Like many of my fellow countrymen English is the only language I speak with any level of fluency. Those of you who’ve read my books may debate that fluency. If you haven’t read my books, I encourage you to purchase one (or more) and decide for yourself. That bit of self promotion out of the way, back to the topic at hand.
I took Latin in high school. Lots of translating Caesar’s Gallic Wars and Virgil’s Aeneid. Despite all the years that have passed I still remember a few key things. Unfortunately, veni vidi vici; audentis fortuna iuuat; and alea iacta est have not proven to be particularly useful on my travels. Despite Mr. Ochse’s relentless pounding about the importance of Latin and its being the root for many modern languages, I’ve struggled with German, Spanish, and most recently French (I haven’t given up on the last yet). My trips to Europe have been business travel and fortunately English has been the language for meetings and conferences. Outside the formal settings it’s only taken a few stuttering sentences of my non-English skills to convince my colleagues that we should stick with English.
Today’s Map
That brings us to our featured map of the week, courtesy of Jakub Marian, this map shows the percentage of the population able to hold a conversation in English for each EU country. Based on the map, you’re safest travel destinations are generally in the north and outside the former Soviet bloc. FWIW, while they’re outside the EU and thus not included in this map, anecdotal evidence suggests that Norway and Iceland are also very English-friendly. If you’re really set on going south, Greece, not only offers the prospect of ongoing financial intrigue, it also sports the highest percentage of conversant English speakers.
Does this map match your experiences?
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
I can talk about the stripping down and reconditioning of Saracen Scouts Cars, Chieftain and Centurian Tanks and 88 mm guns etc, in German, but I don’t get much call for it these days. I can understand more than I remember for basic conversations. Not since I worked for the MOD back in the late 60s in Germany. I can discuss basic things in French but I am sure I get my tenses muddled. My Mandarin is basic and rusty – I managed a Chinese singer and we recorded in both English and Mandarin/Cantonese – again, I can understand more than I speak. I have a very little Mexican Spanish (friends in the USA) and a little Italian (worked with Italian movie company for a while) and my ex-daughter-in-law was Czech – so I had a little of that language. We pick up languages quickly in my family, having spent our lives traveling and living and working overseas. But it is a relief now and again to relax and chat to someone in English. I do always try to use basic words of the language from the country where I am, just to be polite. 🙂
Quite impressive. My German never really got beyond the basics and perhaps a few menu items. When I was in Germany (still West Germany) everyone under 30 spoke excellent English. My Spanish consists of a few words here and there, while my French is a work in progress. My kids are much better – my oldest is essentially fluent in French and the others are on their way. Thanks for sharing.
Unless we use a language all the time, we can lose it. I find it all gets muddled into one at times…gibberish rules! 🙂