Marais wrote:Finny wrote:Not to be a broken record, but as a non-Frenchman who spends a bit of time watching French TV every day, I can confirm that there's next to no English on the majority of channels I visit, which includes France 0, 2, 3, Europe 1, and BFM TV. Now, there is English background music from time to time on some of the French # stations, and iTELE (which is still on strike) has a lot of English language commercials, and Europe 1 has English songs, but the dominant language on all of these stations is French. I realized a while ago that my primary issue was with the English commercials on iTELE, and their strike led me to try out other stations, and I've been much more satisfied as a result.
As somebody who lives in France i can tell you that the radio here (pretty much any popular channel) has
English on at least a couple of times every few hours.
I can also tell you that most young people can speak
at least basic English and relish the opportunity to use it.
Is the glass half-full or half-empty?
It's clear that the facts are the same, but Finny and you view them differently.
I was on the boat coming from Portsmouth and the 300 or so French kids all seemed to know all the words to the English songs being played on the ship. They also all sat around watching youtube in English.
For some reason people must seem to think i'm making all this stuff up. Just go to youtube and see what is trending in the country. No English speaker ever is going to go and watch youtube in French or German. The opposite is not true.
I don't think you're making it up, and your anecdata is fascinating for sure. But it's just that - you don't know the background of those kids, right? Maybe they weren't even French but Belgian or Swiss. We don't know how long they had been in England and why.
As for trending youtube videos, well there are different kinds. Many viral videos don't require you to understand whatever language they're in. I've just checked what's trending in Russia and there were only a couple of videos in English - a movie trailer and a football video. (football highlights, funny goals or misses are a common kind of viral videos) Then there's music - which English speaker hasn't watched "Gangnam style" or heard the "Numa-numa song" in Romanian (Dragostea din tei; it got popular pre-youtube though)? And knowing the lyrics is not the same as understanding them.
But everyone in Germany speaks English. Kids at school don't get good at English because they have English lessons. They get good at English because they are consuming English native material - ie, media.
Travel and language classes abroad is at least one factor you're missing (and it may well apply to the kids on the ship too).
And as much as I believe in learning through input, I don't think a 7-year old is going to learn English this way (at least if there are also movies/cartoons in L1). My impression is that in Germany school lays the foundation, and then when kids see what they can do in English, this motivates them to put in more effort at school. On its own neither school nor media is enough (but travel can be). Also, afaiu you need a high level of English to pass the Abitur and go to university.
And well no, not everyone in Germany speaks English. Sure, most do, but the level varies.