As a postscript to my last blog, I note a very interesting report here measuring the English language proficiency of countries across the globe. Again, the methodology is a little unsound (anyone could enter and it was likely to be skewed to younger/better educated people more interested in testing or exploring their ability) but as the Economist blog Johnson notes, its results mirror a British Council study.
Poland comes 10th in the study, beating its neighbours the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia and Slovakia. Many of the young Polish professionals I meet are very keen to improve and refine their English (well, they wouldn't be paying for classes otherwise!) and although I've noticed that even in recent months as companies have started cutting their English language training as they look again at costs, many of the people I meet are still interested in pursuing private classes. The value of English is recognised here and [frenchbashing] unlike the French, the Poles aren't too huffy about the consequences for their own language. [/frenchbashing].
(As an aside, I disagree with the Guardian article here saying that English has failed to penetrate into Polish. Just in the last couple of days I heard a passer-by on the phone saying, "sori, sori" and in addition another girl saying to her boyfriend "bye-bye." On the tube last week, a girl leans into her boyfriend and says softly but audibly, "I love you." I hope she didn't spot my visible pleasure! I was always told the Poles were hyper-protective of their language and that if you didn't say each word in exactly the right way you would never be understood. In my experience so far this view is false, and Polish is as malleable as any other language to mistakes and new slowki).
If Poland can maintain its position as a proficient English-language country in central/Eastern Europe then it will continue to reap the benefits of being a hub and the number one destination for multi-nationals operating in this market. To link back to my earlier post, this also says a lot about the two countries' importance to each other in the coming years. In addition, of course, princes or paupers with a native tongue like I can be kept in bread and water in the process.
The interesting thing about the EF survey is that Poland has done so well; if the survey had been conducted 25 years ago, I'm sure Poland would have been right down near the bottom of any such table.
ReplyDeleteToday, Poland is ahead of France, Italy and Spain, ahead of Czech Rep, Hungary and Slovakia, ahead of Russia.
I put it down to hard work, good motivation and a desire to get on in the world.
I agree. I am constantly amazed by the work ethic of people I meet here. It's an inspiration to me to try harder at learning Polish.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree with both points in the third paragraph. I believe the writer of the Guardian article hasn't walked around Warsaw for a day. One example struck me this morning: a billboard for Play saying something "do Facebooka".
ReplyDeleteThere have been a few lazy articles over the course of the week but this was one of the worst.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting I appreciate it!