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Realized 99% of all my chargers are USB-C. This can only mean one thing. New USB bout to drop! (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] 80 points 1 year ago (27 children)

Dear Europe. Please take me in. Do you have any English speaking countries? Your laws seem to be geared towards benefiting people. Not tyrants and corporations.

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  • [–] 50 points 1 year ago* (11 children)

    I think the Netherlands has the highest amount of L2 English speakers.

    In the Netherlands, the English language can be spoken by the vast majority of the population, with estimates of English proficiency reaching 90%[1] to 97%[2] of the Dutch population.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_the_Netherlands

    It's not the official language though so all documents and legal stuff would be in Dutch.

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  • [–] 36 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    100% of Irish people can speak English and do so without sounding as ridiculous as the Dutch do.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    :(

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago*

    It’s not the official language though so all documents and legal stuff would be in Dutch.

    Well, sorta.

    If you're an immigrant there, the Vreemdelingen Politie and other authorities specifically dealing with immigrants will send you the documention in English if you prefer.

    Also banks will communicate with you in English if you want.

    However, you can forget all about getting anything in English from, for example, the local authorities.

    Mind you, it's actually fun to learn Dutch IMHO, though I wouldn't recommend reading official documentation as the best way to do it ...

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Europeans from which country get upset when they hear their fellow countrypeople speak English poorly?

    Was it Germans, because there’s compulsory English education in schools?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Ime, Germans love shitting on other Germans’ English skills. I’m an English (and German) speaking immigrant in Germany, and I honestly think most people do pretty well, but nobody here finds it as impressive as I do.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I'm moving to Sweden soon, just about everyone there speaks English! And also Swedish is such a a pretty language I'm really excited to be immersed in it

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Can confirm, took me way too long to become fluent in Swedish because I just talked English with everyone 😅

    I definitely recommend practicing the language though, it's very important for social interactions, official stuff, and many careers.

    Välkommen!

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Tack ❤️ About how long did it take you to become fluent?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I'm definitely a big outlier, I was always pretty bad at foreign languages in school, and I was in a very english-heavy daily environment. I have social anxiety too so I just switch to English whenever I'm worried I'll say something wrong.

    I studied Swedish in an international gymnasium and then barely passed Svenska som andra språk III in Komvux during the first 3 years I lived in Sweden and I would say I was at a B1 level after that. I went to English-language university and worked in IT afterwards so I wasn't speaking Swedish on a daily basis, just some jobs where we would have the occasional Swedish meeting or I would send some emails in Swedish. After 10 years though I got a Swedish-language government IT job and my Swedish has improved a ton in just a few months. Nowadays after 11 years I'm definitely a C1 or C2. I might trip up and sound foreign on some complex topics, and I definitely still have an American accent, but I basically speak like a native. But yeah, it is very rare to not be able to speak English with someone on the street, but of course, it is important to learn Swedish to make social environments, paperwork, and work easier.

    I would say Swedish is probably the easiest foreign language to learn as an English speaker. The sounds are quite straightforward or can be approximated, the grammar is super simplified and nearly identical to English, and most of the vocabulary are cognates with English. A lot of words can be verbified or adjectified so the vocabulary comes quick. Both Swedish and English are germanic languages with tons of French loan words so the overlap is huge.

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  • [+] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Is housing shit because the homes need repair? Or are they shit because a single room shack is owned by corporate interests and costs 8 billion dollars a month?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    The best way to learn a language is through immersion. Honestly I feel like it would be a lot of fun to learn a language in Europe since the majority of people also speak English well if you really need to fall back to that.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Lucky for you, you can get around with English in most places.

    Ireland didn't leave the EU, so that's an option.

    In most big cities you can get around just fine. In some you can actually live very comfortably.

    As far as laws go, as an EU citizen one is entitled to communication with any public institutions one may come across in their preferred "official language". Stuff like paying your utility bills, registering health insurance, similar bureaucratic stuff, as well as getting stopped by the police. You can insist on doing it in any one of 28 languages, including English.

    Usually that's a bit overkill, and whoever you're dealing with will be happy to speak to you in English or find someone else who does if they don't. I assume the same goes for non-citizens. German and French are also quite popular, but English is by far the most ubiquitous.

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