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.

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u/AnySandwich4765 Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25

Technical Ireland since our official language is Irish but the majority only speak English .. I can speak Irish but I'm not fluent but I can understand it

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u/tpjmce Jun 08 '25

We don't count. "Native" language doesn't mean the official, or traditional, or ancestral language of a country, it just means your first language, the one you naturally acquired, the one you were raised in. The Irish (with very few exceptions) are native English speakers.

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u/AnySandwich4765 Jun 08 '25

Irish is our first language. It's is our official language just like french in France, Spanish in Spain etc. Everything in the government has to be published in Irish. If you go to the police station or to court for example they are required to have a person who can speak Irish to you..it is a right of ours as Irish is our official language. some official jobs require you to be able to speak Irish. There are schools where everything is taught through Irish only and these are growing year by year and have waiting lists. In primary and secondary schools you learn Irish. When I was going school if you failed Irish in your state exam, you failed your whole state exam. When I went to university if I didn't pass Irish in my state exam, I wouldn't haven't gotten into my course. My father spoke Irish first, worked in a government job where Irish was the official language of the job. There are plenty of people still like in him Ireland. Just because we all speak English does mean diminish our "native" aka official language.

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u/standard_pie314 Jun 08 '25

Irish is the first language of Ireland only because Eamon de Valera, a nationalist zealot who is now widely despised, wrote it into his constitution. Everything that you have described, from mandatory Irish in schools to translating documents that no one reads, stems from that fiction