English Proficiency: Countries That Speak The Best English (PHOTOS)

Anybody who has ever traveled or lived outside the US has stories of amusing English bloopers. One of my favorites was meeting a Chinese teenager who proudly gave himself the English name "Ad Lib," in tribute to "Freedom." While Ad Lib was certainly a grander name than other self given names, it isn't uncommon to come across given names like "Fluffy," "Meat," and "Bacon" (These are real people, I assure you. Just not native English speakers). But English is no laughing matter. We've found that English language skills have some serious impact on national economic and social development.

In the same vein as the Happiness Index or the Big Mac Index, the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) takes into account English skills around the world, ranking 44 countries. The following slideshow highlights the index's most interesting findings. For more information, check out www.ef.com/epi.

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The spread of English around the world has become a symbol of globalization and its far reaching effects. As people and cultures mix, the need for a common language has never been more urgent. With a $50 billion market and more than two billion English language students in the next decade, teaching the world English is a monumental mission.

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The spread of English around the world has become a symbol of globalization and its far reaching effects. As people and cultures mix, the need for a common language has never been more urgent. With a $50 billion market and more than two billion English language students in the next decade, teaching the world English is a monumental mission.

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Comments

[Alun Palmer]

08:24 PM on 05/11/2011

The reason that the Netherlands and Belgium have such high English proficiency is very simple. They are flat countries separated from England only by the North Sea, which isn't all that wide. Why is that important? TV reception! Everyone there not only can but does watch TV from England using an ordinary TV antenna on the roof (cable TV is no more common there than in England, which is to say as rare as hen's teeth). Not only that, but Dutch is linguistically closer to English than any other language, making it easier for them to learn English. What is somewhat harder to explain is why, say, everyone in the Lincolnshire fens (a flat part of England on the opposite side from them) isn't fluent in Dutch from watching TV coming from the other direction. Probably it's because speaking English conveys a greater advantage than speaking Dutch. Or maybe they can all speak Dutch in Lincolnshire???

[Tishlinda]

07:17 PM on 05/11/2011

Oh! I didn't think that country was real... ups.

[fsutrill]

02:22 PM on 05/11/2011

at the very least, the authors should have added one color to the map/legend to denote countries that weren't evaluated.

ITA that the Netherlands are *big* English speakers. My son's 9th grade English-class trip was to...not the UK... but THE NETHERLANDS. It made for a funny story to tell people, "Yes, my [American] son is taking a class trip to Holland to study...English."

[fsutrill]

02:19 PM on 05/11/2011

how is Latin America the lowest when Africa has none? I have noticed, as an American expat in France, that the people who speak English as a 2nd language tend to make far fewer faults than those of us who speak French as a 2nd language- it's really frustrating! Plus, they all claim to be terrible in English, and then when they *do* speak English, the vast majority are really good from a grammar/vocab standpoint.

[Fo Ots]

02:24 PM on 04/29/2011

If you're saying "But English is no laughing matter. We've found that English language skills have some serious impact on national economic and social development" as a means of justifying this cultural hegemony, you're gonna have to give some statistical proof. Hell, just link me somewhere that shows a relation between english acquisition and economic advancement and why that would be.

As an American, I'm embarrassed by our unwillingness to learn other languages and respect other cultures.

[caveniakoency]

04:11 AM on 04/27/2011

Surprisingly Israel wasn´t highlighted in the world map (ok, perhaps a scaling problem), but they speak damn good English. And, funny these slides didn´t care to mention that, although Latin America has a low overall level of English, Argentina, deep down south and far away from English speaking countries, doesn´t. Maybe somebody would care to point out why. I certainly would like to know why.

[David Christensen]

02:20 AM on 04/27/2011

I do understand the English is a very illogical language and so when I see a mistake in non-English speaking countries, I just give it a pass. But sometimes when I see an official document or something that people have spent a lot of time and money on filled with errors I have to wonder why they didn't find an Native speaker to correct the mistakes. We are everywhere, it's not that hard.

