Germans English knowledge is not well

M   Mon May 31, 2010 3:19 am GMT
Cousins from Germany came to the U.S. and not able to speak English.
They say they understand 80% of what we're saying, but speak only little.
They were all between 15 - 30 years old.

In Sweden, most Swedish people speak English well, both understanding and speaking.
Hans Castorp   Mon May 31, 2010 6:34 am GMT
Perhaps it's just your cousins who are bad at English.... Lena Meyer-Landrut speaks very good English!
opinion   Mon May 31, 2010 7:46 am GMT
So what? Is English people's knowledge of German language well?
*****   Mon May 31, 2010 8:27 am GMT
fraz   Mon May 31, 2010 11:40 am GMT
<<In Sweden, most Swedish people speak English well, both understanding and speaking>>

Yes, but Sweden is a small trading nation that has always had to learn other languages in order to survive. Germany, being an economic powerhouse at the heart of Europe and a country of 80 million people has never had quite the same need for the English language.

Yes, things are changing and youngsters are now taught English from the age of 4 but it will take a good few years for this to work its way through the system. Even so, there are many jobs in Germany that require no English at all and if you're not using the language, it will slip away.
JP   Mon May 31, 2010 11:42 am GMT
Because GERMAN IS THE BIGGEST NATIVE LANGUAGE IN EUROPE, (130 million native speakers) in Europe alone. And about another 80 million non- native speakers added on top of that.
It is ranked the 10th largest language in the whole world.


You can understand that if you are going to live and work in Germany for the rest of your life, speaking perfect English is not really a requirement. You can live your whole life in Germany without ever speaking English. So they don't get a chance to practise English at all.
Franco   Mon May 31, 2010 2:22 pm GMT
Because GERMAN IS THE BIGGEST NATIVE LANGUAGE IN EUROPE, (130 million native speakers)

100 millions at most, not 130. And that's so assuming the Swiss speak the same language than Germans, which is quite dubious.
fraz   Mon May 31, 2010 2:29 pm GMT
<<Cousins from Germany came to the U.S. and not able to speak English.
They say they understand 80% of what we're saying, but speak only little.>>

That's probably because they were taught English at school but have had little opportunity to use it since then. The majority of Germans never speak English in their everyday lives.
yannik   Mon May 31, 2010 4:16 pm GMT
according to philologists Luxembourgish is a German dialects like the other Moselle Franconian dialects which are spoken in Germany e.g. it's a political matter to classify languages like Luxembourgish not as a German dialect.
(dutch was classified as a part of the low German through some philologist but thats more than 100 years ago)
opinion   Mon May 31, 2010 4:31 pm GMT
<<according to philologists Luxembourgish is a German dialects like the other Moselle Franconian dialects which are spoken in Germany e.g. it's a political matter to classify languages like Luxembourgish not as a German dialect.
(dutch was classified as a part of the low German through some philologist but thats more than 100 years ago)>>
Political correctness is everywhere.
crunc   Mon May 31, 2010 11:06 pm GMT
<<Because GERMAN IS THE BIGGEST NATIVE LANGUAGE IN EUROPE, (130 million native speakers)

100 millions at most, not 130. And that's so assuming the Swiss speak the same language than Germans, which is quite dubious. >>


The biggest native language in Europe is Russian.

European Russia 105 million.
Ukraine 30 million.
Belarus 10 million.
Baltic states, Moldova ~ 1 million.

~146 million.