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interesting stats

Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 5:26 pm
by phuketrichard
do you agree?

Image

Re: interesting stats

Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 5:52 pm
by AndyKK
Asia has the largest range of English proficiencies of any region, with three countries or territories in the upper quartile of this year’s index and four in the bottom 10%.

https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/regions/asia/

Re: interesting stats

Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 8:42 pm
by cautious colin
Seems strange that Cambodia is that far behind Vietnam. I have more trouble communicating in VN than KH.

I feel the level of basic conversational English is very good in KH, but the level of fluent English is quite low. Whereas in both TH & VN there are more people that speak excellent English but less (in % terms) that can get by.

That is my very limited assessment anyway

Re: interesting stats

Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 8:53 pm
by John Bingham
cautious colin wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 8:42 pm Seems strange that Cambodia is that far behind Vietnam. I have more trouble communicating in VN than KH.

I feel the level of basic conversational English is very good in KH, but the level of fluent English is quite low. Whereas in both TH & VN there are more people that speak excellent English but less (in % terms) that can get by.

That is my very limited assessment anyway
I'm sure most people's experience on the ground would reflect that. Maybe it's a study on some more academic level, I don't know.

Re: interesting stats

Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 8:58 pm
by yongchi
According to the website linked to by Andykk, Cambodia comes in at 85 out of 88 ranked countries world wide.
I find that puzzling as well.
I didn’t dig very deep, but couldn’t find out quickly what methology they used.
Btw, I think they should have included countries where English is the native tongue as well, just for comparison.

Re: interesting stats

Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 9:39 pm
by xandreu
These stats are full of holes. Who decides what level passes as 'proficiency' and on what basis? Most of the younger Khmers in the big towns and cities can speak a reasonable level of English. I find that for a lot of them, (big generalisation coming up) they learn enough English to get by and then decide that there are more worthy things to study. There doesn't seem to a great need to become fluent in English here, but it's usually enough to have a basic conversation.

Re: interesting stats

Posted: Sat May 18, 2019 8:33 am
by phuketrichard
did anyone read at the tip of the image?

"ENGLISH PROFICIENCY"

"...they learn enough English to get by" does not meet Proficiency.
and i disagree, many places i have been in Cambodia few, if any speak any English at all and this includes hotels and gh's where you would think someone would speak..."enough to get by"

Not to play up Thailand, cause i think less Thai's spark any English at all.
Except for uni students and professionals of which there are many more than Cambodia.

Re: interesting stats

Posted: Sat May 18, 2019 11:14 am
by RobertPaulson
Any stats in ASEAN are nearly always off, In face saving cultures you rarely hear or see the truth.