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POLES' ENGLISH COMPARED TO EUROPE AS A WHOLE? [39]
It is often said that Europe's best English speakers are in the Germanic countries (Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, etc.) and the worst ones are in the Romance-language ones (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania).
I used to work with many italian and spanish. I saw some of them years later, many who had still remained in England all that time and they still sounded like they were in the country a few weeks. Their english was still pretty bad. Even over the years working with them their english speaking skills remained static....
It's funny this has been your experience. Though I'm unable to speak of much personal experience with Spaniards, the Italians I have known have all spoken English exceptionally. Era, do you mean to say their English was truly poor, or rather that they spoke with accents? I find the musical cadence of the accent with which my Italian friends speak very nice, really. They are all Northern Italians though -- Turin, Milan, Genoa -- so perhaps there is a regional distinction with regard to how well they master English.