The Education First (EF) English Proficiency Index (EPI) ranked Danes as the best non-native English speakers in the world.
Of the 63 non-Commonwealth countries included in the study, Denmark was one of just seven in the category of ‘very high proficiency’. Behind Denmark were the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Poland and Austria.
In my experience, largely from playing MMOS and time at university scandinavians in general are excellent English speakers, so this is somewhat plausible to me.
Not a massive surprise. Small countries with a language that's not a million miles away from English in the first place. I think the biggest achievement on that list is Poland being so high. It's generally quite hard to get a country that big to speak such good English.
But I do question how in last years report, Estonia was higher than Denmark, but this year, it's 8 places behind. Surely these things remain fairly constant year to year? I might almost suggest that this isn't the most scientific of studies.
The Education First (EF) English Proficiency Index (EPI) ranked Danes as the best non-native English speakers in the world.
Of the 63 non-Commonwealth countries included in the study, Denmark was one of just seven in the category of ‘very high proficiency’. Behind Denmark were the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Poland and Austria.
For the rare nationalist gloating. [/quote]
A nationalist gloating over being the best at having to adapt to speaking a non native language.
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When I watched Borgen I noticed there was something odd about the way the lead spoke English.. I eventually realised she was speaking it with an English (Danish) accent, not an American one. Only then did I realise how rare it is to hear non-native English speakers speak with an English accent. I wonder is it policy in Denmark to teach people to speak English that way or was she just an exception?
I can't say I can confirm that. I deal with non-native English speakers a great deal of the time, and I'd say that, discounting their own accents (French, Italian, Czech, whatever), those who have learned British English and those who have learned American English are similar in number.
How extremely stupid not to have thought of that - T.H. Huxley
[quote="Panderos";p="2116173"]When I watched Borgen I noticed there was something odd about the way the lead spoke English.. I eventually realised she was speaking it with an English (Danish) accent, not an American one. Only then did I realise how rare it is to hear non-native English speakers speak with an English accent. I wonder is it policy in Denmark to teach people to speak English that way or was she just an exception?[/quote]
I guess it depens where you study english, some actors/politicians/rich family kids studied in England, hence they're more likely to develop that accent I guess.
[quote="I'm With Stupid";p="2116163"]Not a massive surprise. Small countries with a language that's not a million miles away from English in the first place. I think the biggest achievement on that list is Poland being so high. It's generally quite hard to get a country that big to speak such good English.
But I do question how in last years report, Estonia was higher than Denmark, but this year, it's 8 places behind. Surely these things remain fairly constant year to year? I might almost suggest that this isn't the most scientific of studies.[/quote]
Finnish is a million miles away from English, though - the population in Finland that does speak a language that "is not a million miles away from English" number less than a third of a million.
Not massively surprised given the amount of times we were visited and in places colonised by the Danes. We've got loads of place names with Danish origins dotted all down the eastern half of England.
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Danish footballers in England are renowned not just for their fluency in English, but the ease with which they pick up local accents. Peter Schmeichel's voice has notable Mancunian inflections, while Jan Molby has a stronger Liverpool accent than I do.
Liberal.
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Dietmar Hamann also has a bit of a scouse accent. I also enjoyed Sebastian Vettel's Brummie impression on Top Gear.
In Vietnam, I've probably noticed an equal mix of British and American accents, although obviously only a few people are good enough to have either. In Western Europe, there are probably a few factors at play. Firstly, it's extremely unlikely that anyone is being taught by Americans, because it's very hard for them to get a visa when there are so many EU nationals able to do the job. Secondly, anyone doing study abroad programmes or simply working abroad are likely to have done so in the UK, not America, which is when most people get their accents. I know some people who've developed an accent (or at least a twang one way or another) without visiting any English-speaking country, but it's really difficult to do without going there.
But Brits still punch way above their weight in the English teaching world, mainly because most of the big publishers and therefore books are UK-based. They all try to teach international English nowadays, but British spelling, etc, is still the standard. British English is sold as English, whereas American English is still largely sold as the variation. The reality is that most people never get to a level where it matters either way.
In Sweden the schools teach British English, but this is tempered by the massive influx of US movies, TV, and music. Personally I had a US professor who didn't speak Swedish which I spoke to every day for several years, and after that I lived in the US for a number of years. So my accent is definitely more american than british.
