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Lose the Delusion recently linked to this odd story in The Independent about the English language in Europe. The basic thrust of the article: the British are "dunces" when it comes to foreign languages, with only "one in three Britons" able to speak a second language. The story also suggests that English isn’t as widely spoken in Europe as some people would like to believe.
To this end it mentions Slovenia, where "according to EU data" only 13% of the population speaks English. (Apparently, this is one of the worse rates in Europe. In Bulgaria, it’s 14% and in Turkey it’s 10%. In France, by contrast, it’s 32%.)
Of course, anyone who has spent any significant amount of time here knows that this figure is highly unlikely. In fact, it’s for the birds. Throughout my stay here, I’ve been consistently amazed at how many people speak English, and how well they speak it. In my experience, the only other countries that can compare are in Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
I tried to find some official figures to back this up, but in my pre-weekend laziness, I only turned up this. It mentions a 1991 census, which found that 34% of Slovenia’s population spoke English and that "the proportion has probably increased since then."
"Probably" is probably right. This graphic, recently published in The Economist, shows that a whopping 88% of Slovenian pupils were learning English by 2000 –one of the highest percentages in Eastern Europe.
In short, the 13% figure is either based on a bad sample, or they mixed up Slovenia with Slovakia again. Either way, it’s bobbins.
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13 %? No, I don’t believe that either. I have always been impressed by at how well Slovenians not only speak English but also German and other languages.
As I mentioned in my post, my wife’s cousin came to visit us from Slovenia last year. However, I didn’t really explain why I was so amazed. She is a nursery school teacher, and so doesn’t use it for her job. She didn’t study it at university, only at school. She had never been to an English speaking country. In fact, I think I was the first native speaker with whom she had ever spoken.
I know I’m being hair-splitting right now, but I’m allergic to a common geographical misconseption - Slovenia is geographically located in Central Europe, that’s right - central. Thank you for your time
No one reading this blog has any sort of geographical misconception. Do we have here another Slovenian worried about appearing as part “civilized” Central Europe rather than “savage” East? East and West correspond is historical-political factors (i.e. Communism) not any sort of real geographical criteria. Otherwise Central Europe really falls somewhere in Ukraine, so Slovenia, Bosnia, Romania, etc… are all West.
As I’ll be in Ljubljana tomorrow, and I don’t speak a word of Slovenee yet, this post is exactly what I needed to read today. I’ve been told all this many times lately, but it’s encouraging right before venturing across the border.
*Slovene. Sorry.
Heck, be careful about using the term Slovene, as opposed to Slovenian. It has been known to elicit the same type of heated response as calling the country part of Eastern Europe and not Central Europe!
It says that the people were asked to rate their language skills themselves. You’d have to factor in that the level of skill at which people consider themselves to be able to speak a foreign language may differ.
In Slovenia’s case I guess that the comparison with the proficiency in Croatian might raise the expectations with respect to English.
Interesting…
32% of folks in France say they can speak English?
13% of folks in Slovenija say they can speak English?
Operative word being “can”.
Perhaps the 13% in Slovenija also WILL speak, or at least try to speak, English.
My experience is that (way) less than 10% of folks in France WILL speak English. In Paris, that drops down to about 5%.
The stats provided by The Independent would have been more useful if they posed the question as “Will you speak English?” as opposed to “Can you..”
“I don’t speak a word of any language or dialect spoken in Slovenia.”
Can’t get more diplomatic than that.
Yes, I realize this doesn’t have much to do with the topic, but I just had to answer Mat’s reply
“Do we have here another Slovenian worried about appearing as part “civilized” Central Europe rather than “savage” East?”
- Yes, because of people like you, who put us about 800km eastern of our current position.
East and West correspond is historical-political factors (i.e. Communism) not any sort of real geographical criteria.
- If you refer to History and politics, you should know that there was time before the 20th century as well.
“Otherwise Central Europe really falls somewhere in Ukraine, so Slovenia, Bosnia, Romania, etc… are all West.”
- Does not. Central European countries are Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia. Ukraine is in the Eastern Europe, Bosnia and Romania in the South-Eastern Europe.
Have a lovely weekend!
This is off topic as well, on that Eastern/Central theme some of you are going on about
Just wanted to mention that I’m taking a University Class right now (Lit and Culture of Europe) and one of the main topics of discussion is “Does Central Europe Exist.” It’s quite interesting to hear the discussions that come up, about whether it does or not. Personally, I never use the term Central Europe, as ‘geograpically’ I have a hard time finding Poland central, among other reasons. And the general info I’ve read seems to pinpoint Central Europe as Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine but not including Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Germany.
I think that’s why it’s so confusing and many people tend to use West / East. Noone really has a clear idea what “Central” Europe is.
And finally, I’ve always thought of Slovenia as Western, not Eastern.
Vienna is east of virtually the entire Slovenia.
The old East and West blocs no longer exist, so it is ludicrous to today say Slovenia is in Eastern Europe. It is in what once was called Eastern Europe, Habsburg Europe, Holy Roman Empirical Europe, etc.
Mind you, I am not bothered by people saying Slovenia is in Eastern Europe. While not technically correct, I feel this label has no effect on Slovenia and Slovenians whatsoever.
Alright, I meant no personal offense to anyone. What does upset me however, is when Slovenes try to distance themselves from Yugoslavia (which most people would consider Eastern Europe). This is a part of your recent history and there is no shame in that. When Slovenes, Czechs, etc… try so vociferously to distance themselves from “East” they are simply feeding a far worse misconception than any geographic one: the idea that West/Central Europe is civilized and good while the East is wild, savage, and bad. No one needs this.
So, just to recap: going be purely geographic terms, Slovenia is in the Western half of Europe. Judging from Habsburg-era history, Slovenia is in central Europe. Using twentieth century divisions (and linguistic considerations) it’s in the East. Does any of this matter? Not unless people are trying to draw borders around “civilized” lands. Being east, central, or west should never be an insult or compliment.
“Being east, central, or west should never be an insult or compliment.”
I agree.
I hope that geography based stigma is eliminated once and for all - it does’nt make sense. Other factors, such as linguistic skills are more important. I was impressed by the use of English in Slovenia.
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