Brobbel

Canada 85.18%
Netherlands 90%

...??

UA Fan

I think you will see it when quote that post in your response.

Just press edit to your post and you will see the link.

Dadaluma83

Interesting map. Although while we are on the topic of Brazil and languages I know the vast majority of Brazilians don't speak English. I remember a few years back when I mentioned to my instructor, who is from Brazil, in the soccer class when I was a student that I plan on going to Brazil for the world cup. He told me better start learning Portugese. I told him that my Spanish is pretty good. Close enough right? He just laughed.

Would be interesting to see this same map but for each country with a percentage of Spanish speakers.

pinniped

That was my first reaction too. I had to google the population of Quebec before it made sense. Canada is about 35 million; Quebec is around 8 million.

So if a little over 5 million Canadians speak no English at all, and you figure a couple hundred thousand are Inuits or other natives, that means a little over half of Quebec is French-only.

Seems at least plausible to me... Montreal is pretty bilingual. Outer parts of the province certainly less so. Biggest shock to me was the 8 million total number to begin with...I would have guessed it was smaller population-wise.

carlosdca

Yeah...French is spoken in Canada too. So that probably makes up the percentage.
The statistics on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ing_population are about people that speak English not people that have English as mother tongue/native language. Big difference.

If we are talking about English as Native Language, Netherlands would probably be close to 0%. Canada, still in the upper 80% range.

You are listed as from the NL. Would you say that the majority of people there speak English as a second language?

exbayern

The Dutch tend to speak English well (in comparison to neighbours) as their English programs on television is more often in English with sub-titles, and not dubbed, as it is in many other countries.

Many Francophone Québécois speak little or no English, just as many Anglophones in Canada speak no French. And there are French speakers across Canada, with large populations in Ontario, New Brunswick and other areas.

And still more than two decades after the wall came down, there is a divide in Europe amongst those raised learning Russian in school and those learning English in school. It will take at least another generation for that to change.

Brobbel

The 90% seems correct to me, because even on elementary school they teach English, and it is mandatory at high school.

Only the Canadian part surprised me.

Christopher

To an extent, the percentages must depend on how "speaking English" is defined. For example, I can check into a hotel in Turkish, ask the directions to the local bus station, and order a simple meal. People seem to understand me mostly, but I wouldn't say that I can "speak Turkish", not really. Probably too some extent the figures represented in the map are the result of self-reporting (e.g. in censuses).

exbayern

Why?

I suspect that the majority of Canadian posters posting here in English would say that they don't speak French. It's not that different on the French side. Most of the country isn't bilingual.

Only 17 percent consider themselves bilingual, and with a large immigrant population, as well as a large native population, there are many who may speak a second or third or fourth language which doesn't include English, or French. http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05...igrant-influx/

Brobbel

I do understand this now, reading your post and other posts about it, but I did not know this. I was under the impression that almost everybody spoke English, most as first language (=correct), others as second to French (=only partially correct, because I do know now that most of them speak only French).

pinniped

Question: do the primary schools in Quebec teach English? I wonder if the percentages are evolving with younger generations...

Not that I'm saying they *should* become bilingual with any greater emphasis than I'd say my own English-speaking kids should learn a 2nd language, but with so much of of the total GDP of North America being transacted in English, as well as the Canadian finance sector being based in Toronto, it seems like it'd be good to know both languages.

tentseller

Here are some points about English fluency in Canada:

Canada is legally bilingual; Province of Quebec is unilingual, French only. There are very specific laws prohibiting the use of English, on signs, in printed materials, in government buildings and during breaks at work.
Public schooling is French only unless you fall under very limited requirement or are rich to afford private English schools.

The QC residents outside Montreal know very limited English, not fluent.

The rest of Canada:
Due to the immigration policies post 1971 there are many Canadians who I would not classify as fluent in conversational English due to:

• Mother tongue not being English; in major cities this is over 50%.
• Tendencies of immigrants to Canada to gather and live in their own circles and areas.
• Availability of government service in 12 languages (oral and written).
• Multi-cultural policies which encourage cultural/ethnic behavior (good and bad).

I, as a non-white Canadian is not surprise with the facts presented in this thread as to the FLUENCY of English in Canada.

exbayern

I can think of at one FT'er who used to say that they were Québécois. I thought that was why their written English and in particular syntax was a bit 'off', even though it didn't seem the same as the Québécois French and the French French I know when they write English.

After a few of us approached him in French offline he did admit that his parents moved from Quebec before he began school so that he didn't need to learn much French in school and that he doesn't actually speak or understand any French at all.

I hope that I have that story right. It always stood out to me as odd ie to relocate an entire family just to avoid a language, especially as we were raised tri-lingual and encouraged to read and watch television in different languages. But I suppose that he is not alone.

tentseller

Québécois who relocated to other parts of Canada did not make the decision on the language issue alone.

His/Her français is like mine, Canadian high-school mandatory level: usable enough to get feed, accommodation and sometimes favours with AF agents.

exbayern

I should have been more clear. I think that the poster is first generation Canadian from ESL speaking parents. He made it very clear that he cannot speak or understand any French at all to us. He's specifically said that his parents moved west to avoid the French in school issue (I assume that he meant French as first language in school)

I was listening to an interesting program on the CBC recently about immigrants from China moving to Quebec and taking over 'deps'. I thought that was really interesting as deps are quite unique compared to other corner stores in North America. It's sort of like how there is a stereotype of certain ethnic groups running the 7-11 stores in the US but those Chinese immigrants are often Mandarin first, French second speakers.