Oddly enough, neither Switzerland nor Norway seems to have large numbers of people who want to move there to, you know, live for the rest of their lives.
Btw, we also know English rather well. If it hadn't been for those pesky Dutch we would have swept this ranking.
http://www.ef.se/epi/
However, Denmark should have had a few points taken away due to their incomprehensible language. While the Scandinavian languages are mutually understandable with only a little effort, spoken Danish is not understood at all outside Denmark. Do we make fun of this fact in Norway and Sweden. Well...
Scandinavia always seems to come out ahead in these things. In Austria we were on the bus with a young woman from Norway who said she spoke English (she did, and very well, too), German, French, and Norwegian. We didn't ask her about Danish. We Americans can't even speak our own language very well.
I recall an incident many years ago when me and some friends were approached by an American tourist who wanted directions. The guy started off with "Do you speak English..." whereupon he paused and then continued with a loud sigh "...oh, what the hell, you all do!". And who answered him if not my friend Jesper, who once had spent a year as an exchange student in Michigan.
Just about everyone we met in Austria spoke English. The only problem we had was when we went to a restaurant off the beaten path. No one spoke English, and the menu was in German. One of our group got some interesting items.
Fortunately, on our trips to Denmark (and the rest of Scandinavia, of course) everyone spoke English to us. I do remember the excellent ice cream in Copenhagen.
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Oddly enough, neither Switzerland nor Norway seems to have large numbers of people who want to move there to, you know, live for the rest of their lives.
Once Again Scandinavia Leads the Way.
Btw, we also know English rather well. If it hadn't been for those pesky Dutch we would have swept this ranking.
http://www.ef.se/epi/
However, Denmark should have had a few points taken away due to their incomprehensible language. While the Scandinavian languages are mutually understandable with only a little effort, spoken Danish is not understood at all outside Denmark. Do we make fun of this fact in Norway and Sweden. Well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk
Scandinavia always seems to come out ahead in these things. In Austria we were on the bus with a young woman from Norway who said she spoke English (she did, and very well, too), German, French, and Norwegian. We didn't ask her about Danish. We Americans can't even speak our own language very well.
I recall an incident many years ago when me and some friends were approached by an American tourist who wanted directions. The guy started off with "Do you speak English..." whereupon he paused and then continued with a loud sigh "...oh, what the hell, you all do!". And who answered him if not my friend Jesper, who once had spent a year as an exchange student in Michigan.
Just about everyone we met in Austria spoke English. The only problem we had was when we went to a restaurant off the beaten path. No one spoke English, and the menu was in German. One of our group got some interesting items.
Fortunately, on our trips to Denmark (and the rest of Scandinavia, of course) everyone spoke English to us. I do remember the excellent ice cream in Copenhagen.
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