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.
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.
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).
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.
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 …
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
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?
Everyone around the world is benefiting from the EU common charger law: https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/eu-common-charger-rules-power-all-your-devices-single-charger-2024-12-28_en
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.
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!”.
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.
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).
And Cyprus.
I think the Netherlands has the highest amount of L2 English speakers.
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.
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 …
100% of Irish people can speak English and do so without sounding as ridiculous as the Dutch do.
Well kinda
:(
Chin up, Nederlander. I don’t think you’re ridiculous.
:)
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?
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
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!
Ireland, but housing is shite right now.
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?
housing is shit because there is no houses
Oh, thats ok. I can just live with you. I’ll sleep in the master bedroom. And you can sleep…somewhere, I imagine.
Ireland speaks mostly English as far as I know.
Any Scandinavian country should have a population ranging from proficient to fluent in English.