I've read several times on this forum that even young Spaniards with average education can't pronounce even a few words in English. Is it true?. Thanks in advance.
Is Spain the European country that speaks English worst?
Spain is the most boring and overrated country in Europe. Besides, Spanish is probably the ugliest romance language along with Romanian. Most Spanish guys are gorgeous anyway....
Appart from recognising that you are a homo don't you have anything to say on Spaniards' English ? This is what my thread is about.
Es verdad, es que nuestros cerebros se atrofian por culpa de nuestro idioma tan gilipollas.
Ni siquiera puedo recordar las palabras más simples, será porque mi cerebro no funciona. Voy a suicidarme. El mundo será mejor sin mí, ojalá todos los demás españoles siguieran mis pasos. Dios nos odia, nos detesta y quiere que muramos.
Adiós. No puedo soportar más esta tristeza. ¡Murámonos!
Ni siquiera puedo recordar las palabras más simples, será porque mi cerebro no funciona. Voy a suicidarme. El mundo será mejor sin mí, ojalá todos los demás españoles siguieran mis pasos. Dios nos odia, nos detesta y quiere que muramos.
Adiós. No puedo soportar más esta tristeza. ¡Murámonos!
But it is true.
We know to write in English (medium level) because we do the homework.
But we understand the films and the music very bad. Our speaking is not very good because we don't have a lot of sound that English has.
There are only a few with a good level (written, listening and speaking). I guess that in Italy. France and Portugal the level of English is similar.
We know to write in English (medium level) because we do the homework.
But we understand the films and the music very bad. Our speaking is not very good because we don't have a lot of sound that English has.
There are only a few with a good level (written, listening and speaking). I guess that in Italy. France and Portugal the level of English is similar.
There are only a few with a good level (written, listening and speaking). I guess that in Italy. France and Portugal the level of English is similar.
----or even worse!
----or even worse!
<<I guess that in Italy. France and Portugal the level of English is similar. >>
Italy and France yes....but Portugal no.
The english in portugal is suprisingly good, and the vast majority of the young people speak it well.
Italy and France yes....but Portugal no.
The english in portugal is suprisingly good, and the vast majority of the young people speak it well.
"The english in portugal"
... as if any proof was needed that frigging Portuguese wogs cannot even write in English.
... as if any proof was needed that frigging Portuguese wogs cannot even write in English.
It's because in Portugal movies and sitcoms are not dubbed, so people are familiar(ized) with English since their childhood.
The english in portugal is suprisingly good, and the vast majority of the young people speak it well.
This is not true! I was in Portugal last summer and I visited lots of cities. Just in big hotels receptionists can speak English fluently. I used to speak Portuguese everywhere because most people in shops or in the street cannot speak English properly.
This is not true! I was in Portugal last summer and I visited lots of cities. Just in big hotels receptionists can speak English fluently. I used to speak Portuguese everywhere because most people in shops or in the street cannot speak English properly.
It depends,
in terms of the education systems, I'm sure as many Spaniards as Portuguese will complain about their education systems (in fact, don't we all, irrespective of our countries). That may or may not be a factor.
In my experience, one of the chief handicaps that Spanish learners of English have to overcome is the reduced phonic system (since the advent of Early Modern Spanish) of Castilian, so understandably they find it frustrating having to distinguish between umpteen variations of the letter 'a', for example. Portuguese speakers, whilst not quite posessing the wide array of sounds of English, do however have a greater variety of vowels (open and closed) and consonant sounds to draw upon and are therefore more likely to make an approximate or an exact pronunciation of the English word.
One could also add, that Portugal is a nation of emigrants par excellence, defined even by its maritime history. Could this have led to a predisposition to acquiring other languages? Practically every Portuguese family has a relative who lives/lived abroad in France, the Low Countries, Switzerland or Germany and England, not to mention Canada and USA. Assuming even some of these immigrants (or their children) returned at some stage to Portugal to live and work, they would have brought these newly acquired languages back with them; particularly useful for the tourist industry.
Another salient point for me in my limited experience of POrtugal is the preponderance of subtitled foreign TV as opposed to dubbed programmes. This is very good in my opinion as it exposes children from an early age to the sounds of a foreign language.
in terms of the education systems, I'm sure as many Spaniards as Portuguese will complain about their education systems (in fact, don't we all, irrespective of our countries). That may or may not be a factor.
In my experience, one of the chief handicaps that Spanish learners of English have to overcome is the reduced phonic system (since the advent of Early Modern Spanish) of Castilian, so understandably they find it frustrating having to distinguish between umpteen variations of the letter 'a', for example. Portuguese speakers, whilst not quite posessing the wide array of sounds of English, do however have a greater variety of vowels (open and closed) and consonant sounds to draw upon and are therefore more likely to make an approximate or an exact pronunciation of the English word.
One could also add, that Portugal is a nation of emigrants par excellence, defined even by its maritime history. Could this have led to a predisposition to acquiring other languages? Practically every Portuguese family has a relative who lives/lived abroad in France, the Low Countries, Switzerland or Germany and England, not to mention Canada and USA. Assuming even some of these immigrants (or their children) returned at some stage to Portugal to live and work, they would have brought these newly acquired languages back with them; particularly useful for the tourist industry.
Another salient point for me in my limited experience of POrtugal is the preponderance of subtitled foreign TV as opposed to dubbed programmes. This is very good in my opinion as it exposes children from an early age to the sounds of a foreign language.
Why are English people or Americans the worst at speaking Spanish or Greek? Their language has lots of phonemes but they are not able to reproduce Spanish vowels either....
Well, everybody recognises here in Spain we have a problem with learning foreign languages. This specially applies nowadays to English. Several reasons could explain this. First of all, learning English is seen as something desirable, but not indispensable. Spanish is considered to be an international language, so we can go to many countries in the world where our language is spoken. Furthermore, there is a lack of good teachers. Universities are to blame for that (degrees in English are heavily orientated to literature and philology, they do not provide future teachers with a good fluency in the language they will have to teach). Politicians are now more and more speaking about the need to improve levels of english at schools.
I do think that apart from all the "serious reasons" above, we Spaniards have a certain "fear" of speaking foreign languages in a loud, clear voice. Many of us (not me) have to overcome a vey high degree of shame or of "being ridiculous" feeling when speaking in other languages than spanish. It does happen in all countries but I think even more in Spain, given our particular sense of personal pride.
I do think that apart from all the "serious reasons" above, we Spaniards have a certain "fear" of speaking foreign languages in a loud, clear voice. Many of us (not me) have to overcome a vey high degree of shame or of "being ridiculous" feeling when speaking in other languages than spanish. It does happen in all countries but I think even more in Spain, given our particular sense of personal pride.
The fact is that Spanish lacks some common phonemes present in most European languages, suck as Z, SH, TZ, V, apart from lots of vowel sounds. For instance, even the pronunciation of S sound is quite different from the English counterpart. In my opinion, English plurals ending in Z are quite hard to pronounce for a Spanish speaker.