Ferrari red

Bob,

That statistic looks WAY TOO OPTIMISTIC to me; it is possible that about 25 millions French say that they understand a few words of english, but as for speaking it, that's another matter entirely: 2,5 millions would be more appropriate. And if, among these, you count those who have a good command of English, that would be smaller still. Surely you must know that, in the "Test of English as a Foreign Language", the French are at the 69th place?

Besides, nationalistic pride and history command that we refuse absolutely to be on any same ledger as the English.

Even if we did accept some rules from the british: as for railroad transportation, trains are still driven on the left track in France, contrary to Germany, were the trains are driven on the right track. And in the three french departments that were annexed to Germany between 1870 and 1918, railroads were developed during that period, so with trains driven on the right track, and that still persists to this day.

Rgds

 

I don't doubt that one in three Italians have been taught English, but I'm quite certain that WAY less than one in three of them actually speak English. In my village of 1100 only five people speak English; me, my wife, a Swiss guy, a gal from New Zealand, and ONE Italian gal who married an American and lived in the U.S. for years. The English words known by the rest of the folks are limited to "OK", "John Wayne", and "Barack Obama", and only about two dozen can get past "OK".

When I travel outside my little village I encounter a few more English speakers, but (without any scientific proof) I would estimate that only about one in fifty Italians speak any useful English at all. Of course that figure goes up a little bit in areas specializing in tourism, but even in towns dominated by tourism I have never encountered a third of the folks speaking English.

If I make a phone call to any major agency, like the hospital, a credit card company, a utility company, an auto parts store, or any other company not associated with tourism (like a hotel) it is quite unusual to encounter an English speaker here in Italy.

 

For Nerofer and Mozella, your accounts are probably why I put them on the "American" side of the ledger. We don't speak the language very well either...

I am, though, eternally embarrassed when I travel abroad that so many people can at least conduct a basic conversation with me in English & I routinely butcher theirs. In the very near future, though, with our smartphones and Google translate, this will all be a story of the past. Bob H