{"id":5907,"date":"2018-05-17T22:15:55","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T21:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eurideastranslation.com\/?p=5907"},"modified":"2018-05-17T22:15:55","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T21:15:55","slug":"english-as-a-second-language-who-in-europe-speaks-it-the-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/english-as-a-second-language-who-in-europe-speaks-it-the-best\/","title":{"rendered":"English as a second language: who in Europe speaks it the best?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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English as a second language is becoming more and more competitive. Due to the weight the language carries in the modern,\u00a0<\/span>professional world<\/b>, speaking English is fast becoming less of a benefit and more of an essential, or even basic, requirement when looking for a job in Europe.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Approximately\u00a02 billion people study English<\/b>\u00a0worldwide and some countries find it easier than others to pick it up. Throughout the emerging generations of many\u00a0nationalities, proficiency is almost ubiquitous as people are becoming more and more serious about language learning.<\/p>\n

Based on the\u00a0percentage of English proficiency<\/b>\u00a0in the adult population, here\u2019s the list!<\/p>\n

10)\u00a0 Belgium<\/b><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0Belgian people<\/b>\u00a0have increased their overall English level since the 2015 figures and their hard work has bumped them up into the top 10 countries who speak English as a second language best! Welcome to the list\u00a0Belgium.<\/p>\n

9)\u00a0 Poland\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

With more and more\u00a0Poles\u00a0<\/b>moving and working abroad their need to learn English has increased too. However, Polish as a language is on the rise in the UK, as\u00a0Brits fall in love with Polish expats<\/b>\u00a0and look to learn their language.<\/p>\n

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8)\u00a0 Germany\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Germans<\/b>, with their industrial efficiency<\/b>, have always had a firm grip of the\u00a0English language.<\/b>\u00a0The modern language of the business world is English and, as German businesses are dominating the\u00a0European market<\/b>, the pressure on professionals to speak English to a proficient level is higher than ever.<\/p>\n

7)\u00a0 Austria\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Just beating its geographical and linguistic neighbours to the number 7 spot, is\u00a0Austria<\/b>. Sharing its borders with a whopping\u00a0eight countries<\/b>, it\u2019s little wonder that the people of Austria have an\u00a0aptitude for languages<\/b>.<\/p>\n

6)\u00a0 Luxembourg\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

For the very same reasons as\u00a0Austria<\/b>, it is hardly a shock to see this tiny landlocked country so high on the list. With heavy influences from both East and West, the country has\u00a0three official languages<\/b>:\u00a0Franz\u00f6sisch<\/b>,\u00a0Deutsch<\/b>\u00a0und\u00a0Luxembourgish<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 and on top of that, well over half of the adult population having a\u00a0proficient level of English<\/b>!<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0 Finland \u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

We start to head more to the\u00a0north of Europe<\/b>\u00a0as we near the top of the list. Finland has a\u00a0population of just under 5.5 million<\/b>\u00a0people, and\u00a0almost 70%<\/b>\u00a0of its adult population speak\u00a0high-level English<\/b>.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0 Norway<\/b><\/h3>\n

Norway<\/b>\u00a0is far from a surprise entry in at number four. The Norse languages also have had a huge influence on the\u00a0English language<\/b>\u00a0after the occupation of the Vikings over a thousand years ago.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0 Sweden\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Sweden<\/b>\u00a0has been knocked off the top spot and slip into third place since the 2015 stats. However, their reputation for about as near-native English as you can get, remains strong and I\u00b4m sure they\u2019ll be back with a vengeance.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0 Denmark\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

As approach the grand finale, the countries are becoming less and less surprising. Denmark, yet another Scandinavian country, comes in a number two. The language of the\u00a0Danes<\/b>\u00a0is also growing in\u00a0demand in Europe<\/b>, but who could possibly have beaten them to the top spot in terms of English proficiency?!<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0 Netherlands\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Congratulations to the\u00a0Niederl\u00e4ndisch<\/b>, not only on their ability to invent hilarious surnames, but also on their ability to speak the\u00a0English language<\/b>. Their linguistically gifted population has knocked the\u00a0Swedes<\/b>\u00a0off the number one position\u2026for now.<\/p>\n

It is unsurprising to see the top four dominated by\u00a0Nordic countries \u2013 and the Netherlands<\/b>. They have an increasing knack for topping lists, having very high\u00a0living standards<\/b>,\u00a0population satisfaction<\/b>\u00a0as well as\u00a0cost of living<\/b>.\u00a0Germany<\/b>\u00a0may have been Europe`s most popular country\u00a0but they are maybe lower than you would have expected considering their mechanical proficiency in most things.<\/p>\n

Also \u2013 and I believe this to be key \u2013 in the\u00a0Nordic countries<\/b>\u00a0they do not dub the television into their own languages. Whereas, in\u00a0France<\/b>,\u00a0Spain<\/b>\u00a0and even\u00a0Germany<\/b>, they translate the television into the country language, despite the majority of TV shows being American or English.<\/p>\n

There is also a noticeable lack of\u00a0southern European countries<\/b>, with\u00a0Austria being<\/b>\u00a0the southernmost point of the list.\u00a0 But, perhaps unsurprisingly, the\u00a0Niederl\u00e4ndisch<\/b>\u00a0reign supreme over the non-native\u00a0English speaking world<\/b>. In fact, I regularly meet\u00a0Niederl\u00e4ndisch<\/b>\u00a0und\u00a0Scandinavian<\/b>\u00a0people and assume that they, like me, are English; that\u2019s how flawless their accents are.<\/p>\n

This article was originally shared on\u00a0EuropeLanguageJobs.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

English as a second language is becoming more and more competitive. Due to the weight the language carries in the modern,\u00a0professional world, speaking English is fast becoming less of a benefit and more of an essential, or even basic, requirement when looking for a job in Europe. Approximately\u00a02 billion people study English\u00a0worldwide and some countries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurideas.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}