How is English taught in your country?

[NovaKart]

Recently I've been helping a couple of Turkish teenagers with their English homework. One of them showed me his textbook and homework. He had exercises with questions like - I have never been to Italy. Answer: Neither have I or Neither did I. This was intermediate level English. If I asked this guy, "Where are you from?" He would have trouble answering me. If I asked him "What are you doing?" He wouldn't understand, but he's in this class. Based on my experience in Turkey I seriously doubt most of his class knows the level of English in that textbook.

The other guy knows better English, probably because his mother is a bit of a tiger mom and he seems to have little freedom and his mother makes him study constantly. He was studying for his exam and learning countries and nationalities. He had to learn a list of countries and nationalities, most of which were rather pointless. The list had things like Paraguay - Paraguayan, Nepal - Nepali. I can't imagine why a Turkish language learner would need to refer to people from Paraguay. The list was copied from another students notes and was full of mistakes, like confusing Australian with Austrian. I don't know if this was the teacher's fault or the student copying it.

In my experience in Turkey, few people know English, even among university level students. That's fine, I don't expect everyone to know English. The strange thing is, they are taught English in schools, so what's the problem? How is it different in countries that have a higher level of English speakers?

 

[classical_hero]

I have a very cromulent understanding of the language.

 

[Kyriakos]

In soviet Greece English is the first language.

Well almost; generally 99,9% of pupils learn english. They end up not knowing either Greek nor English very well, unless they are naturally bright, study a lot, or want to pursue a career as philologist in that language.

I had both classes at school (along with 2 years of horrible german) and private class at home. The latter was considerably better, since my tutor was an american woman and therefore she knew the language better.

 

[Leoreth]

Well, it's hard to tell from my perspective because of Germany's three-tiered education system I've only been in class with the "top third" (really has to be taken with a grain of salt, but only so you get the idea). I would entrust at least half of the people I've graduated with to communicate fluently with other English speakers, while I'm sure the rest of them is at least able to understand and answer simple questions like your example. I expect the ratio to be different in the other school forms, although I'm fairly certain that a large majority (excepting don't care about nothing students) is capable of rudimentary English communication there too.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Same thing here (as in Turkey). Luckily I lived in the US for 5 years so I speak English fluently and with a Yankee accent. Others sometime laugh when I read something on English because they find my accent weird? In short even those who know how to speak it, speak like Russians in old US vs USSR movies.

 

[Winner]

In my experience in Turkey, few people know English, even among university level students. That's fine, I don't expect everyone to know English. The strange thing is, they are taught English in schools, so what's the problem? How is it different in countries that have a higher level of English speakers?

From my experience with learning English here in the Czech Rep., I can tell you there is a problem with getting good teachers into the public education system. I went to a gymnázium which in theory means my education on the primary/secondary level was above standard, but still English teachers were constantly coming and going, sometimes two times in a school year. That really makes it impossible to teach the language properly.

Due to low salaries, it's really hard for someone who speaks decent English and who can teach it to others to find motivation to work as a teacher in public schools (so basically all schools in this country - we're not that much into elitist expensive private schools for the rich).

Also, until recently it wasn't even required for students to do a leaving exam in foreign language if instead they chose maths. That's changed now when the whole system of leaving exams (how do you call it English? We have a word for it - maturita - which none of you will understand, but I am not sure about the proper English term for the examination you need to pass to graduate from high school) was overhauled - and it seems 20% of students will fail the exam because they can't speak the language they chose at the required level.

Unlike other countries, our TV relies heavily on dubbing, so you rarely hear English there - which is bad, because it really helps to get your pronunciation right. I'd say Czechs on average aren't very good at English. Young people usually speak some English, but unless they had a really good teacher in high school or they went to a language school afterwards, their English is... rudimentary. We call it Czenglish, actually Bad pronunciation, awful accent, no grammar, a lot of embarrassing mistakes related to incorrect usage of words with similar meanings, etc. I am not going to pretend my English is excellent or anything, but sometimes what I hear from other Czechs makes me cringe

 

[Lillefix]

Let's not ridicule the Turkish too much here. Compared to most of us, the Turks have a natural disadvantage when it comes to learning English.

