Worst People At Speaking English?

Inquirer   Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:24 pm GMT
Which nation is the worst at speaking English?
And why (to your humble opinion)?
Woozle   Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:40 pm GMT
English is a language of consonant clusters (the word "strengths" is a good example - 6 consonants to one vowel). As such, it can be nearly unpronounceable to people whose native language does not allow anything more complex than "one consonant + one vowel/diphthong" syllables. Chinese and Japanese are two obvious such languages. A Chinese speaker's spoken English is often incomprehensible, even when his written English is lexically rich and grammatically complex.
guest   Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:12 pm GMT
I'd also have to say China, and basically agree with what Woozle said. Many Chinese can write excellent English, but when it comes to speaking it aloud...disaster! Southeast Asians also seem to have a lot of problems, especially the Vietnamese. Although, from what I've heard, people from these regions have bigger problems with English vowels and diphthongs than with consonants.

In Europe, the French are probably the worst at speaking English aloud, perhaps partially because they don't care. The Finns are also surprisingly bad at pronouncing English, considering that they have to study it from their early youth.
Marc Lee-Jin   Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:24 pm GMT
I dare say It should be Japanese.
A more original name   Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:30 pm GMT
Italy, France and Spain, out of the touristic places don't speak English.

Perhaps, you can speak like Tarzan, but it will be difficult. You will have a lot of problems in little towns of these countries, if you don't speak their language.
Buddy   Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:36 pm GMT
<<In Europe, the French are probably the worst at speaking English aloud, perhaps partially because they don't care.>>

Austrians are pretty bad at speaking English, due to pronunciation issues. I would consider them worse than the French imnsho
paris   Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:48 pm GMT
Russians, Germans/Austrians, Italians, Spaniards
reality   Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:29 pm GMT
the French
they can't actually speak any language like Spaniards more or less, but Spanish lacks lots of common sounds, so it's quite hard for Spanish people to learn foreign languages
piojo   Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:33 pm GMT
The Croats and the Serbs are probably the worst to speak English amongst the Slavic people partly because their languages have fewer phonemes than most slavonic languages
Hesse   Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:41 pm GMT
--- The Croats and the Serbs are probably the worst to speak English amongst the Slavic people partly because their languages have fewer phonemes than most slavonic languages ----



IMHO, that's better for them because if you have ever heard Russians or Bulgarians speaking English, you would prefer fewer phonemes. They make difthongs and put some sounds where they don't belong because they get used to them and then, English sounds to easy for their ears.
On the contrary, I've heard some Serbians and they sound pretty well.
Guest   Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:43 pm GMT
You are talking about pronounciation only but in order to speak proper English good syntax and rich vocabulary are also necessary. I think that speakers of non Germanic languages don't have advantages over others in order to speak English, not matter how rich or poor their native tongue's phonetic repertory is. The are much more important factos to consider: different education system, degree of exposure to English in mass media, and such.
Thaddeus   Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:43 pm GMT
I've always had great difficulty understanding English spoken by French people.
Guest   Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:47 pm GMT
<<On the contrary, I've heard some Serbians and they sound pretty well. >>

Two of my brothers (cousins) are Serbian, and they speak English very well. Their accent is not really typical-Slavic sounding, but sounds real cool, and doesn't interfere with intelligibility.
Deit   Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:38 pm GMT
Brazilians. Eye donty eespeaky welly...
Haha   Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:02 am GMT
"Worst People At Speaking English"?

......That person has to be you :)