Announced on Tuesday, a Eurostat survey covering the year 2015 found that 84% of primary school pupils across the EU were taught at least one foreign language.
In Cyprus this was 91.2% (100% if you count 2 or more languages) with English accounting for 99.8%. Even in the EU, English accounted for 83.5% in primary schools with the next best being French at 4.8%!
Shane
Language Learning High At Cyprus Schools
Re: Language Learning High At Cyprus Schools
Merde!
Web Designer / Developer. Currently working on Paphos Life.
Living in Polemi, Cyprus with my wife and daughter.
Living in Polemi, Cyprus with my wife and daughter.
Re: Language Learning High At Cyprus Schools
They may be 'taught' a foreign language, but can they use it?
Re: Language Learning High At Cyprus Schools
Personally, most Cypriots I know have a very good command of English though I must admit I don't know many Cypriot primary school children so can't comment on them!
Shane
Shane
Re: Language Learning High At Cyprus Schools
You obviously don't live in a village, even a fairly large one. I could count the local people I deal with, with even rudimentary English, on one hand. I have a 25 y-o worker at this moment with zero English. The painter/decorator, cleaning lady and gardener ditto.
Re: Language Learning High At Cyprus Schools
Very Strange HIC after reading this?Happy in Cyprus wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:37 pm Have to agree with Devil. Once you get away from the tourist areas it's surprising how many Cypriots, both adults and kids, don't speak English. Over the decades, Cypriots schools have failed miserably in this regard. Chinese excepted, English is the predominant language throughout the World and not just in medicine, law and the arts. Any Cypriot unable to speak English travelling outside Cyprus, other than Greece, will struggle. The one thing which strikes me when I see TV documentaries made in India, the Middle East and deepest Africa is how many of the indigenous peoples communicate effectively in English.
Any Cypriot child who cannot speak English is really going to be limited as to where they can go for further studies.
http://cyprus-mail.com/2017/09/27/langu ... s-schools/
Re: Language Learning High At Cyprus Schools
It is one thing getting good marks in English in a Cypriot school. It is a totally different thing being able to hold a simple conservation with a Cypriot school-child (or adult) in English. My rudimentary Greek is better than the English as taught in the public schools, no matter how the papers vaunt their prowess. Pre-1960 nearly everyone spoke English, it was the lingua franca and brought together all the communities. However, English was dropped from public schools as a declaration of independence from the old oppressor, for donkey's years (M III made sure). Many of today's grandparents and parents never learnt a word of English so it was (and is) never spoken in the home, as it was in old Cyprus.
Re: Language Learning High At Cyprus Schools
Too be fair Devil, it was only in the late 70s that mass tourism took off over here needing locals to learn foreign language, I mix with many Cypriots and I dont know of one household that dosnt have someone who speaks good English?.
Re: Language Learning High At Cyprus Schools
You don't understand. It was nothing to do with mass tourism: it was a deliberate government policy to discourage English which is why you find more middle-aged people with a good knowledge of Russian (and possibly why Limassol understands po-russkii).
