Chinese (and other) pilots unable to speak English pose danger for air travel (CNN)

TMOliver writes:

As a group, I suspect that Scandinavians are more likely to be "effective"
English speakers than are Germans, and in my experience the Dutch are more
likely to be at least semi-fluent in English than are other nationalities.

My experience is that the Dutch are the best at English overall. Of course,
they have no choice, since nobody is going to learn Dutch. However, the
notion that everyone from the Netherlands is fluent in English is quite false.
Unless they have reason to use English regularly, their English is often very
spotty, and hardly fluent. Still, when one compares their competence in
English to that of people in many Latin countries, they shine.

S Green writes:

Actually the most populous English speaking country is India.

India is not an English-speaking country; it is simply a country in which many
people are reasonably fluent in English, which is not the same thing. The
population is primarily rural and most people do not speak fluent English, or
any English for that matter. However, English is the most popular second
language AFAIK and is widely spoken to some extent among those with an
education. It is a useful language for communication between different
segments of Indian society, since there are 15 different languages that are
widely used in the country (Hindi is about one third of the total). Native
English speakers are rare.

The greatest population of native English speakers is in the United States.
Canadians speak essentially the same English and add to this total.

Craig Welch writes:

The US is not the most populous English speaking country in the world.

It has the greatest number of native English speakers.

NotABushSupporter writes:

Wikipedia is NOT an authoritative source.

Take care never to cite Wikipedia again, then, or this statement might
backfire on you.

David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) writes:

I don't think reasonable people would consider you to have much
experience.

Reasonable people do not base such assessments on emotion.

El Maximo writes:

You despise leaving your apartment, why would anyone think you know anything
about 'interactions worldwide"?

Stephen Hawking is confined to a wheelchair; why would anyone think he knows
anything about the rest of the universe?

TMOliver writes:

Other than in South Louisiana (and then with mixed and amusing result), I
certainly wouldn't try that progression in the US (and if you think so, it's
even more obvious how "out of touch" you are.

This statement seems supremely ironic, given that I was talking about the
_entire world_ ... not just the U.S. The United States is only a very tiny
part of the world, and it is not at all representative.

Mxsmanic wrote:

David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) writes:

I don't think reasonable people would consider you to have much
experience.

Reasonable people do not base such assessments on emotion.

Absolutely right.

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Pres. Blair- May, 2007

William Black writes:

And about two thirds of them are in India...

No, they are spread around the world. Most Indians are not usefully fluent in
English.

Mxsmanic wrote:

El Maximo writes:

You despise leaving your apartment, why would anyone think you know anything
about 'interactions worldwide"?

Stephen Hawking is confined to a wheelchair; why would anyone think he knows
anything about the rest of the universe?

Maybe because he doesn't think that playing flight simulator is the same
thing as flying?

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Pres. Blair- May, 2007