ENGLISH IS TOUGH,THROUGH AND THROUGH - WE MAY HAVE THE SOLUTION, THOUGH!

Italy ranks among the worst in the EU for speaking English  - well behind countries in northern Europe and lowest in southern Europe.  On a global level Italy ranks 34^th  – with English-language skills classed as “moderate” rather than “high” or “very high”. According to this test, Italians have a moderate proficiency in the English language.

Another interesting statistic is the Netflix data that only 16% of Italian users chose to access content in English.

English can be tough for Italians, ranging from  over-pronouncing "ed" at the end of a word, mispronouncing vowels (for example, the long "ee" in "feet" like the short "i" in "fit"), or struggling to get to grips with the letter "h".

Even those who develop an excellent language level can be heard slipping Italianisms into sentences, such as "nothing" ("niente"), "in fact" ("infatti") or "you have reason" ("hai ragione").

Simply wishing someone a good day at the office (or at the “job” as Italians often call it) can become troublesome, with "good work" never used in English despite "buon lavoro" being a common phrase used in Italy.

There are many reasons for this lack of English proficiency: a lack of native-speaker teachers in public schools, lessons that focus more on memorizing grammar rules rather than speaking practice and the tendency to dub foreign films and TV shows, just to mention a few. Unlike northern European countries, in fact, in Italy films and TV series are always dubbed. Children are not immersed in a multilingual environment and perceive the English language as something distant.

First of all, we should take into consideration cultural and educational reasons of a structural nature. Italians, indeed, have never taken English seriously as the lingua franca. Until recent times, English has been a less significant school subject. Schools used to reflect this short-sighted approach, as teachers — very rarely native speakers, or even proficient — only focused on boring and dull repetitions of grammar rules, instead of improving the students’ speaking and writing abilities.

This gloomy situation also has more dire implications - the relationship of proportionality between the level of English proficiency and GDP per capita. Figures show that a better knowledge of English corresponds to a more successful national economy.

It hasn’t  always been the case, though. In fact, in other times and well before the last economic crisis, Italy represented an interesting exception, since a strong domestic demand soaked up great part of its production. Globalization and the economic collapse changed the system from within, due to the higher level of specialization needed to build up a stronger safety net, and thus due to an increasingly changing business network.

Communicating in good English has become key.

Some INEFFECTIVE attempts at coping with the problem:

-   -  Improvising and communicating in bad English. Piecing together  terribly written texts – ranging from drawing up instructions to drafting letters and emails to the more “in your face” LinkedIn profiles and incomprehensible and often hilarious posts (recently spotted: “Marry Christmas”, hopefully not to be followed by "Divorce New Year"!). 

-      Using automated translations and model document generators. This is particularly dangerous since the home-filled blanks often consist of text that is not only incomprehensible and out of context but often also incompatible with the rest of the document content. Think of the consequences if you are meddling with an official document such as an agreement!

-    Outsourcing translation. This is obviously a better option but offers little or no knowledge acquisition.

These shortcuts do not quite cut it, do they? 

Why not invest the time and effort to learn by doing, to acquire knowledge gradually with the right guidance? Ensuring not only access to the right resources to create flawless content but also gaining the skills necessary to become independent in doing so.

Contact us for a chat – we may be able to offer you a customised solution !