Do many people speak english in spain?

Question

I was told by a friend that only a small percentage of spanish people speak english, is this realy true?

Answer 1

Young people do speak English, you may find people in their 40s who may not speak it because during Franco's regime foreign languages were not too popular.
During a lot of years French was the first language studied in schools, not English.

Almost all my friends speak English but I've met foreign people telling me that we don't speak too much English...

Answer 2

I think that in general, and compared to other European countries, the percentage of people who speaks English in Spain is lower. I have visited Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Budapest, Viena, Frankfurt and Paris: a high percentage of people living there speak really good English and not only in hotels or touristic places; the boy at the supermarket, the man at the ticket office at an underground station or the one at the newspaper stand, and so on.... all of them could understand and speak English quite well. The higher (geographically) the country, the better they can speak English. In Copenhagen and Stockholm I realized that they show films and series in their original English version subtitled in the native language; even cartoons!!! So people get used to a new language quite easily.
In Spain, students start studying English when they are 6 or 8; some schools include English from the first level in Primary education and some others start in the third level. Anyway, the number of students in a classroom is too high here and there are not enough native speakers assistants in our classes. That´s why our Spanish students see English as a "subject" and it makes them harder to have a motivation to study it. We have very few hours of English a week and a high number of students in the same classroom.

Answer 3

I lived in spain for a month as part of a study abroad program and met many people. In my experience, even in the cities only a minority of people speak comprehensible English. As a rule, the smaller the town, city, etc. is, the fewer people speak English. Spain is primarily a Spanish speaking country.

Answer 4

Yes, many people do speak English. Mostly the tour guides and storeowners for tourist reasons. However when I traveled in Spain 2 years ago the Spanish were more willing to help me with my Spanish when I tried to speak it, than when I just spoke English. So I would suggest knowing a little bit of Spanish, if you don't already, to help you by. Don't assume someone will speak English, particularly in stores and not-so-touristy restaurants.

Answer 5

Many do, but it is a small percentage. Yes it is true.

Spanish people speak English about as much as people from the US speak Spanish. Many have taken some in school, but are not at all fluent. There are a few people who speak a lot, including native speakers and other europeans living there.

As a tourist you will not find English speakers everywhere like you do in other European countries like Germany. But it is ok, don't sweat it. You can always find a way to communicate and find your way.

Answer 6

there are lots of people who speak English in Spain, I am an English teacher in Spain and my academy alone has 3000 students learning English, on top of that english is pretty much the choice second language in all spanish schools as opposed to French or German. Also there are probably about a Million Native English speakers in Spain with up to another Million choosing to move there in the next few years, and of course during the Summer months March to November the English speaking populationis increased further due to tourism.

I live in the City of Murcia, in Murcia Region (the Essex of Spain) and every single one of my Girlfriends friends can speak some English, enough to be understood (more or less) of course along the coasts even more spaniards speak even better English because it pays them. as a percentage I´d say yes it´s quite small, but as a percentage when considering your talking about a foreign language I´d say it´s relatively high. remember that when Franco was alive it was illegal to teach or learn English (the imperialistic Language) so anyone over 50 will not have had the opportunity to learn English at school.

In Cataluña (Barcelona ) they speak Catalan not spanish and in Pais Vasco (Basque country) Biscay and all that, they speak Basque. and lets not forget about Gibraltar

Answer 7

well, I'm Catalan and I can tell you that all depends on where are you planning to go. In Barcelona it's easy to find people (young people ) that speaks english , same in other big cities as Madrid , in the island Balears and Canarias it's easy , the rest of Spain ...maybe a 10-15 % of the people speaks a second language

Answer 8

Well many people speak English in Spain. But the mostly people speak in Spanish because it is their national language. In the U.S the national language is English and many people speak English. But they also speak other language like Spanish, Hindi and many other types so it is the same in Spain. Many people speak Spanish but I am sure you can find someone that speaks in English. Maybe 10 in 50 speak English in Spain. Remember that English is a language that many know!!!

Answer 9

i don't think so. Spain probably speaks a lot of spanish, and I don't think that they speak english because not a lot of people know it. It's hard to explain.

Answer 10

In general, the level is dire in Spain for reasons too numerous to list here. This is especially striking when you compare it to the level of English in Portugal. Now THEY really know how to speak English.