I’ve only been in Riga for a few days.
But wherever I go, everyone speaks English.
I’m working on a theory.
Tell me what you think.
The smaller the country, the better the level of English.
Because… there’s more motivation in the smaller countries.
But in bigger countries, like Russia and China and the US, or in countries where they speak an international language, like Spanish or Arabic, there’s less motivation.
Don’t you think that makes sense?
What do you think?
What about italy?
Small country..bad english..maybe cause we don’t need words..we use hands to communicate..
And it works..sometime….
Ha,ha,ha,
It mostly works ! And you use the lot of smiles too, that’s why people understand you ! 😊
It makes more sense to examine Latvia specifically.
I think that in Spain everyone wants to speak English
Greece is an exception of this rule – small country, many international tourists, bad English. You have to use the hands to help understanding each other…
I think uou are right.
I think , you are right!
I totally agree with you. I am from a rather small country, Greece, and a great majority of our people start learning English at a very young age. Me grandson, who is 8 years old, already understands and can read soma English.amalia Konsta
You are right / The smaller the country, the better the level of English.
In my opinion it is all about confidence and friendship.
French and Italian people didn’t want to talk and learn strange languages. Maybe it is now a little bit different, for example, specially in the South Italia and Rome, where is cheaper then in the North of country. Spanish people learn English… So they don’t have title for strange films and don’t even listen strange lenguage, like in cartoons for children. People in countries of the East Europe or generally in the East of the Earth is different and they learn everything better because they are not usually so rich like in West… And West buy engineers, programmers,…
I think smaller
countries are following biger countries culture
It’s ok as far as they don’t loose their own culture along the way.
Yes. You are partially right, the main reason is that seen I live in a small country where 3 languages are official ( French, deutch, ( Not to confound with German,) and German in a small part of the country.
I live in Belgium. I went to evening school for 3 years in the ‘50. Yes I am already 88.
Speaking fluently? With to little vocabulary, more difficult is to understand native English speaking people from the UK.
Christian
Maybe all the young people are better at English. It’s not about the size of the countries.
I agree. It makes sense.
Yes, that’s logical.
Yes, it is true. Latvia is the small country and consume content (films, music, devices etc) in English.
I agree with Hilkka. The world has become much smaller because of modern means/devices of communication and transportation. Many more people travel much more, meet other people, read on the internet … in a word, the world has become different and young people speak foreign languages better than their parents.
I don’t believe the dimension of one country defines the interest in foreign languages, especially English.Maybe there are many other factors..for example the level of education or economical reasons,how much one country is open
The size of the country does not play a role here, rather the historical circumstances in which the country has grown and developed for a long time. So the boundary runs between generations. Young and middle-aged probably don´t have a problem with English in any country (at least in the Baltic countries) because they do not lack motivation.
Actually I live in a town in France next Suisse, where there are a lot of strangers. And the two langages more used are french of course, and english
I think, it is logical, but it is not rule. Here in Slovakia, small, small, country, but people speaks very bad in english.
I’ m italian.
I think it is much more related to people age. Young people have more desire and need to comunicate, travel end improve work, in short connecting at the world.
It would be deeply naive for the U.S. if thay count on Russia and China to speak English like EU countries do it… Certainly, the other English language countries are quite aware of this principle distinction.
HI Ryan. !
But ,about Romania ? Many romanians speak English ,and the country is not big.
Cheers
Gabriel
It makes sense from my point of view because in a small country speaking english is a must if you want to have a better job or better oportunities.
I think, that it depends on the size of this country, their number of people, which is speaking the same language. If it is a big country, the people have many occasions to be connected with huge people in their language. But people in small countries with low number of habitants haven´t too much occasion to communicate, make business, to meet. So they are more motivated to understand the other language except their native is.
Yes, it makes sense.🙂
Hi, Mr Vig
I think you
re completely right about your theory of dependence of motivationt level to study English from size ot countrym from Ukraine, not little but not big county. In Ukraine, majority young people want to speak EnglishI
With regards
Vasyl
Yes, it makes sense. The smaller country the greater motivation to learn languages.
But not for all nations.
I was also in Riga a few years ago and I did not understand a word of Lithuanien. It is the same in Hungary.
Hello! Yes it makes sense because in big countries people have more opportunities to get jobs and decent salaries than in small countries where many young people see their future abroad and learn foreign languages.
I agree with with you.
I am French and English level is bad very bad.the country isn’t bigger and also presidents don’t speak English…
I don’t speak about accents it’s terrible
Hi Ryan,
I think that speaking a good English has to do with the personal interest : social and economical level. And a question of generation.
If you know you are going abroad for your studies you want soon learn and speak a good English.
Nowadays young people live through the social medias a lot and if they want to be at ease and take part of this new world where English matters, it’s better for them to speak a strong English.
because in a small country people can meet us more frequently, there are more turist, and they speak more than in a big country, to work and to live
Motivation and need. Small languages – by travelling you don’t meet your language often, you have to understand some big language. And if you have interest about something special, then the translation materials are in big languages, you just need to understand.