> Don't forget, most Europeans also speak English.

Just pointing out that's not true. The number is around 38% who have a working knowledge, second place is tied with German and French at 14% [1].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Europe#Oth...

That citation is for "English as a foreign language", and if you read the end of the paragraph you see they are excluding UK and Ireland.

English as a first language accounts for 13%, which when added to the 38% leaves you with 51% (or, "most")

http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/archives/e... (Cited at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Unio...)

All those who you get in contact with then ;)

Those numbers also don't have a correct representation of English speaking business owners and English speakers ( first language). Since your numbers mention "English as foreign language".

Same wiki :

The language is also a required subject in most European countries.[3] Thus, the percentage of English speakers is expected to rise.

> Thus, the percentage of English speakers is expected to rise.

The number of English speakers has been steadily increasing for quite a while already, at least in Germany. Mere 10 years ago speaking English was a skill which wasn't that common and thus quite a bit valued, nowadays most modern (and especially IT-centric) companies expect you to know English, it's nothing really special anymore, at this point it's rather expected.

The vast majority of Europeans do not speak English at all.

Those numbers also don't have a correct representation of English speaking business owners.

The language is also a required subject in most European countries.[3] Thus, the percentage of English speakers is expected to rise.

Added a quote from robinson7d:

> That citation is for "English as a foreign language", and if you read the end of the paragraph you see they are excluding UK and Ireland. English as a first language accounts for 13%, which when added to the 38% leaves you with 51% (or, "most")

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Unio...

I will second this. I've lived and taught (and tested) English in continental Europe for a decade. The idea that most people in continental Europe speak English is a misconception, and one should take population-level statistics on language proficiency with a grain of salt.

You can't sum up such a diverse place into "continental Europe" and do an average. There are huge cities where everyone speaks English and then a huge bunch of small villages where no one does. Obviously business happens mainly in the cities. It's very probable that the target groups of a B2B startup speak English flawlessly.

>>> There are huge cities where everyone speaks English

Point being, no, there are not! Have a look at wikipedia for the biggest cities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_cities_by_pop...

You can go to any of these cities (excluding the UK) and ask your way around to locals. You will be hard pressed to find someone who can understand well and reply you.

People will manage to do a check in or take a restaurant order but don't expect to hold a conversation.

From my personal experience, you're wrong at least about Berlin, Prague, Rome, Vienna, Hamburg, Warsaw, Munich, Milan, Brussels, Cologne (man, 100+ thousands of people in the Rhine-Ruhr area don't speak German at conversation level at all) and so on. I don't know about the really eastern ones, but we're talking about the EU, so non-EU Balkan states, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine is excluded. You're probably right about the eastern and eastern-southern border of the EU; it's also true in Poland outside of Poznan, Krakow, Warsaw and several more bigger cities.

Luckily, there is an index we can look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_English_Proficiency_Index , of course this one received a lot of criticism, so we can look at this one instead: http://www.surveylang.org/media/ExecutivesummaryoftheESLC_21...

Coincidentally, these cities I listed are the cities that really matter from the business perspective.

Well, I've been in some of them last year and I had a different experience.

Sure, the 5 star hotels and the people I do business with speak English well. Anyone else, not so much.

@TomMarius et al.: True. 'Continental Europe' is just meant to exclude the UK and Ireland for obvious reasons.

But what constitutes 'speaking English'? https://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Framework_EN.pdf

Human fallacy? When 1/2 don't speak English, this could be misrepresented in certain countries.

Eg. no education in English in certain countries or rural areas.

I'm really impressed you met the majority of Europeans. It boggles the mind how you did it but nothing is impossible with the mighty American people.

You don't need to meet majority of Europeans to reason about the population, it's called sampling. He is right as well which is obvious for anyone, who visited some European countries and actually tried taking to people.

How many places have you visited? For example just the small nation of the Czech Republic is very different every 100 kilometers. People in Prague almost universally understand English and very probably use it daily because it's very common to have foreign friends (that reside in Prague); if you attend university, some classes are taught in English and many of your colleagues are foreign. I work in a company that has 150+ people out of which 10 are Czech. People in Moravia do not generally speak English so well. People in Brno sometimes do. The younger generations all around the republic (that attended primary schools after the Velvet Revolution) generally understand English very well and can have a conversation about work as well as about other topics.

It's 51% including the UK and Ireland. Also included are places like Norway, The Netherlands and Denmark. So even if in 2/3rds of the countries having a fluent conversation in English is hard or impossible with most inhabitants still the majority of the people that live in Europe speak it well enough.

I think even less people speak Spanish in the US while about 1/3rd of the country used to be Spanish and the rest of the continent bar Canada speaks it.

The vast majority of people who live in Europe are not able to hold a conversation in English.

Your 51% counts any people who attended an English class in school. It's not a meaningful level of proficiency.

Again, your assumption is wrong, I am not American.

Last time I checked, school/class last minimum a year.

Where do you derive your "vast majority" conclusion from?

Ps. English links are allowed for this Belgian.

Ps 2. Being rude doesn't help your statement

In terms of time, a 1-2 hour classroom every week, for 4 years, is the equivalent to a continuous month.

Point being. It's too little to become proficient in a language. Only the few children who learn on their own will get somewhere.