WHY DO THE BRITISH EXPECT EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD TO SPEAK ENGLISH?
"Almost two in three Britons are unable to speak a language other than English, in effect the worst record in Europe, a survey for the European Commission has found. Sixty-two per cent of respondents from the United Kingdom admitted they could not speak any language other than their mother tongue.
This compared with an average of 44 per cent across the EU and just 1 per cent in Luxembourg, the top-ranking country.
Only Ireland, with 66 per cent, outdid Britain, but the situation is complicated there because 11 per cent of the population count Irish as their mother tongue - and virtually all of those can also speak English."
(From today's Independent On Sunday)
Here is a list of the numbers of speakers of the principal languages (both native speakers and those using it as a secondary language):
1. Mandarin Chinese (1.12 billion)
2. English (480 million)
3. Spanish (320 million)
4. Russian (285 million)
5. French (265 million)
6. Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
7. Arabic (221 million)
8. Portuguese (188 million)
9. Bengali (185 million)
10. Japanese (133 million)
11. German (109 million)
It looks at first glance as though we should all be learning Mandarin Chinese!
However, most Chinese only communicate with their own countrymen. The principal commercial world language is still English.
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26/02/06 @ 22:59