Question for non-Americans (and non-British)

[Narz]

Just curious, in your estimate how much percentage of the population of your country speaks English (assuming English is not the main language of your country)? Also, what other languages are widely spoken in your country?

- Narz

 

[gugalpm]

1%...
Spanish...
In my state, due to immigration, german and italian...

 

[animepornstar]

my estimations
english: 80%
german: 40%
french: 25%
spanish: 10%
finnish: 5%
able to communicate with norwegians: 90%
able to communicate with danish: 70%

 

[Pongui]

Why don't you want the American and British figures?

 

[newfangle]

In Canada,
I think 95% can speak english.
About 35% can speak French.

Jean Chretien can't sepeak either.

 

[Narz]

Why don't you want the American and British figures?

Well, I figure at least 95% of the population in those countries speaks fluent or near fluent English...

 

[Perfection]

We should proboblly exclude astrailia too.

 

[Janene]

Originally posted by newfangle
In Canada,
I think 95% can speak english.
About 35% can speak French.

Jean Chretien can't sepeak either.

Oh, c'mon, Newfangle, there has got to be other languages spoken.....

But you're talking OFFICIAL languages! Oh, I see....

*grins*

Cheers!
Janene

 

[Dominix]

In China

English: Maybe 1%, not too much more
Any other foreign language: Less than 1%
Chinese: The rest, but of course this can split up into numerous Chinese dialects (ie Cantonese) with Mandarin taking the majority.

 

[SunTzu]

well in my city its .1% English and 99.9$ Ebonics

 

[u-gene]

Foreign languages are not well taught in most Russian schools as well as colleges, universities etc. This percentage is only relatively high among people aged 30 and below, since it hardly made sense to learn languages before late 80s. I'd say about 5% of the population can understand English and 1% can speak it more or less fluently. Of course it's a rough estimate. The second most popular foreign language is German, I suppose. The third one is probably French. Though it does depend on the region. For instance, in St. Petersburg region the Finnish language is popular.

 

[ainwood]

Interesting topic! I'd love to hear about most of the european countries, and places like india / pakistan & the far east.

Interestingly, I've never run across anyone in New Zealand (tourists aside) who can't speak english. However, I understand that there are quite a few in Auckland who can't - immigrants mainly from the South Pacific.

Most in New Zealand are taught basic Maori at school, and generally at high school you can take another language (optional). French, German and Japanese are the most common, but I think Spanish is offered as well.

 

[Yoda Power]

Most people in Denmark speak english, some better than other though.

 

[Bifrost]

English? What for?! First of all we should speak our native language correctly. I think that about 0.2-0.5% of population can speak Russian without mistakes

 

[trader/warrior]

in norway?

EVERYBODY!
exept children under ten and some old guys. i dont think i have ever seen a person from norway between 10 and 55 that can`t speak english

 

[Yndy]

I also wonder. I guess that 20% of Romanians understand English more or less as it is taught in school, highschool, college. But since the education is not that great only about 5% can speak so that a willing English speaking person would understand. French and German are followers with 10% understanding and about 2% speaking each.

I can safely say that these figures are rapidly growing. I guess they are two to three times higher for the people aged 10-30 that the ones I quoted.

 

[funxus]

I agree with trader/warrior, everyone here starts to learn english at age 9, and I think at least everyone born after wwII have been taught english in school. So almost everyone between 10 - 60 years can in varying degree communicate in english. It's hard to get all the information you want if you don't know english, because quite often no one bothers to translate.

 

[Eivind IV]

Yes, English is our second languange in Norway. Most of us also speak alittle German and French as well.

There are also immigrant minorities from the middle-east and the far east. There several Pakistanians and Iranians in Norway. Several Kurds from Iraq and Turkey.

Most of them though come from Europe, such as Kosovo and the rest of the Balkans.

I'm not sure which minority is the biggest. But I know that the biggest immigrant group in Norway is actually Swedes Every Norwegian is able to communicate with both the Danes and the Swedes. And many Russians cross the border in the North of Norway and settle there. Nomather where these people come from they usually speak English, so thats our most important language (after our own ofcourse )

 

[Panda]

Everyone barring young children, the elederly, and school drop-outs. So I figure around 90%.

 

[jiml_63]

As an American who lived in Europe for 6+ years I was rather amazed at the number of Europeans who understood and spoke English...while this was almost 20 years ago, I imagine not much has changed....except for the closed-mindedness of Americans to learn a 2nd language....

btw-while certainly not fluent, I can get by in German, Spanish and Italian