English has been my pain for 15 years (2013)

Re:English has been my pain for 15 years (2013) by legulere on Saturday November 28, 2015 @11:45AM (#10641517)

If you look at the countries in Europe that are good at speaking English it's actually two big factors you see:

- The consumption of English media you mentioned

- Other Germanic languages. Even though English has moved away quite far from the other Germanic languages, there's still quite some Germanic heritage in for instance in how to generally express yourself. The problems arise when things are actually different. Swedes for instance often have a problem pronouncing the /tʃ/ sound and pronounce chip like ship. But for speakers of Germanic languages the problems are fewer.

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Re:English has been my pain for 15 years (2013) by syllogism on Saturday November 28, 2015 @11:50AM (#10641540)

Finnish is not a Germanic language.

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Re:English has been my pain for 15 years (2013) by kyberias on Saturday November 28, 2015 @12:13PM (#10641621)

Neither is Polish or Estonian. What is your point?

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Re:English has been my pain for 15 years (2013) by mortehu on Saturday November 28, 2015 @12:54PM (#10641771)

Probably that Finland, Poland and Estonia are right behind the small Germanic language countries on the English Proficiency Index[1], and above Germany and Austria.

1. http://www.ef.edu/epi/

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