[greaseitup]

10:14 PM on 04/26/2011

I used to work for a professor at a US university who was an immigrant from India. He told me that the main reason India has so many problems is that there are many languages, and people therefore have difficulty communicating. He went on to say that it was one thing to respect other people's cultures here in the US, but that encouraging people to speak any language other than English wasn't doing them any favors, especially in terms of economic well-being.

Here's an observation of my own: how many scientific and medical journals are written in, say, Spanish? Think about the implications.

[Franc Neary]

03:44 PM on 04/26/2011

I take the point that the USA is an English-speaking nation (and please correct me if I'm the victim of an urban myth here) but is it not also true that Spanish has by-passed English and the language spoken most by people in USA (day-by-day), but which has no official standing?

[caveniakoency]

04:14 AM on 04/27/2011

As an English and Spanish speaker, I should tell you that what you hear around you all the time is not Spanish per say, but Spanglish or a very rough and destroyed version of Spanish.
Your statement could be true though, I'd be curious to see some data on it.

[Louise Aloft]

11:52 AM on 05/10/2011

i don't know about within the us, but in the world there are definitely more spanish speakers than english ones. after mandarin it's spanish and then english..

[Micheal G Groshong]

11:23 AM on 04/26/2011

This is too funny.

[Chockolate]

10:34 AM on 04/26/2011

Living in Italy, I see English written everywhere here, yet I'd say no more that 5% of Italians can speak it decently. It's considered 'cool' to use a few phrases, but when it comes to actually speaking it well, I guess they don't have the time.

[Louise Aloft]

09:45 AM on 05/10/2011

unfortunately, demographically speaking the old and middle-aged outnumber the young who have started to understand the importance of learning the business language. also, untill not long ago they would choose between english and french as a foreign language in schools. and speaking of schools their english programmes are absolutely appaling, as are the language courses in many universities. that said, i think 5% might be a little low as figures go..

[European1919]

04:34 AM on 04/26/2011

Hahaha ... slide no. 2 - the USA aren't even on the map (not assigned a colour code). That figures ;-))

(As inventor of English, aka The Queen's [King's] English, England is of course not part of the research)

[Steve1976]

01:48 PM on 04/26/2011

Believe it or not the USA is an English speaking nation and not part of the study.

[Cyn de Harven]

12:04 AM on 04/27/2011

Um...as you can see by the grey colour of the US, England, Australia, New Zealand (all english speaking countries) this obviously is based on the english proficiency of NON-english speaking countries.

[Louise Aloft]

09:46 AM on 05/10/2011

true. but it doesn't account for the whole of africa..

[PoliticallyAffiliated]

02:40 AM on 04/26/2011

Fascinating stats :)

[Seven Teenatheart]

11:59 AM on 04/25/2011

The US isn't even ranked!
Not that I'm surprised, given what I hear in conference rooms every day....

[TenorArchitect]

02:03 PM on 04/25/2011

This is for non english speaking countries. England is not on it either.

[European1919]

04:35 AM on 04/26/2011

As inventor of English, aka The Queen's (King's) English, she wouldn't be.

[WillAdvise]

02:06 PM on 04/25/2011

The rankings are made for outside the US ~

[Seven Teenatheart]

03:11 PM on 04/25/2011

LOL

[rtgmath]

09:14 AM on 04/25/2011

Heh. The US doesn't have a ranking on this chart! Well, that could be a oversight -- or it could be a statement as to how poorly our public schools have taught our children. As a teacher, I find language deficiencies hard to overcome. Students have a hard time expressing themselves clearly, or writing more than a couple of sentences on topic.

A pity. Too many of our young people are headed toward a third-world future if real education doesn't get a foothold in their lives.

[DanSc]

11:22 PM on 04/25/2011

You'll also notice that England isn't on the chart. The ranking is for areas where English is not the primary language.

[European1919]

04:35 AM on 04/26/2011

England invented the language, so they're bound to be excluded. Trying to keep it fair for the colonials ...

[Cyn de Harven]

01:06 PM on 05/10/2011

You're a TEACHER? Perhaps your next lessons could be "comprehension" or "how to read an article properly before 'expressing' yourself.'

No wonder the education system is dismal...