BigJoeSullivan Posted January 13, 2013 Report Share Posted January 13, 2013 Anyone ever notice that Scandinavian people speak English better than any other non-native Anglophones? I realize they speak a Germanic language as well which helps but so do a lot of other people which don't speak English as well in general. What is the requirement in school for learning English because it must be quite high. I find that when meeting someone from Norway,Sweden, or Denmark online...I would never suspect they were not a native speaker until they tell me or make a reference to something foreign. They write better then a large portion of native speakers even. In person they pronounce words more correctly then most other non-native speakers. I realize there are exceptions but this is what I have encountered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMATycoon Posted January 13, 2013 Report Share Posted January 13, 2013 Amazing, isn't it. And they all know that a lot isn't a word 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johanovich Posted January 13, 2013 Report Share Posted January 13, 2013 Guess it has a lot (yes, I did that on purpose) to do with the fact that we (in Sweden at least) start learning english in school when we're 10 years old. Also, we don't dub foreign films and tv shows (except when it's for children of course) which seems to be fairly common down on the continent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verbalkint Posted January 13, 2013 Report Share Posted January 13, 2013 For sure, also the dutchies speak english very well... i think it has to do with the educational system where they learn it very early and in a stage where the kids are able to pick it up really well. And with non-synchronized tv stuff. In Europe, i had really problems with english communication in Spain, but worst was Italy. Edit: Ehhh, Donnie beat me to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 In my experience the Dutch and the Indians have the best English of all non-native speakers (and even most natives ), although the Scandinavians definitely speak exceptionally good English also! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 Why, thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 What amazes me is how clearly you manage to speak with your mouth full! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kole Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 Guess it has a lot (yes, I did that on purpose) to do with the fact that we (in Sweden at least) start learning english in school when we're 10 years old. Also, we don't dub foreign films and tv shows (except when it's for children of course) which seems to be fairly common down on the continent. Yeah, the same goes for Finland too. Although we Finns have a terrible a accent, even worse than Swedes, lol Fortunately you guys don't have to bare with it here on the forums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steel Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 I am English, and worked for Swedish owned company for 10 years, and had a team of Swedes work for me, but at the same time had a Swedish boss, who's father was English and taught English in Sweden. The only way we (the English) could converse without the Swedes was by speaking very quickly in slang, using rhyming slang, and breaking up sentences. Unfortunately, after a few months they had mastered even that, and had us Brits going to smorgasbords??, drinking Schnappes, eating herring, and shouting Skoll and Skoll tam e fan or something like that. My boss was my mate, and just loved spell checking my letters!!! lol They are also quite good at drinking despite it costing a fortune to drink there. Tac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kole Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 Former president of Finland Juho Paasikivi speaking English before the 1952 Olympic games in Helsinki. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Anyone ever notice that Scandinavian people speak English better than any other non-native Anglophones? Nope, I'm pretty sure that most Flemish people speak better English than Scandinavians. And French as well. And German... Or Spanish for that matter. In my experience the Dutch and the Indians have the best English of all non-native speakers (and even most natives ), although the Scandinavians definitely speak exceptionally good English also! The Dutch and Indians have a very strong accent, while in my experience most educated Flemish people don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 They write better then a large portion of native speakers even. They write better than a large portion of native speakers even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steel Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 They write better than a large portion of native speakers even. Would you, per chance, be one of those educated Flemish individuals you are referring to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Nope, I'm pretty sure that most Flemish people speak better English than Scandinavians. And French as well. And German... Or Spanish for that matter. Whoaa hold on. Are you actually suggesting that French, German and Spanish people generally speak better English than Scandinavians? All those countries are famous for dubbing their tv-shows, movies etc becouse they don't know English so well. I have actually visited Spain (Barcelona & Malaga) and Germany (Frankfurt, Dusseldorf & Cologne) and even though couple of those places are major metropolitan areas there was very little to no English speaking people around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Whoaa hold on. Are you actually suggesting that French, German and Spanish people generally speak better English than Scandinavians? No, I did no such thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 No, I did no such thing. Hmm, sounded like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 He said Flemish people speak better English/Spanish/German/French than what Scandinavians do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinDeReLLa Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Flemish people have 3 official native languages , Dutch , French and German .. , you learn all three , what you speak daily depends on where you live . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Nope, I'm pretty sure that most Flemish people speak better English than Scandinavians. And French as well. And German... Or Spanish for that matter. The Dutch and Indians have a very strong accent, while in my experience most educated Flemish people don't. I thought the Flems were Dutch! The things you learn... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 He said Flemish people speak better English/Spanish/German/French than what Scandinavians do. Yeah I probably should read more carefully. It just threw me off that someone would tell us here on this topic that Flamish people speak better Spanish than Scandinavians do. zZzzz... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 On your side you were probably thinking of places which have a country to back them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 In my experience the Dutch and the Indians have the best English of all non-native speakers (and even most natives ), although the Scandinavians definitely speak exceptionally good English also! Indians typically have good spoken English and awful written English, this has been my experience with them anyway, also English is pretty much native verbal communication for most Indians in cities. In my experience the best non-native English speakers are Germans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Erik, absolutely! The Indians all write in internet slang these days, it's awful. Germans do have good English too and I've recently found the Slovaks speak good English too, who woulda thunk? Who even knew that was a place?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goatacre Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 These days most Northern Europeans learn English very easily, and can speak and write in the language extremely fluently. My favourites are the Scandinavian footballers who come to play in the Premier League in England, who then develop English regional accents (Olof Mellberg, having played for Aston Villa, is a great example). Southern Europeans tend to have thicker accents derived from their native language, which is Latin based rather than Germanic. Indians speak excellent English, in general, but they also tend to be heavily accented unless they've spent significant time overseas - so many call centres for UK businesses are now based in India that many British people complain about struggling to understand what they're being told. On the other hand, my consultant nephrologist is Indian (not sure if first or second generation in the UK) and his spoken English is fantastic and has all the hallmarks of having been privately educated. Americans certainly rank some way down the list in terms of quality of English (doesn't help that they try to change the language!), but so do many Britons these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2013 Report Share Posted January 20, 2013 Would you, per chance, be one of those educated Flemish individuals you are referring to? I like to think that I am, but I always failed my language classes. French and English is mandatory here and since I took on engineering they rammed German down my throat as well. Since big parts of the Chemical and Automotive industry is German it doesn't hurt I guess. In my experience the best non-native English speakers are Germans. Most Germans who speak English sound like Rainier Wolfcastle. And people you expect to know English too, like tour guides and such. At least that's my experience from visiting Berlin and Bayern. Most guides we asked to talk German to us because their English was so bad. I thought the Flems were Dutch! The things you learn... The Flems are Dutch, but not the Dutch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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