somenative English speakers’ attitude towards learning foreign languages can besummarized as “why should I learn a foreign language if pretty much everybodyspeaks English?” While it is true that English is among the most commonlylearned second languages in the world, only a small percentage of the worldpopulation are able to speak it at a conversational level.
许多以英语为母语的人对学习外语的态度都可以归结为:如果几乎人人都说英语,我为什么还要多此一举学其他语言呢?虽然事实如此,英语是跻身于世界上最常用的第二语言,但只有很少一部分人能达到日常交流的水平。
Europeis traditionally very English-oriented (in comparison with the rest of theworld); almost all EU citizens have had at least some contact with Englishduring their life. However, when it comes to actually speaking it with at leasta rudimentary level of proficiency, the numbers are not as much in favour ofthose with the attitude described above.
欧洲是以英语为主导语言的地区(相对于世界上的其他地区而言);几乎所有的欧盟公民在其一生中都与英语有着不解之缘。但不管怎样,一旦把标准提高到能进行基本的熟练交流,这一数据就不再像之前描述的那样尽如人意。
Thefollowing map shows the percentage of people who are able to hold aconversation in English. It is based on the data contained in the “SpecialEurobarometer 386〃 (the data is from 2012, so Croatia is not included).
下图就展示了能用英语进行基本交流的人口百分比。该数据基于“欧洲晴雨表特别386”记载的内容(数据是2012的,所以克罗地亚不包括在内)。
Update:Corrected typo for the Netherlands and reevaluated Ireland to “>95%”.
更新:更正了荷兰的拼写和重新评估爱尔兰为“>95%”。
许多以英语为母语的人对学习外语的态度都可以归结为:如果几乎人人都说英语,我为什么还要多此一举学其他语言呢?虽然事实如此,英语是跻身于世界上最常用的第二语言,但只有很少一部分人能达到日常交流的水平。
Europeis traditionally very English-oriented (in comparison with the rest of theworld); almost all EU citizens have had at least some contact with Englishduring their life. However, when it comes to actually speaking it with at leasta rudimentary level of proficiency, the numbers are not as much in favour ofthose with the attitude described above.
欧洲是以英语为主导语言的地区(相对于世界上的其他地区而言);几乎所有的欧盟公民在其一生中都与英语有着不解之缘。但不管怎样,一旦把标准提高到能进行基本的熟练交流,这一数据就不再像之前描述的那样尽如人意。
Thefollowing map shows the percentage of people who are able to hold aconversation in English. It is based on the data contained in the “SpecialEurobarometer 386〃 (the data is from 2012, so Croatia is not included).
下图就展示了能用英语进行基本交流的人口百分比。该数据基于“欧洲晴雨表特别386”记载的内容(数据是2012的,所以克罗地亚不包括在内)。
Update:Corrected typo for the Netherlands and reevaluated Ireland to “>95%”.
更新:更正了荷兰的拼写和重新评估爱尔兰为“>95%”。