Comments ?
http://www.surinenglish.com/20090515...905151721.html

Picked out the best part:

"This is probably why the Dutch are arguably the best linguists in Europe. If you get lost abroad then ask a Dutch person; he or she is more likely to speak your language than any other nationality. "

Dont tell the wife or she will say I told you so!

That´s Irene I assume ?

err Yes!

I take it you are Dutch then???

From the expats i`ve spoken too about this, most state they either.

1) Can`t be arsed.

2) To old to learn.

Its not that Brits can`t learn Spanish, many do.

I think its a lot of media hype, I`ve met more Brits speaking Spanish than don`t.

I think a lot that move to brit populated area`s do so because they don`t need to learn.

Some of the expats i`ve met though can`t write English and wouldn`t no a noun from a past/present tense.

Know what I mean, squire??

LOL.....

Cushti or somefing lik hat!

Her indoors dont know whats I iz onerabout nows.

Innit.

You` d fink wit da slang in`t UK it ud be easy to learn Spanish slang.

In my experience, the Dutch are definitely the best linguists, no question. Exceptions there will be, but as a rule of thumb.

Ref. how can people learn a language for 5 years then be unable to order a coffee? Well Maybe that's because for the most part Spanish (which is what we're talking about) is NOT taught in UK schools - certainly not as the second language, which is - bizarrely in my opinion - French. I've gone on about this at length to anyone who'll listen, but why on earth the government doesn't wise up and change our (appalling) language tuition to
Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese & maybe Russian I do not know.
Look at the population stats.

Oh, and depending on your definition, I'm not really one of them - try my utmost when out and about, chit chat when chit chatted to, but frankly struggle to find anyone to HAVE a conversation with (partly because of fear of the speed of their Andaluz!!) never mind functioning on any kind of proper, fluent, articulate, conversational level! ----can do a good argument in a car workshop though

I suppose with UK schools its which language do you teach.

English is the largest used around the globe, Spanish is large, but as in other European schools, they only tend to stick to English as the second language.

Fiona, It must be quite daunting when some the Andaluzs speak Castelaño. We obviously get some up here on vacation and sometimes it is sooooo hard to understand them. But we get by.
We get guests from all over Spain (and this is in general) the locals from Galicia and the Basque country have the easiest Spanish to understand. Those from Asturias add endings to words so sometimes it is difficult to understand. Madrilanios (sp) use a lot of past tense so they can be quite hard. The further south the Spanish come from the harder the accent. Except the ones from The Canaries, they speak with a sort of accent as though they come from South American.
I would suggest it is the school system in the U.K. that is at fault. I along with others of my age cannot really remember being taught English grammar.

What language is that...is it like castellano