Everyone seems so good at English so I wondered how many people learned it to such proficiency and how many are just natives

  • Chaser@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    6 hours ago

    I’m from germany. I watch a lot of YouTube. Also I work as software developer, so I need to read many english manuals. Wich don’t means, that my english is great. But it could also be worse.

    • FatVegan@leminal.space
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      6 hours ago

      I had a lot of friends from germany and i was a little bit shocked that they didn’t speak a second language. They all kinda understood english on a surface level, but not that great. Has that changed?

      • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 hours ago

        Depends on the community.
        I had one that claimed to be able to read but not speak English.
        Everyone else was able to do both to some degree.

        But that experience comes from a school where everyone trained for an IT related job.

      • Chaser@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 hours ago

        I won’t say that. I’ve born '95 and i had english lessions since 3rd class. My “little” cousin (born 2001) had english lessions even in kindergarten. However, it may depend on the school type you’re going to. Also it depends on how you’re using your skills after school. I at least read and listen a lot to english. However, I never actually speak it, so my pronunciation is really bad 😅 Others may use their english skills more often - or not at all.