Wich country has the best english speakers?

Hi!

I've started this topic, because i wanna know in wich country they can speak english the best (except England and America, ofcourse), in your opinion,..

I believe it's France

the netherlands, norway, finland, denmark, sweden, belguim

No, it's the french people.

Jeruado,

I don't think you're right. The french people don't want to learn English, that's why so many other people have to learn French. I was there last year and almost no one could speak English.

I agree with Snoopy.

The Netherlands. They really can speak very good English. If you're talking to a Dutch men not knowing he/she's dutch, you'll think he's from England. Or, denmark, like you said, james.

<< i wanna know in wich country they can speak english the best (except England and America, ofcourse) >>

Australia : )

What about Germany? I always thought Germans' English was great.

New Zealand

Assuming you also are excluding Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and other countries where English is a natively spoken language then in my experience the answer must be The Netherlands.

Whoever said France must have been joking. In my experience France is one of the hardest places to find someone who speaks English well. Certainly there are a lot of very excellent English speakers there (and with there accents sometimes they even sound nicer to listen to than many native speakers) but once you move out into the general population you might as well give up.

In the Netherlands the majority of people can converse in English, many of them fluently.

After the Netherlands I would say Germany and the Scaninavian countries are also good places to find English speakers.

Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece are similar to France. Spain and Italy maybe a bit better, Portugal and Greece maybe a bit worse.

The french ? are you kidding me ? most of them can't say a single sentence without misktakes . ( not all of them of course. )

The best English speakers are Scandinavians and the Dutch/Flemings

From my very limited experience, not having visited all that many other countries yet, I would give my vote to the Dutch as being the most proficient in speaking English. When I was in Holland I met two people, in particular, whose English was so nigh on perfect that I was convinced they were British. I asked one lady which part of England she came from and she replied that she had never been to the UK but hoped to one day! I was dumbfounded. It was in a department store in Amsterdam and by chance I asked her for directions, and in her perfect English really went out of her way to be helpful. It was amazing. So on the strength of that encounter alone, really, I vote for: THE NETHERLANDS.

Well, they are only just across a narrow bit of water are they not?

Maybe if I travelled a bit wider, I would have to reconsider, but that's how it stands at the minute, as far as I'm concerned.

I met a lot of foreign students at uni, but when they spoke English I could tell that they all had pronounced accents. I believe the Scandinavians are excellent at speaking English, but the few I have met again had accents...some actually seemed to have developed an American accent in speaking English. To be thruthful I found that faintly irritating, but that's just me being honest and maybe irrational. There is no reason in the world why anybody wishing to learn English should not adopt any accent of any English speaking country they wish.

That lady in Amsterdam sounded as if she had lived all her life in deepest Surrey or Hertfordshire! She smiled when I showed my amazement when she told me she had never even been to England. I don't suppose for one moment she was having me on! I know that one of my many faults is gullibility but life is now easing that problem!

<<Assuming you also are excluding Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and other countries where English is a natively spoken language then in my experience the answer must be The Netherlands.

Whoever said France must have been joking. In my experience France is one of the hardest places to find someone who speaks English well.>>

In my experience, as far as non-natives are concerned: Sweden, Norway, Danemark and The Netherlands (not necessarily in this order). One might also include Finland. I have some experiance with the Dutch, aand i can say younger people speak with an almost native-like pronunciation, with only a slight dutch accent. Older people (mainly those above 50) seem to be better off with German, but even they are above the average.

As for France, I have also heard that the French dislike speaking foreign languages in general, but my experience has been contrary all French people I have met so far spoke rather good English (official France may be xenophobic, but this is certainly not true for average French citizens). Maybe the people I met were not a good cross-section of French society, because they were mostly college or university graduates, but France is certainly better in this respect than Italy, or Hungary for that matter. East Europe is perhaps the worst place in the world as far as foreign languages are concerned, with the possible exception of German, but even good German speakers are hard to find, and really good English speakers over 40 are a rarity (except if they have worked abroad), although young people under 30 are much better off.

I apologise for the typos.

I was thinking mostly of the areas outside of Paris. In Paris it is easier to find an English speaker, but I don't think they generally are as good at the language as people from elsewhere.