Two Thirds of Spain Do Not Speak or Write in English
March 11th, 2010
According to the latest results from the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS), nearly two thirds of the Spanish public (63.1%) admitted that they can neither speak nor write in English.
By contrast, 23 percent of respondents claimed to be able to speak and write in English fluently, while 7 percent said they could only read and 6.4% could only write in English. One in four of the respondents acknowledged that at some point in their career, or in their studies, they felt discriminated against for not being able to speak a foreign language.
The poll, conducted from interviews with 2,491 people, also revealed that 8.8 percent of the Spanish public are fluent in French, 1.6 percent in German, 1.4 percent in Italian and 1.2 percent in Portuguese.
Other data showed that 8.3 percent of Spanish are currently studying a foreign language, of which most are learning English (68.4%), followed by French (7.8%), German (5.3 %), Italian (3.9%), Portuguese (2.4%), Chinese and Arabic ( both with 1.9%). Half the people who are studying a language are doing so because they need it for work, while a third stated that they “like to learn other languages.”
In addition, half of those polled said that, if they were given the opportunity, they would learn English, while 26.5% said they would be happy to learn any language. Of those who said they want to learn another language, the majority said it would be to help when travelling to other countries or would assist them in their jobs.
Asked about the importance they give to foreign language skills, half said it was very important, 40 percent thought it is quite important, while only 7 percent of respondents said that there was little or no importance at all in learning another language.
Eight out of ten people said that when they were aged 10 to 12 years, there was little importance given to learning languages at school. With three quarters agreeing that foreign languages should be taught at preschool or at least in primary school.
Interestingly, one third of the Spanish public admitted that that have never even visited a foreign country. Whereas, of the two thirds who have left Spain, 56.7 percent said they did so more than two years ago, 18.5 percent travel at least once a year, 13.2 percent leave Spain more than once a year and 11 per percent once every two years. The vast majority of those polled (76.8%) said that they travelled for leisure, while 14 percent do so due to work commitments.
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