Wich country has the best english speakers?

The best English speakers are Dutch and Scandinavian people. I work in a hotel and all of them speak English, no matter if they are 10 or 80 years old. French and Spanish (apart from catalan people) are mostly monolingual...

>>But do you mean "knowledge of the world" or "knowledge of Europe"?<<

I mean "knowledge of the world". Europeans seem to know about Asia or Africa more than Americans do, not only about Europe.

Sanja, I can assure you that my knowledge of Asia and Africa goes far beyond that of my European husband's.

Canadian Adam, I understand what you are saying. I like knowing about the many different countries in the world. But what you seemed to be implying is that Americans learn NOTHING of other countries outside the US. Even though you counter this statement, you go on to say that the knowledge is not much at all. And that's not true in the least. I'm just saying our knowledge is not as full (about Europe) as say a fellow European's.

And of course there's no harm in learning something about other countries! Geez, I DID learn about other countries in school. But why should I have to recount my lessons to you to make you believe me?

Tiffany, I didn't say it's ALWAYS that way, but it usually is, at least in my experience.

<<Damian loves beating up on the UK. It's his pet hobby>>

Bob.............. au contraire....that is so not true, honestly...I'm sorry if I gave that impression. I guess I have been listening too much to some right wing elderly radio presenters with some sort of agenda, and unfortunately I am still too easily influenced. Also I have to read all sorts of stuff as part of my current course. It's just that I have met a lot of other people from the Continent since I was at uni, and since, and their standard of spoken English has been brilliant, exemplary in many cases. But to a certain degree I have often thought they speak better English than many of the British counterparts. I speak from the English viewpoint, because I refer to the situation in England rather than here in Scotland.

The United Kingdom is my country and I would not deliberately denigrate it at all......it has its faults like anywhere else, that is undeniable, but I love living here and would never live anywhere else to be perfectly truthful.

I would however apologise on behalf of one of our stupid Royal Princes though. :-(

<<Don't you think you're exaggerating a little bit. I mean every country has it's share of dumb, illiterate drug addicts, don't you think?>>

abc.............................
You are right, pal....I WAS exaggerating and overstating my ridiculous notion. Part of the British character (Scottish as well as English, and I guess Welsh as well...not sure about the Irish) is a tendency to self deprecation, knowing deep down the opposite is probably true. British self deprecatory humour for instance is something most other peoples cannot quite understand, especially Americans it seems. Maybe it works to our advantage in the end.

A propos the topic being discussed now in the last postings, the Americans I met at uni were all very bright and knowledgeable about many things I found, especially, of course, about their own particular field of study and specialist subjects. They would not have been there otherwise. I have to say, though, that their overall knowledge of places outside the USA was pretty ropy. When that dreaded program (mentioned before in this forum and in a similar link to this) "The Weakest Link", with the caustic tongued Anne Robinson, came from America and called Weakest Link USA I found that a sizeable number of the American contestants had a surprisingly limited knowledge of their own country! I found I knew more than they did on a number of occasions and the nearest I have been to the USA is the Outer Hebrides!

For the benefit of those not in the know, the OH are a chain of islands off the NW coast of Scotland.

Unlike Tiffany and other fellow Americans at antimoon, there is a prevailing tendency among many Americans to look upon the world outside our borders with apathy, which thus translates into ignorance of geography and the socio-politics and history and of other cultures. We of course learn all the basics in school, but once out of school, we rarely look back and don’t bother learning any further. I can think of a few reasons why this is:

1) We have been trained since kindergarten to place our right hand over our hearts and recite the Pledge of Allegiance before class and other school assemblies, sing the national anthem before sports games, wave the stars and stripes, and praise our beloved nation as both a shining example of democracy and the greatest country on earth. With all this going for us, why bother learning about other, "inferior" nations? All those other countries simply cannot compare.

2) A nation of couch potatoes, most of the information we receive about other countries is filtered through 5 minute spots on evening news. When you are constantly barraged with images of war, famine, pestilence, protests, terrorism, and violent displays of anti-Americanism arising out of foreign lands, your perception of the outside word is bound to taint your perception. This of course leads to an Us vs. Them mentality, where "us" is the "civilized" world (the United States) and "them" is the unruly lot (everyone else).

3) There is also a pervasive anti-intellectual mentality in the United States that renders us ignorant of worldly matters. This anti-intellectual attitude is reflected in mainstream American movies – from "Meet John Doe" to "Forrest Gump" – where the easy-going, aphorism-quoting, none-to-educated hick triumphs over the fast-talking, cynical urban professional. The message here is clear: rubes = good, intellectuals = bad.

In the current red state vs. blue state environment, a good, solid, well-rounded, and dare I say it "liberal" education – such as those you’d receive at the Ivy League schools of the Northeast, and Berkley and Stanford in California – are viewed as bastions of pinko-thinking, alternative lifestyles, immorality, and Godlessness. In reaction, many young Americans are opting for for the right-wing colleges and universities of the South created by fundamentalist Christians and televangelists like Bob Jones and Oral Roberts. These schools of learning teach a fundamentalist Christian, anti-Muslim, anti-European (particularly anti-French), anti-gay, and pro-American/nationalistic curriculum. God only knows what kind of miseducation those poor students are getting! Of course, this isn't true of all America, but, as many red state, pro-Bush citizens will tell you, red-state America is the true America.

::SIGH::

Thank you, Bob.

I have to say, the reason I am so offended by all this is because I am American and you are characterizing ALL of us as ignorant (of course not you Bob). And yes, in regards to what Bob said, I AM from an Ivy League School of the Northeast (Massachusetts) with a VERY liberal education. And because I am very knowledgable about what goes on beyond our borders, to imply that I am ignorant (or rather MORE ignorant than any given European) of it gets me very heated.

