Why do Dutch and Scandinavians speak English so well?
Based on my experience traveling around Europe, I find that people from the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Norway and Sweden speak English more fluently compared to people from say, France, Italy or Czech Republic. Not that I'm saying that everyone outside the Netherlands and Scandinavia speaks bad English. Only curious because English isn't even their native language and yet they speak the language so fluently.
What are the secrets or those nations' fluent English?
Is it because the children at school learn English at a younger age, as compared to the rest of Europe?
Do they have better English education systems at schools?
Or is it because their native languages are Germanic and related to English closely so that they can pick up English more easily than other Europeans?
Can Spanish and Greeks speak English well?
It's because they are unpatriotic socialist PC countries which have an inferiority complex. W
Two reasons:
Dutch and Swedish are more similar to English than Spanish, French or Greek are. I guess that if Italian was the world lingua Franca then the Spaniards would speak it much better than the Swedes.
Also Swedish and Dutch are not important languages, so while the Spaniards protect their own language and promote it, in these countries they simply learn English because their own languages are worthless.
«Is it because the children at school learn English at a younger age, as compared to the rest of Europe?
Do they have better English education systems at schools?
Or is it because their native languages are Germanic and related to English closely so that they can pick up English more easily than other Europeans? »
I started learning English when I was 9 or 10 years old. But nowadays quite an amount of advertisements on television and in the streets are partially in English. Also computer games are in English, so in fact the youth learns English already without being taught at school. I don't know at what age children learn English in schools nowadays.
Education system isn't much better I think. We just know that without learning foreign languages this country would have a big problem.
Of course Dutch is more similar to English than Spanish is to English. But if languages are kinda similar like Dutch and English it can be difficult to understand the small differences between them. I found it easier to learn French than English, because the whole system of French is different to my native language (Dutch). In English just a few rules are different.
<<Or is it because their native languages are Germanic and related to English closely so that they can pick up English more easily than other Europeans?>>
The quality of English doesn't seem to correlate with linguistic family groups.
For example: Spanish people FAIL at english, worse than French people and Italians even (all of whom speak god-awful mind-numbingly horrible english on average), but in Portugal, nearly all of the young people speak good English rivaling that of some northern Europeans.
If linguistic similarity were the determining factor, what would explain the stark contrast in the quality of english in Spain vs. Portugal (two virtually identical languages both equidistant from English)?
Also consider the fact that Scandinavians in general speak much better english than Germans, even though they are further removed from english in the Germanic language family.
but in Portugal, nearly all of the young people speak good English rivaling that of some northern Europeans.
I'm not probably that lucky but I'm the only who have met young portuguese, speaking broken English...
Well, it's understandable that the small countries with a sparsely spoken language like Sweden would be good with English, but what I don't understand is why Germany is so much better at English than Spain, France or Italy. They're all rather large and self sufficient countries so why is it? Is it because of the historical German inferiority complex? It shouldn't be this way since German is so widely spoken in Europe, and yet they are more willing to speak English than anyone.
Unkind people would say that the reason the Dutch, in particular, are excellent speakers of the English Language, and compulsorily begin learning it at a very early age is because their own spoken Language is hardly music to the ear! Unlike well spoken standard English the Dutch Language is extremely guttural and harsh in comparison with English which, as has been stated in previous posts, originates from the same source historically, more or less....Indo European of the northern variety within Europe itself.
As with German and some other same group Languages Dutch retained this gutturality and harshness whereas English evolved into a softer, smoother tongue with fewer sounds which can grate on the ear of English speakers especially.
You only have to sample the pleasures of travelling on an Amsterdam tram, for example, and listen to the locals around you chatting to experience that!...if you're lucky enough to have locals on the tram and not just a whole range of other nationalities in this very beguiling, Euro-liberal minded and cosmopolitan European city ;-) However, you can bet your next month's salary that everyone of those Dutch speakers on that tram would readily switch to nigh on word perfect English if you engaged them in conversation. A Dutch person with little or no knowledge of English probably doesn't exist. The Dutch are amongst the most spontaneously friendly and down to earth people in the world!
