dialects), Tunisian, French, Belgian, Danish, and USA. The only language all could speak was English.

Through this, I have learned, you can go to just about any country, as an English only speaker, and get by. Even in some pretty remote sections of China.

I am not say in this is the way it should be, or we should not learn more languages. But it is the way it is.