Brits don't speak foreign languages

On 01/12/11 19:00, David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:
William wrote:

On 30/11/11 07:17, David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:
William wrote:

On 29/11/11 19:47, David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:
William wrote:

On 29/11/11 16:21, Markku Grönroos wrote:
A recently published study tells that 64% of all the Britons can speak
only English.

Well about 10% of the population wasn't born here, so that means that
only 26% of the people born in the UK can speak a foreign language.

As every child who passes through the British school system receives
lessons in at least one foreign language I beg leave to doubt that
survey.

I know it's a century since you've been to school, but even you should
know that learning a language at school doesn't mean you can speak it.


I have addressed this point in another post.

Poorly.


Interestingly nobody else has answered it so I imagine it stands by itself.

As your own position seems to be that learning languages in school is
useless I'm inclined to think that you're digging yourself into a hole.

I never claimed such a thing. I wonder if learning English in school did
you any good.


Probably not.


--
William Black

Free men have open minds
If you want loyalty, buy a dog...

On Thu, 1 Dec 2011 19:01:25 +0000, vid Horne, _the_
chancellor wrote in post :
:

I've been living and working in Germany and Austria since 1985, I still
need to resort to English works.

So I see.

or words, even :-)
--
Tim C.

On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:37:04 +0100, Martin wrote:
On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:15:44 +0000 (UTC), David Hatunen
wrote:
Then by night
train to Copenhagen where neither my French nor my GErman did any
damn
good, but, of course, most of the Danes spoke English.

Most of the Danes I know speak German as well as English.

Very, very few Danes speak better German than English. It would be
utterly silly for an American to use German in Denmark.

On Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:01:50 +0100, Martin wrote in post :
:

On Fri, 2 Dec 2011 10:27:40 +0100, "Tim C." wrote:

On Thu, 1 Dec 2011 19:01:25 +0000, vid Horne, _the_
chancellor wrote in post :
:

I've been living and working in Germany and Austria since 1985, I still
need to resort to English works.

So I see.

or words, even :-)

Not dorks? :-)

slap

--
Tim C.

On 02/12/2011 4:40 AM, Jesper Lauridsen wrote:

Most of the Danes I know speak German as well as English.

Very, very few Danes speak better German than English. It would be
utterly silly for an American to use German in Denmark.

On my visits to Denmark I was amazed not only at the number of people
who spoke English, but that they spoke it so fluently. I was only in
Sweden once, for a week, and stayed with a family at their summer home,
so I did not get a chance to interact with as many people there as I did
in Sweden, but everyone in that family, and the friends of theirs who we
met, spoke excellent English.
In the part of Canada where I live we all studied French in school, but
most of us lose it because there is so little exposure to it.

Dave Smith:

On my visits to Denmark I was amazed not only at the number of
people who spoke English, but that they spoke it so fluently.

Do the Danes have original movies/series/soaps on TV, with Danish in
subtitles? In other words: are they exposed to their daily portion of
TV-English?

funny martin is having a blast.

"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
...

On Fri, 2 Dec 2011 11:19:46 +0100, "Tim C." wrote:

On Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:01:50 +0100, Martin wrote in post :
m :

On Fri, 2 Dec 2011 10:27:40 +0100, "Tim C." wrote:

On Thu, 1 Dec 2011 19:01:25 +0000, vid Horne, _the_
chancellor wrote in post :
k
:

I've been living and working in Germany and Austria since 1985, I
still
need to resort to English works.

So I see.

or words, even :-)

Not dorks? :-)

slap

two Ronnies mode
nor forks, corks and porks.
--

Martin

martin is also utterly silly.
True.


"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
...

On Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:40:14 +0100, Jesper Lauridsen
wrote:

On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:37:04 +0100, Martin wrote:
On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:15:44 +0000 (UTC), David Hatunen
wrote:
Then by night
train to Copenhagen where neither my French nor my GErman did any
damn
good, but, of course, most of the Danes spoke English.

Most of the Danes I know speak German as well as English.

Very, very few Danes speak better German than English.

I didn't say better.

It would be
utterly silly for an American to use German in Denmark.

True.
--

Martin

On 02/12/2011 1:30 PM, Erick T. Barkhuis wrote:
Dave Smith:

On my visits to Denmark I was amazed not only at the number of
people who spoke English, but that they spoke it so fluently.

Do the Danes have original movies/series/soaps on TV, with Danish in
subtitles? In other words: are they exposed to their daily portion of
TV-English?

I didn`t watch a lot of television when I was there, though I do recall
watching an English language show dubbed with German.

I previously mentioned my Italian neighbours who arrived here more than
60 years ago and barely speak English and by no means fluent after all
those years. Yet, most of the Danes I spoke with had only a slight
accents.

"Erick T. Barkhuis" writes:

Dave Smith:

On my visits to Denmark I was amazed not only at the number of
people who spoke English, but that they spoke it so fluently.

Do the Danes have original movies/series/soaps on TV, with Danish in
subtitles? In other words: are they exposed to their daily portion of
TV-English?

Yes, they do. They also (like everyone) listen to pop music in
English.