>>Europe is a collection of countries not just one, so your arguement about an Italian knowing all about Europe and you knowing all about the US doesn't work. What do Americans know about Canada? Not much, and we are right next to you. <<

I love this country dearly and consider myself Canadian, but don't you think that we, as a nation of 31 million in a world of over six billion people, have a bit of an unrealistic view of our own importance? The truth is that if we decided to disassemble our (perfect) country tomorrow and move it to the Moon, not many people outside Canada would notice it. Don't get me wrong, Canada is the only country I want to live in, but, despite our vast territory, we are pretty insignificant to the outside world. We are nice, prosperous, civilized, great to be around, tolerant, hard-working, you name it. But we do not call the shots in the world.

Coming from Europe, one thing I have difficulty stomaching is the European sense of superiority and of being the centre of the world. All I wanted to say with my first posting in this thread is that the definition of what constitutes essential or even decent general knowledge largely depends on where you come from.

Moreover, the fact that people visiting this website know what the capital of South Africa or Kazakhstan is does not necessarily mean that your Average Joe should or will know it. Don't forget that we belong to a tiny fortunate elite, both in terms of where and how we live and how educated we are.

There is much wisdom in what you say. I am a Canadian. I am happy bering a Canadian. I cringe when I hear all the garbage propogated by our government and our intellectuals about how we are a model to the world. The world only knows that our land mass exists. Beyond that they are not interested.

I also agreee that there is much false posturing about how much Americans or others know about the world. So what. That does define their open mindedness. I have seen as much or more blind chauvinism in Europe as in the US. Knowing the capitals of Europe or the famous wine growing areas or eating sushi or holding your pinky finger aloft while drinking does not make you a better person.

Every person has their own environment. What is important is how they deal with people around them. By and large the Americans are nicer to those around them than the Europeans who find all kinds of reasons to be cross with their neighbours. But I love them all for their own reasons. I love France, Spain, Sweden, Germany Italy...Japan, China (although their nationalism is a little scary) every country...you have you take it the way you find it.

<<A nation of couch potatoes, most of the information we receive about other countries is filtered through 5 minute spots on evening news.>>

I have to say that this mentality is getting pervasive in Hungary as well. Whatever is shown on TV is perceived as true, even if it gives a much distorted view of reality. Eastern Europe used to belong to the so-called "second world" (former communist countries), but we too tend to perceive the "third world" as consisting of nothing but wars, poverty, catastrophes, and don't realise the capacity of positive thinking that radiates from "third world" people despite of war, poverty, and catastrophes. We are getting dangerously "westernised" in this respect, although Hungary used to host many people from Vietnam, Mongolia and other Asian countries in the Communist era (some of them have come to stay, and their children are almost invariably brighter and more diligent than the average). Plus I was stunned by the lack of general knowledge of many pupils at a school in countryside Hungary where I used to teach for two years.

To do justice to Americans, most of them I have met here in Europe were genuinely open-minded and willing to know more about the country they were living in. And one more thing I like about Americans is the optimistic and practical attitude to problem-solving, as opposed to a tendency here in Europe (or Hungary at any rate) to over-discuss problems instead of acting to solve them. This is true in a general sense, of course, there are always numerous exceptions.

All what I read above strengthens my belief that America really is a divided nation, where intolerance is a way of life in many areas, especially in those "red" states. As a guy who, through no fault of his own (but try convincing people like Bush that) happens to be gay, living in some of those states I would find life itself pretty intolerable.

I think Easterner is right in his comments about American enthusiasm, optimism and energy..it is still a young country by European standards. Here in Europe we have the feeling I guess of "having seen it all before" whereas America hasn't really. Maybe we do perceive the Americans as being immature and overly self obsessed. As I say, the ones I met at uni were very bright and intelligent....if lacking in a good sense of humour by British standards at least...and just why do they take themselves so damn seriously all the time? You have a sense of walking on egg shells with them sometimes. Lighten up, guys.

Many Americans don't care about anything outside the U.S., and I would have to agree with Bob Roberts' reason. Even in California, a so-called "blue state" (When did that term come into use, BTW? I've been seeing it a lot recently.); elementary schools train children to love America beyond all else, and portray people in other countries as savages. For example, many American children would be shocked to find out that third world countries actually have cars and electricity. It's really quite surprising.

the majority of the Filipinos speak English as the second language. It's the medium used in university instructions. Far from being the best speakers, but I'd say we can hold our ground against good English speakers. :) Im so glad I found this site. Please expect many questions from me regarding grammar and other english language stuff. :)

Finally, someone who isn't "westerncentric". There are many countries outside continental europe, some former British colonies, with populations (from children to grandparents) that speak relatively good english. To name a few: India/Sri-Lanka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philipines, Japan. I have found many Indians/Sri-Lankans/Pakistanis speaking english better than those form native english speaking countries.

I'm not saying that all Americans are ignorant, I would say, however, that too many are ignorant of the goings on in the wide world outside their borders. Most of the Americans who post on this forum, for example, seem not to be the typical 'stereotype' of Americans. I used to live very close to the US, and we would get PBS on TV, land I've been to the States quite a few times, so I know that not everyone is ignorant and hateful in the US. I'm sorry if I've offended people, not my intention.

<<as a nation of 31 million in a world of over six billion people, have a bit of an unrealistic view of our own importance? The truth is that if we decided to disassemble our (perfect) country tomorrow and move it to the Moon, not many people outside Canada would notice it>>

Truly. However, our importance to the US economy I don't think should be discounted, we are their largest single trading partner for one thing. For another, we share a common culture and language and almost 25 million of us live within 200 km of the border. Millions of people travel back and forth across the border in both directions everyday, but the knowledge of the country on the other side of the border seems to be almost completely one sided.