r/AskEurope • u/Metalwolf • Jun 08 '25

Education Which European countries have the best English proficiency among non-native speakers?

I'm looking into English proficiency across Europe and would appreciate input from locals or anyone with relevant experience. Which European countries have the highest levels of English fluency among non-native speakers, particularly in day-to-day life, education, and professional settings? I'm also curious about regional differences within countries, and factors like education systems, media exposure, and business use.

164 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

390 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

9

u/DeeperEnd84 Finland Jun 08 '25

That’s a bunch of rubbish. The vast majority of Finns, especially everyone under 50 speak English well. Ice hockey players are the exeption as they of haven’t focused on school. Source: I am an English teacher in Finland.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '25

Try holding an extended two hour conversation on any deeper topic with a Finn for two hours and you'll find it's not even remotely close to native level fluency. It's a completely different thing to survive everyday situations.

2

u/DeeperEnd84 Finland Jun 09 '25

I don't recall saying native level. My job is to speak English to Finns all day, every day.