 

[Kyriakos]

From my experience with learning English here in the Czech Rep., I can tell you there is a problem with getting good teachers into the public education system. I went to a gymnázium which in theory means my education on the primary/secondary level was above standard, but still English teachers were constantly coming and going, sometimes two times in a school year. That really makes it impossible to teach the language properly.

Due to low salaries, it's really hard for someone who speaks decent English and who can teach it to others to find motivation to work as a teacher in public schools (so basically all schools in this country - we're not that much into elitist expensive private schools for the rich).

Also, until recently it wasn't even required for students to do a leaving exam in foreign language if instead they chose maths. That's changed now when the whole system of leaving exams (how do you call it English? We have a word for it - maturita - which none of you will understand, but I am not sure about the proper English term for the examination you need to pass to graduate from high school) was overhauled - and it seems 20% of students will fail the exam because they can't speak the language they chose at the required level.

Unlike other countries, our TV relies heavily on dubbing, so you rarely hear English there - which is bad, because it really helps to get your pronunciation right. I'd say Czechs on average aren't very good at English. Young people usually speak some English, but unless they had a really good teacher in high school or they went to a language school afterwards, their English is... rudimentary. We call it Czenglish, actually Bad pronunciation, awful accent, no grammar, a lot of embarrassing mistakes related to incorrect usage of words with similar meanings, etc. I am not going to pretend my English is excellent or anything, but sometimes what I hear from other Czechs makes me cringe

Well when i was in university there were a lot of other Greek students as well in England, and at one time, while a group of them was taking the bus to Colchester, the driver asked one where he was going, and he replied, cautiously: "A ticket to the rails please"*.

The bus driver then stared at him with hostility. I am sure he was thinking something horrible about foreign students in England at that moment

*

Spoiler :

He obviously meant to ask for a ticket to the railway station. Funny thing is that "a ticket to the rails" does not even work in greek

 

[Godwynn]

By highly qualified teachers in Illinois, as a foreign language in Mississippi.

 

[Rashiminos]

I was not aware that Imperial language of oppression was a standard component of the curricula of this fair nation's various assemblies of municipalities, counties, and states.

 

[bathsheba666]

quite bad

 

[Lillefix]

quite bad

ly

5char

 

[bathsheba666]

ly

5char

woosh

 

[Lillefix]

woosh

I've seen that mistake so many times I can't tell when people use it deliberately or not anymore.

 

[holy king]

here, like everywhere else, you can finish compulsory school without being able to have the most basic of conversations in english, should you feel like it.

*shrug*

 

[Winner]

Let's not ridicule the Turkish too much here. Compared to most of us, the Turks have a natural disadvantage when it comes to learning English.

Turkish exchange students in my Uni usually speak a rather good English. Asians are either very good (Hong Kong ) or terrible (/l/ <-> /r/ ), but we don't have that many of them here.

You Scandinavians, Dutch, and maybe Germans have a natural advantage since your languages are closer to English than any other. As a speaker of a Slavic language, I'd say it's a lot more difficult to grasp English for us.

@Kyriakos:
A Greek erasmus student I knew had a rather strange accent - some things she pronounced in a totally weird way, I initially didn't know where to place it

 

[Das Ritterkreuz]

I have a very cromulent understanding of the language.

Him card read good!--Sorry, I just love a good Simpsons reference.

Living in the North Eastern United States means this question really doesn't apply to me. I can tell you though that second language is required learning in High school. Unfortunately you only get the basics, never use it, and once you've graduated you forget almost every word you learned.

 

[Bamspeedy]

That's changed now when the whole system of leaving exams (how do you call it English? We have a word for it - maturita - which none of you will understand, but I am not sure about the proper English term for the examination you need to pass to graduate from high school) was overhauled

That is simply called Final Exams

 

[Winner]

That is simply called Final Exams

You don't differentiate between final exams in high school and final exams in college?

 

[Takhisis]

Not as well as it should, but then this country has some big deficits on other areas, more basic, such as feeding its own population.

Maybe I notice the mistakes more because I've spoken English all my life, but&#8230; in February last year we had the admission exams for the degrees in translation. In the English exams, I was the only one who scored more than 7 out of 10. There was a lot of people who failed the exam (passing grade was 4, which is not a 40%, don't worry) but it wasn't that difficult&#8230;