Rates of learning of different nationalities
 

Hi all,

I heard once that different mother tongue speakers learn English at much different rates due to the similarity/difference between L1 and L2. Apparently, German speakers pick up the language 5 times faster than Chinese/Vietnamese speakers.

Does anyone have any info on this or personal experience?

Re: Rates of learning of different nationalities
 

Well I would imagine that Germans or French would learn English a lot faster than Korean, Chinese and Japanese simply because we use the same alphabet.

To be honest I know quite a few Canadians that are not totally native speakers in English but can "pass" as an English teacher in Korea and although they might make a couple of mistakes here and there, they are the next best thing to a native speaker and I believe that a lot of people in Europe can speak English far better than the majority of Asians can.

Re: Rates of learning of different nationalities
 

...took me a minute there to figure you were talking about French Canadians...

Re: Rates of learning of different nationalities
 

Haha sorry I should have made that clear :)