• @[email protected]
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      704 days ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        4 days ago

        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.

        • The Octonaut
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          374 days ago

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

        • @[email protected]
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          4 days 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 …

        • @[email protected]
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          44 days ago

          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?

          • @[email protected]
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            23 days 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        824 days ago

        They did have one heavily English speaking country, but those guys peaced out a few years back. Now it’s just Ireland and Malta (where English is an official language).

      • @[email protected]
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        84 days ago

        There’s good and bad. Every few months the EU tries to ban encryption without backdoors again for instance, because “oh dear, think of the children!”.

      • @[email protected]
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        23 days 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.

      • Ms. ArmoredThirteen
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        124 days ago

        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

        • Justin
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          4 days ago

          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!

        • @[email protected]
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          74 days ago

          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?

      • Coelacanth
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        84 days ago

        Any Scandinavian country should have a population ranging from proficient to fluent in English.

      • @[email protected]
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        34 days 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.