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English is on more Czechs' lips
Study suggests it's catching up with German
For The Prague Post (January 29, 2003) Elena Kajumova and Robert Troska have different reasons for attending advanced English lessons at the ITC training center each week. Troska is an entrepreneur and a consultant on electrochemical technologies; he's keeping his language skills fresh to get the most out of the scientific seminars he attends. Kajumova, a Russian native, has worked as a journalist but is looking for a new job in an international company. The two classmates are in complete agreement that English is the language they need to speak to the rest of Europe. As the Czech Republic prepares for its accession to the European Union, expected in 2004, more and more Czechs are convinced of the need to be able to communicate with their foreign neighbors. Statistics show they are making slow but steady progress in English, the most common second language throughout Europe and the preferred language of international communication. Importance of being fluent A new study performed by the research group Universitas, in cooperation with CzechInvest, shows that while German remains the foreign language spoken by the most Czechs, English is gaining in popularity and is spoken with the greatest fluency.
The study found that 35 percent of the Czech population can speak English fluently, well or fairly well, according to respondents' self-assessments. It also found that the age group with the highest level of English-speaking ability is people between 18 and 39, suggesting that more secondary-school graduates who studied English in school are now bringing their skills into the work force. In comparison, a slightly higher number, 36 percent, of Czechs can speak German fluently, well or fairly well. The level of ability is highest among the so-called wartime generation of people over 60. Universitas found that although nearly as many Czechs speak Russian as German or English, the quality of their Russian tends to be much poorer. The low level of Russian proficiency was attributed to its being taught as a mandatory language in Communist-era schools, a requirement that rarely led to fluency among grudging students. But while one-fourth of the Czechs in the Universitas study said they had no knowledge of a foreign language, that figure compares favorably with the rest of Europe in separate research. In a study conducted last year by Eurobarometer, a research project run by the European Commission, some 47 percent of respondents throughout the EU said they spoke only their mother tongue. The United Kingdom stood out as the country with the lowest number of foreign-language speakers. According to Eurobarome-ter, the percentage of Czechs who speak English is fairly high compared with their fellow EU candidates. There are more English speakers per capita in the Czech Republic than in Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Hungary and Slovakia. But the Czechs do lag behind Estonia and Slovenia and fall far behind EU candidates Cyprus and Malta. The Eurobarometer study also confirmed that Europeans consider English a critical skill as their countries grow ever closer in their ties. While 71 percent of respondents said it is important to know at least one foreign language, nearly as many -- 69 percent -- said they believe all Europeans should learn to speak English. And many Czechs agree that English is vital. "It's impossible to find a good job if you can't speak a foreign language," Kajumova said. "And English is No. 1." The language of commerce As Kajumova notes, business is the primary field where an international language is hard currency. CzechInvest commissioned the language-skills study with the goal of giving foreign investors an accurate view of how they can communicate with their Czech partners. Pavlina Bolfova of CzechInvest says foreign companies are generally satisfied with the level of foreign-language ability in Czech companies, largely because Czech businesspeople have a high level of English skills. Bolfova confirmed that English is the language of choice in Czech companies' international dealings, even with their German and Austrian neighbors. Accordingly, most Czechs who pursue private study of English are motivated by the job market. Milada Hanza-kova, the regional director for Berlitz language schools, said that some 90 percent of those studying English at Berlitz schools need the language for work, with that number divided evenly between people who want to increase their qualifications to find new jobs and those who need better English for jobs they already hold. But Hanzakova says that a boom in language learning is yet to come. In Austria, foreign-language learning was slow until the country joined the EU, when the government began strongly promoting foreign-language skills in order to support the surge in international contacts, she says. The Czech Republic could see a similar rise in the need and demand for an international language. "The EU has not occurred to most of the students," she said. "The political news over the next year could bring an increase." The next generation Whether or not individual Czechs are thinking ahead to the nation's upcoming changes, the Czech government has an eye on the language abilities of its citizens. The Education Ministry has introduced a bill requiring primary-school students to study two foreign languages, starting one language by the third grade and the second by the seventh grade. The choice of languages is up to the students, but not surprisingly, English leads the pack, followed by German and, more distantly, French, Spanish and a few other languages. In step with the Czech Republic's increasing need to share a common language with its neighbors, the Education Ministry is even considering introducing English as a compulsory language in Czech schools. But Jaroslava Delisova of the ministry's Department of Language Education says this measure may have to wait, because limited funding restricts the number of qualified English teachers in the school system. In the meantime, the ministry is tightening the foreign-language requirements, raising the level of proficiency required of graduates. Even outside of school, some Czech youth are receiving a push toward foreign-language fluency. Hanzakova says the largest increase in English-course enrollments in the past year has been a 30 percent jump in programs for preschool children. Czech parents, it seems, are as conscious as businesspeople, educators and job-seekers of the importance of language skills in a rapidly changing Europe.
Margot Buff can be reached at
specialsection@praguepost.com
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