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Rt · Joined: 02 Jan 2011 Posts: 14 Location: India

Here's an interesting article on English proficiency around the world:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/04/english?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/whospeaksenglish

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

I'm glad they came out early and said it was not a statistically valid test.

With India and China of nearly equal ranking, and knowing the Chinese students that I do at my university with their abyssmal English, I'd say the study should be taken with a large portion of salt.

johnslat · Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:17 am Post subject:

Dear Glenski,

". . . children between eight and 12 learn foreign languages faster than younger ones, so each class hour on English is better spent on a 10-year-old than on a six-year-old.
Might be nice to see which countries this statement is based on."

Especially since, at least to me, it sounds dead wrong. I had a six year old stepdaughter who acquired a fair command of Farsi in about two weeks. It was rather embarrassing, though, to have to use her as a translator when necessary.

Regards,
John