How widely spoken is English in your country?

**Duke** · 01-06-2015, 02:35 AM

computers and internet are biggest factors in learning english

**kkk77** · 01-06-2015, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by Sojourner

Don't let English flood your language with anglicisms. It's basically a killer language which devours other ones.

I avoid using English words while speaking Portuguese unless there's no translation (like hardware, software, internet...).
But many people like to use English words because they think it's cool.

I don't think teaching English is a threat. It's probably the opposite, it will stop sounding "cool".

**Smaug** · 01-06-2015, 06:14 PM

It is far more common amongst the young population.

**щрбл** · 01-06-2015, 06:24 PM

The younger generation tends to speak it more often. However the older generation doesn't speak it. They generally have studied Russian and some German (or some French).

Also, some people simply dislike using foreign languages.

**SupaThug** · 01-06-2015, 06:32 PM

Originally Posted by kkk77

I avoid using English words while speaking Portuguese unless there's no translation (like hardware, software, internet...).
But many people like to use English words because they think it's cool.

I don't think teaching English is a threat. It's probably the opposite, it will stop sounding "cool".

I avoid using english words too!I will always say ''horário de pico'' instead of ''hora do rush'',I am very proud of my language!

**Willem** · 01-06-2015, 06:38 PM

The Netherlands probably has the highest percentage of English speakers in Europe outside of the UK and Ireland.

It's mainly because of the media and the fact that the Dutch travel a lot.

**SupaThug** · 01-06-2015, 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by Willem

The Netherlands probably has the highest percentage of English speakers in Europe outside of the UK and Ireland.

It's mainly because of the media and the fact that the Dutch travel a lot.

And because dutch is one of the closest languages to english.

**Willem** · 01-06-2015, 06:45 PM

Originally Posted by LESM

And because dutch is one of the closest languages to english.

Meh, Dutch and German are about equidistant from English, yet the Dutch speak more English mainly because of the size of the country/travel/business.

Frisian is closer to English, but few people speak that in NL.

**SupaThug** · 01-06-2015, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by Willem

Meh, Dutch and German are about equidistant from English, yet the Dutch speak more English (mainly because of the size of the country/travel/business).

Frisian is closer to English, but very few people speak that in NL.

I have always heard that the closest languages to english are:

1-Scots
2-Frisian
3-Dutch

I have the impression that dutch is closer to german,but it one of the languages that I've heard that reminds english the most.

**Marinus** · 02-06-2018, 10:23 PM

Brazil was rated 41st in the world in the 2017 EF English Proficiency tests, with a "Low Proficiency" score. I don't know how good their scoring is but from my personal anecdotal experience, the people that do speak English, even the ones that studied to "advanced" levels are awful at it. That is because very few people actually interact with native English speakers while learning, only with other Brazilians with awful pronunciation. The ones that do travel and live around native English speakers often don't have formal English training, so they may pronounce things accurately but do not learn the intricacies of the langauge.

Originally Posted by LESM

I have always heard that the closest languages to english are:

1-Scots
2-Frisian
3-Dutch

I have the impression that dutch is closer to german,but it one of the languages that I've heard that reminds english the most.

Frisian is the single closest fully distinct language to English, followed by Afrikaans and Dutch. Whilst some people may say otherwise, most linguists agree that Scots is more of a dialect of English than a separate language.