Most swedes speak English competently; certainly all the ones he’d interact with for a PhD will. He’ll probably be expected to learn Swedish if he wants to stay afterwards, however.
Thanks. Do you know exactly how far English gets me in most European countries? Also, could you elaborate some more on what “much farther” means? For example, in Germany people would start talking in German with me on the conversation? And yes, if I would to live there I would like to learn the language. I’m also not comfortable with people being able to communicate in a manner I cannot understand (this is mostly paranoia, but it is also social uncomfortable).
If you want more exact data just look up the relevant statistics.
I’ve travelled to many countries in Europe, and in my experience you survive with English from better to worse in the following order, but you survive in all of them: UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia. Some relevant countries like Iceland, Denmark and Netherlands are missing. I interacted mostly with less educated people, so this info isn’t necessarily relevant for university studies.
My comfort zone for living in a country for extended periods of time speaking only english would be somewhere before Slovenia or Estonia on that list. In France, Italy and Greece the problem was not only that fewer people spoke english, but even the people who knew english were really persistent in speaking their native language.
For example, in Germany people would start talking in German with me on the conversation?
It always takes less effort to speak your native language, so you should expect that.
Sometimes people start talking to you in a language you obviously don’t understand. This has happened to me many times when I’ve asked a question in english. If this happens to me with a language I don’t understand, I start talking Finnish back to them and smile. After a while they realize how ridiculous this is.
I’ve found the data on proficiency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_English_Proficiency_Index , but not on willingness to talk the language. Which countries would you consider to be the least willing? France and Italy are pretty low on proficiency for an European country, it mightn’t be just unwillingness.
The test takers were self-selected and no demographic information was collected on them.
Because of self selection that data is probably flawed to the point of uselessness.
Low proficiency and unwillingness go hand in hand more or less, but it seems to me that people in some countries take more pride in their culture and language than others. France, Greece and Italy fit in that category better than Scandinavian countries for example. I suspect that the longer independent history these countries have and the bigger players they are, the more prideful they are.
My home country, Finland, has a very short independent history, and is also a demographically small country. People are very willing to speak english here.
I’d be shocked if you found it common in Greece for people to be able to speak English but refuse to, like the French/Germans are known to do.
Greeks are proud of their language/culture/whatever to a severe fault, but they don’t have pretensions of being a world language that others ought to know.
World language pretentions are another factor entirely, seemed to be a real problem only in France. I can’t say I’ve met any people who outright refused to speak english if they clearly knew it, I’m just saying that in some countries you have to push it a bit more. If you’re Greek, you probably know better.
You’ll have to get over that paranoia. People will always do that, even in nominally English-speaking countries.
In general, the larger the country is, the less chance there is that a random person you meet on the street speaks usable English. Germany, France and Spain are particularly bad in this regard. I don’t have hard numbers, but with very wide margins, you might expect that >95% of the working population speaks English in Scandinavia but only 50% in France.
So go to Sweden, if you have the option. Scandinavia’s the nicest area of Europe anyway.
That said, emphasis on “random” above. Anyone working for a university is almost guaranteed to be competent in English, especially in a technical area.
Much farther than in, say, Germany.
Most swedes speak English competently; certainly all the ones he’d interact with for a PhD will. He’ll probably be expected to learn Swedish if he wants to stay afterwards, however.
Thanks. Do you know exactly how far English gets me in most European countries? Also, could you elaborate some more on what “much farther” means? For example, in Germany people would start talking in German with me on the conversation? And yes, if I would to live there I would like to learn the language. I’m also not comfortable with people being able to communicate in a manner I cannot understand (this is mostly paranoia, but it is also social uncomfortable).
If you want more exact data just look up the relevant statistics.
I’ve travelled to many countries in Europe, and in my experience you survive with English from better to worse in the following order, but you survive in all of them: UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia. Some relevant countries like Iceland, Denmark and Netherlands are missing. I interacted mostly with less educated people, so this info isn’t necessarily relevant for university studies.
My comfort zone for living in a country for extended periods of time speaking only english would be somewhere before Slovenia or Estonia on that list. In France, Italy and Greece the problem was not only that fewer people spoke english, but even the people who knew english were really persistent in speaking their native language.
It always takes less effort to speak your native language, so you should expect that.
Sometimes people start talking to you in a language you obviously don’t understand. This has happened to me many times when I’ve asked a question in english. If this happens to me with a language I don’t understand, I start talking Finnish back to them and smile. After a while they realize how ridiculous this is.
France, Spain and Italy ahead of Czech Republic and Hungary? Seriously? Granted, I’ve only ever been to the capitals of the latter two, but...
I’ve found the data on proficiency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_English_Proficiency_Index , but not on willingness to talk the language. Which countries would you consider to be the least willing? France and Italy are pretty low on proficiency for an European country, it mightn’t be just unwillingness.
Because of self selection that data is probably flawed to the point of uselessness.
Low proficiency and unwillingness go hand in hand more or less, but it seems to me that people in some countries take more pride in their culture and language than others. France, Greece and Italy fit in that category better than Scandinavian countries for example. I suspect that the longer independent history these countries have and the bigger players they are, the more prideful they are.
My home country, Finland, has a very short independent history, and is also a demographically small country. People are very willing to speak english here.
I’d be shocked if you found it common in Greece for people to be able to speak English but refuse to, like the French/Germans are known to do.
Greeks are proud of their language/culture/whatever to a severe fault, but they don’t have pretensions of being a world language that others ought to know.
World language pretentions are another factor entirely, seemed to be a real problem only in France. I can’t say I’ve met any people who outright refused to speak english if they clearly knew it, I’m just saying that in some countries you have to push it a bit more. If you’re Greek, you probably know better.
You’ll have to get over that paranoia. People will always do that, even in nominally English-speaking countries.
In general, the larger the country is, the less chance there is that a random person you meet on the street speaks usable English. Germany, France and Spain are particularly bad in this regard. I don’t have hard numbers, but with very wide margins, you might expect that >95% of the working population speaks English in Scandinavia but only 50% in France.
So go to Sweden, if you have the option. Scandinavia’s the nicest area of Europe anyway.
That said, emphasis on “random” above. Anyone working for a university is almost guaranteed to be competent in English, especially in a technical area.