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Swiss are not as good at English as they might think, study finds (www.swissinfo.ch)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The Swiss speak worse English than most in Europe, writes the Sonntagszeitung newspaper.

Switzerland came only 23rd in Europe last year in the English Proficiency Index of EF language school. Young people are less proficient than older people, women less than men, it found. Top of the ranking is the Netherlands, followed by Singapore and Austria. Scandinavian countries also do well.

Out of 111 countries worldwide Switzerland came 29th, directly behind Serbia and Nigeria, just ahead of Argentina and Hong Kong.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

I bet this is partially a side effect of our dependence on German/French media. I wonder how those countries rank on that list.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

This really surprises me. In the circles I'm in almost everyone is pretty much fluent in English. I thought you g people especially would skew the score up.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

pretty much everyone in my school was good or fluent in English, might be an older generation issue

edit:

Surprisingly, young people aged between 18 and 25 perform the worst.

can't believe it!

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 years ago

A simple improvement would be ditching French/German in primary school in favor of English. Of course, that's a tough choice to make...

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