Why some countries are better in the learn of english

Evil nerd   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 16:45 GMT
"nobody understands or speak it?"

And this one, too.

Boo.
Sanja   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 16:56 GMT
>>SANDER: The reasons the Dutch people are good at speaking foreign Languages are:

1 Their country is physically small
2 They are close to countries with widely spoken Languages
3 The Dutch Language is of no practical use outside
the Netherlands where nobody understands or speaks it.

You can't argue against those facts. With respect.<<

Well, those same facts exist in my country as well (Bosnia & Herzegovina), except maybe for the second one (being close to countries with widely spoken languages - we are not THAT close, but we are still pretty close, since we're in Europe). However, most people here don't speak foreign langages and very few are great at it. So, I guess it has to do a lot with the education system.
nico   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 17:25 GMT
Sander,

Because ome 3% of french have italian for native speakers
nico   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 17:38 GMT
Sander,


3% of the french population speaks italian in the south east, some french even don't know they are in France when they go there as tourists.
JO   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 17:41 GMT
IN which countries on this list are children from an infant age exposed to listening to English on TV?

Suède 73
Pays-Bas 72
Danemark 61
Norvège 58
Finlande 48
Allemagne 44
Luxembourg 44
Autriche 42
Suisse 40
Belgique 34 (This includes the French speakers if it were just the Flemish it would probably be as high as the Netherlands)
Ved   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:06 GMT
Some nations are better at foreign languages than others because some governments invest more heavily in foreign language education than others. That's it.
Sander   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:09 GMT
Or they invest more into education as a whole...
nico   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:12 GMT
No it does not have anything to see about education or whatever you want. You will notice simply that the cultures which are closer to the english are better (a swedish even if he is different form the english is closer in comparison of a french, a german is closer to the english instead of the french and the english or the french and the german. A norwegian is closer to the germa, or the englsih in comparison of an italian and a german. That's all, i wonder ask me for example about spanish, if the % won't be opposite.

Some studies prooved that education does not ahve anything to see. In fact it is about families and the age you begin to learn.

Some countries are better to learn english but it won't be the case for spanish.
Sander   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:16 GMT
No,I think thats a false statement.Look at French and English,English has 70% French words unlike German/Dutch and English...
Sander   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:18 GMT
German/Dutch words in English...so in theory you guys have the advantage.
Sanja   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:19 GMT
Agreed. And which countries can invest more in education? The ones that have more money, of course. As logical as that.

(Of course, when it comes to English, it is easier for the speakers of Germanic languages to learn it than the others, but if learning English becomes a high priority people will learn it no matter what their native language is.)
Sanja   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:22 GMT
Oops.....I should have said I agree with Ved's comment.
nico   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:22 GMT
Sander,


Yes but they don't have any feminine nad masculine. The pronunciation is very different, many child have difficulties when they have to speak with an english pronuncation. Just compare english and german : fire and fire, was, what... fench feu, quoi. The french used by the english comes form the normands who used words the french did not use. Example : garden in englsi, gartin in norman, jardin for french.
Sander   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:27 GMT
=>Yes but they don't have any feminine nad masculine. The pronunciation is very different, many child have difficulties when they have to speak with an english pronuncation. Just compare english and german : fire and fire, was, what... fench feu, quoi. The french used by the english comes form the normands who used words the french did not use. Example : garden in englsi, gartin in norman, jardin for french.<=

English being a genderless language should make it easy for everybody,Its one of the 2 only gederless language in the Germanic trees.(English and Afrikaans) And pronounciation is difficult in every language and the German word for Fire isnt fire but "Feuer" (Dutch : "Vuur")

And Garden/Jardin is still closer then Dutch "Tuin" , (and pronounciation of Jardin and Garden is closer then Garden and the German "GarTen)
Vuur   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 20:13 GMT
Since you allow yourself to correct others, you should also correct your bad (orthography in) English as well as the phrase you wrote in German at the beginning of this thread. And by the way you should be original and leave the stupid patriotism to Adam alone.