in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

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in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby jimmy » Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:38 pm

hi,

by "almost efficiently" I mean randomly usable among folk for communication.I still have not been to Egypt but I think it is valid for Egypt but not in China. Because ,I remember one of my Chinese friend says : "we Chinese have difficulty or it is difficult to learn English for Chinese people."
I think it is slightly valid for Turkey (only popular locations). Because generally Turkish people CAN speak it even if it is not efficient and not our official language. (But I do not recommend you to dive into deeply internal locations)
one of my experience makes me believe India is not. Because I tried to get in touch with an official association but really the speaker's accent was too strange/different)
I wonder too much for Brasil , Argentina, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia.
I predict that the case is valid for Russia but not sure when we compare it with Turkey.
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Re: in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby noblethings » Sun Mar 19, 2023 12:48 am

I guess in English-speaking countries? I'm not sure exactly what you mean
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Re: in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby Picaboo » Sun Mar 19, 2023 1:37 am

I've heard Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The Swedish gamers on Twitch certainly back that up.
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Re: in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby newyorkeric » Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:16 am

Malaysia is a former British colony so most people speak reasonably good English.
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Re: in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby allf100 » Mon Mar 20, 2023 5:43 am

Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Switzerland, the Philippines, Thailand.

I think 10% Indian people speak English in India because English is one of their official languages. Without English, they would have difficulty to communicate with their own people because Indian people of each state speak different native language. Their accent of English is hard for foreigners to understand. I assume there's no /t/ in Hindi or other Indian languages. If we try hard or get familiar with the accent, we can still understand what they speak.

I would say many Germans speak very good English!
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Re: in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby rdearman » Mon Mar 20, 2023 5:58 pm

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Re: in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby Lisa » Mon Mar 20, 2023 6:41 pm

I had no trouble using entirely english in india (this was some years ago) but it was not always easy to be understood or to understand. However, it's probably easier for a native english speaker to guess what someone is saying. In Egypt, in the tourist areas (which is most places) english was fine too (though I discovered there, that did need to learn a few words of arabic since you can always find exceptions). But then I had no trouble in turkey either, though I did learn 5 of 10 words of turkish which goes a long way.
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Re: in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby newyorkeric » Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:20 am

allf100 wrote:Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Switzerland, the Philippines, Thailand.


English is an official language in Singapore, spoken by everyone natively, so Singapore doesn't really fit into the theme of this thread.
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Re: in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby allf100 » Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:03 am

newyorkeric wrote:
allf100 wrote:Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Switzerland, the Philippines, Thailand.


English is an official language in Singapore, spoken by everyone natively, so Singapore doesn't really fit into the theme of this thread.


English is also one of official languages in India, is wildly taught in Indian schools. I wouldn't say their English is very desirable.

Likewise, as I knew, many ethnical Chinese Singaporeans call the English language they speak as Singlish which is not very desireable either as many Singaporeans admit. They have a good command of English. Singapore is a multi-cultural society with around 71% ethincal Chinese people, 10% ethnical Indians, 15% ethnical Malays. It was one part of Malaysia. They have to communicate with each other among different ethnical groups, so they use English wildly, casting aside their pro-Western culture and politics. I would say the case is similar more or less to that in India.

In Hong Kong, English is also one of the offical languages, I wouldn't say most of Hong Kong people speak very good English.

Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India were all former British colonies which play an important part in their English education.
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Re: in which countries English is almost efficiently used among folk ?

Postby allf100 » Tue Mar 21, 2023 11:11 am

The world’s largest ranking of countries and regions by English skills
https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/

from Ef which was founded in Sweden and is a global English training institution. They consider that Singapore is non English speaking country of native language. Singaporeans' proficiency of English is just the outcome of their good education.

Very high proficiency
1
Netherlands
2
Singapore
3
Austria
4
Norway
5
Denmark
6
Belgium
7
Sweden
8
Finland
9
Portugal
10
Germany
11
Croatia
12
South Africa
13
Poland
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