No quieres aprender un lengua? I get it, you just want an easy vacation. It's also the same reason why I keep daydreaming about Fiji beaches.
At any rate, I hope you just don't turn up in Tokyo or Istanbul without some type of phrasebook or brushing up on some survivalist language skills. An English proficiency index released three months ago actually shows you where you can probably get by based on the kindness of strangers. Other places? Well, they just probably won't understand you.
The English Proficiency Index from Education First actually gathers it data from about 1.7 million people over a period of three years through a series of free English tests. Yup, someone actually tests this kind of stuff, and it's not just so you can plan your next vacation.
I've listed out the top 25 English speaking-countries below, in order, and bolded countries who designate it as an official language - though that doesn't seem to indicate anything about how well they speak it. Chances are, if you don't see it, on the list, the country you're looking for might have a low proficiency level in English. The full report can be found here.
Now, just a word here: this doesn't include other English-speaking countries like Australia and the UK. That would just be silly.
Very High Proficiency
- Sweden
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- Finland
- Norway
High Proficiency
- Belgium
- Austria
- Hungary
- Germany
- Poland
- Czech Republic
- Singapore
- Malaysia
Moderate Proficiency
- India
- Switzerland
- Slovakia
- Pakistan
- Spain
- Portugal
- Argentina
- South Korea
- Japan
- France
- Italy
- Hong Kong
