GoodGuy
Posts: 1506
Joined: 5/17/2006
From: Cologne, Germany
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy
I've noticed that a large number of players in these forums are in various parts of Europe but are perfect in English. I always thought that English was only in Great Britain. Am I wrong in assuming that? Not trying to be a wise guy, I'm genuinely curious.
Learning English is mandatory in Germany (5th - 10th grade, kids can leave after 10 years of school). If kids opt for a college-preparatory education, where they then would graduate after 13 years (reduced to 12 years now), they have to take English classes until 12th grade, their cert of having passed the "Abitur" (German university entrance qualification) won't be accepted as cert for uni matriculation in some German states, otherwise. Scholars used to be allowed to drop English after 11th grade when there were 13 school years, but such cert was not accepted by some universities (by law, in some states).
Also, universities require an advanced or intermediate proficiency in Latin for some subjects (eg. medical science).
quote:
ORIGINAL: Vasquez
If you are from germany and love wargames you have to speak english. Otherwise you are screwed 
True. Matrix would have a bigger customer base if they'd be able to provide translations (manual, GUI) for all their products. Many Germans (who don't need English for their jobs or who don't get to practice speaking it every day), have a rather bad command of English, so that some explanations in English manuals are beyond their grasp. And I guess quite some are too lazy to employ translation tools. Still, if you get to a German town, and say you'd ask for directions or help, many people (and not just youngsters) will try their best to reactivate their English and help.
That may be different in France, or say Italy. 
When I was around 14, I went to France for a student exchance (like 1 week), and I was pretty surprised that most people in the host family did not manage to form more than one or 2 English sentences. The only person with an acceptable English level was the father, who could even speak some German, as he had worked as a cook in Germany, for a few years. So we kept switching from English to German, it was pretty funny. But that was a rare exception.
My mother participates in an exchange program her hometown set up a few years ago, where French and German families become hosts alternately, like 1 or 2 times a year. Around 1 year ago, she had a French guest, a female student of chemistry, who did not understand more than "yes" and "no". My mother saw it as an opportunity to improve her French, while she offered the student to learn some German (well, fair enough), but since I am used to switch to English, in cases where I don't get far with other languages (I studied French for 4 years, but forgot most of it, even though I can read French and Spanish sources to some extent), this was rather a strange experience.
It took some 20 minutes to "squeeze"  small bits of infos (like what university she was going to and what major she had picked, etc.) out of her, hehe, something you deal with (in English) within less than a minute, usually.
In my experience, this deals with political ambitions in France, namely the ambition to suppress anglicisms in French language and culture, coming from the French ministry of culture (with quite some administrations, during the last 20 years), which enhances such focus on their own language even more. I think that I am not generalizing, if I say that I suspect that it takes the average "Joe" (in France) quite some effort to get to a decent level of English, and quite some of the French seem to think it's not needed anyways.
The French school system may have changed now, with all the regulations and laws being employed by the European Union nowadays, but in France the English language was treated like a poor cousin, for decades. Same with countries in Eastern Europe, mostly for political reasons, not cultural reasons, though.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Zakhal
I mean I can forgive russians for having problems with english but germans? Not.
Well, you do quite some Germans wrong if you generalize like that.
If you get to East Germany, for example, you may find people from particular age groups rather employing some impressive Russian skills than English skills, as they had lived behind the "iron curtain", just like East European people who lived in states of the "Warsaw Pact". Visitors who come to Germany seem to forget that, or they may not think about. Also, it's not like East Germans just live in East Germany or in or around Berlin, as a massive number of East Germans relocated after the reunion. There are many counties in rural areas or areas close to the Polish border that are deserted.
< Message edited by GoodGuy -- 4/3/2010 4:10:04 PM >
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English in Europe - 
just a bit... 
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