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submitted 1 year ago by zaphod@sopuli.xyz to c/yurop@lemm.ee
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[-] Servais@jlai.lu 28 points 1 year ago

Seems strange to have Italy and Spain here, the English proficiency is usually at the same levels than France.

[-] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 year ago

It's not that they can't speak English, the cliché (at least in the past) is that they refuse to speak it. Spanish people are probably worse when it comes to English proficiency these days.

[-] Servais@jlai.lu 4 points 1 year ago

Spanish people are probably worse when it comes to English proficiency these days.

Probably, people are always surprised that they have to speak Spanish even in some touristy areas.

[-] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 year ago

same levels ~than~as France.

FTFY

(Sorry, can't help it when it's about language proficiency)

[-] Servais@jlai.lu 7 points 1 year ago

Thank you, grammar specialist

[-] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago

You're welcome

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[-] Pancito@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

But Spanish and Italians will try if you approach them in English

[-] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 year ago

Lol spanish and italians speak shit english.

[-] Ross_audio@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago
[-] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

American English is the only correct English.

[-] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 year ago

The average swede speaks better english than the average american

[-] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago
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[-] Ross_audio@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Americans have worse English than the French.

[-] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

French aren't people.

[-] Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Indian English is the future english

[-] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Only valid reply.

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[-] Leviathan@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

I live in Montreal, my experience is that French people speak great English while most Quebecers can't ask for the bathroom in English. Of course, the French people coming here are generally open minded compared to Jean-Guy from Brossard who not only shoots you a "yes-no-toaster" when you ask him if he speaks English but also thinks it's the funniest thing he's ever said.

[-] Klear@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My experience with the French is that they're happy to speak English if you say something like "Excusez-moi, perlez vous anglais?" but may pretent to not understand you if you just start in English.

Which is actually pretty fair when I think about it.

[-] Servais@jlai.lu 2 points 1 year ago

Very true. English speakers are sometimes taken aback, but it's usually a way to show respect to the local language, and acknowledge that you are asking them a favor to speak a second language.

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[-] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

Maybe they just don't like the québécois accent, it certainly has a very distinct sound.

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago
[-] krimsonbun 10 points 1 year ago

Idk about the rest but Spanish people suck at English.

[-] Servais@jlai.lu 6 points 1 year ago

Italians have more or less the same level.

It is probably due to the fact that Romance languages are further from English than Germanic languages like Dutch and German.

[-] mjpc13@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Portuguese can speak english just fine.( I'm clearly biased since I am portuguese.)

I think a major difference is that Portugal has the original audio on every movie/show except kid shows, which improves our english accent.

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[-] Kiliyukuxima@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Portuguese is also a Latin laguange and Portuguese are much more proficient in English than Spanish, French and Italians. The main reason, imo, is that these countries dub all movies, series, etc, so they basically never listen to English nor are they interested to. In Portugal we rarely dub anything and just use subtitles. So it's much easier for us to understand and speak english because we're much more used to listen to it. It's probably the same thing for the eastern countries as mentioned above. Now, why do these countries dub everything I don't know but if they didn't we'd probably be on the same level

[-] Servais@jlai.lu 2 points 1 year ago

Now, why do these countries dub everything I don’t know

Keeping the language alive and available to other people outside of face-to-face conversations.

One of the frustrating aspect of learning a language has a lower number of speakers (let's say under 20 millions) and dubs everything is that you can't really find content in that language to learn it. I learned Dutch for many years, and it's always kind of frustrating to not being able to find that many content (e.g. Youtube video essays for instance) as Dutch speakers would naturally produce that content in English to have a broader audience.

Which makes sense for them, but then brings the question of how relevant the language is. The Netherlands are experiencing the progressive disappearance from Dutch even more as more and more people are coming to Amsterdam and other Dutch cities, and aren't motivated to learn the language, as English is so widespread everywhere. Young Dutch speakers also tend to use more and more English in their slang.

I kind of have the same situation as I'm learning Catalan, as most of the Catalan Youtubers produce content in Castillano rather than Catalan to reach a broader audience, but then the language becomes less and less relevant. That's one of the reasons Catalans want to keep movies dubbed in Catalan, as it is a way to keep it relevant.

I'm really torn between the two approaches. I get people who say that everyone in Europe should just use English and be done with it, but at the same time, Romance languages just hit differently. It's part of the local culture, and I think it would be a waste to just let all of that disappear. Another example I have is someone I know who's perfectly proficient in English (lived in an English speaking countries for many years), but still wants to raise their children in Dutch. So at the end of the day, is that language still relevant or not?

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[-] Resol@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Finnish and Estonian are basically completely unrelated to English yet the native speakers of those languages are pretty good at English for the most part.

Yet for some reason, in Hungary, it's either Hungarian or bust (guess what, it's related to the two languages I mentioned at the beginning). So... honestly I have no idea what's happening here.

Also, Germany and Austria speak the same native language; German, yet there are more L2 English speakers in Austria than in Germany. It's the same as comparing France with francophone Belgium.

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[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

What's funnier is when the american cousins come to visit and all sound like old people because they learned the local language as it was before national standardization

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[-] BumbleBeeButt@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 year ago

English has French in it eh 1066

[-] Dagnet@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Italians outside of Italy maybe, or young people. Older Italians won't talk in English even with a gun pointed to their head. Had a bus driver tell me to talk to him in English and he would answer in Italian, wth

[-] Foni@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Kun kiom bela estas Esperanto kaj ni uzas la anglan kiel barbaroj

[-] Magnetar@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

Ne ĉiuj de ni! Estas ribeluloj ĉie.

[-] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

My French is rusty. So I'm not totally sure what he said not something speaking French? IDK. I live in Canada. There's no French here.

[-] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

They don't (know how to) speak French.

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[-] NoFun4You@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Sacré bleu

[-] vojel@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

Can’t agree on Spanish people here. Even the younger ones refuses or just really suck at speaking English. I talked to elderly people in Portugal in English and was not a problem. The younger people in Portugal are at least at a basic level. I am learning Spanish at the moment and I would say both languages share a lot of words. So knowing English helps me a lot understanding Spanish words.

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this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2024
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