An inability to speak and/or understand English and the capability to respond competently in the Language is extremey rare in most other countries of North West Europe as well - such as Germany and all the Scandinavian countries.
I exclude France here (always a wee bit of a maverick is our France!) - and perhaps, just perhaps but much less likely, some parts of Belgium, too, but even in these countries an acquistion of a working knoweldge of Engish is now much more common than it once was - a sign of the very high profile (I hesitate to use the word "supremacy"!) the English Language now has within the EU and those countries which have not yet joined the European Union.
That leaves our dear friends the Swiss down there in gloriously beautiful Switzerland....well, they've always been chronically and neutrally independent haven't they? Even so they are one of the most multi lingual of all our European nation states, of necessity on geographical and commercial grounds if nothing else, and a Swiss over the age of seven or eight who is unable to conduct even a moderately reasonable conversation in English must be about as rare as a €9 bank-note.
>> I exclude France here (always a wee bit of a maverick is our France!) - and perhaps, just perhaps but much less likely, some parts of Belgium, too, but even in these countries an acquistion of a working knoweldge of Engish is now much more common than it once was <<
Well, I think that Parisians at least speak excellent English. I got quite irritated when I went to Paris, that they insisted on speaking English to me, even when I wanted to speak French to them. As for Belgium, in Brugge, many people seemed to prefer to speak English rather than French, even to fellow Belgians.
«Fr Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:14 pm GMT
Well, I think that Parisians at least speak excellent English. I got quite irritated when I went to Paris, that they insisted on speaking English to me, even when I wanted to speak French to them. As for Belgium, in Brugge, many people seemed to prefer to speak English rather than French, even to fellow Belgians. »
Well in Belgium that's common. The Francophones don't want to speak Dutch, and oftenly their English is very bad. Where the Dutch speakers in Belgium don't like to speak French but they can speak English kinda well.
There's a big difference between Flanders and Wallonia. Even people in Liège (Luik), oftenly don't want to speak Dutch while they're living very close to the Netherlands and they should be able to speak some Dutch to my opinion. But well, I'll switch to French in such situations.
English movies aren't dubbed in those countries. That's probably the main reason why their English is better.
In Germany (where I live), English classes consist of exercises and discussions. I've had English for 8 years and only watched 3 or 4 movies in that time. The percentage of native spoken English heard by the average German student is practically 0.
<<Also consider the fact that Scandinavians in general speak much better english than Germans, even though they are further removed from english in the Germanic language family. >>
That is true from a purely genetic point of view, however, Scandinavian languages can be more similar to English in many ways where German is very different, like in structure, sentence flow and phonetics.
Isn't British television programming able to be picked up easily in the Low Countires and Scandinavia? Wouldn't this also contribute somewhat? At least it's exposure
<<Unkind people would say that the reason the Dutch, in particular, are excellent speakers of the English Language, and compulsorily begin learning it at a very early age is because their own spoken Language is hardly music to the ear! Unlike well spoken standard English the Dutch Language is extremely guttural and harsh in comparison with English which, as has been stated in previous posts, originates from the same source historically, more or less....Indo European of the northern variety within Europe itself.>>
That has shit all to do with it. No one notices their own native language, they just speak it and are used to it. English is pretty ugly in the eyes of a lot of French people and Italians, yet you don't seem embarrassed enough to be speaking Italian now...
The answer to your question: original or dubbed tv/movie products:
1. Original voice in Tv products and movies is used in:
Portugal, Flanders, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia
2. Dubbing is preferred: in most other countries
That's why people from 1. are more likely to speak English on the street with foreigners, and their English is better than English of Germans, French, Spanish or Italians, Italians have terrible diction: pub ['peb@], dance ['dens@], cover ['kover]...