Countries which don’t prefer speaking the English Language in comparison to their mother tongue
You may be reading this article in English because it is the lingua franca (a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different. – Google) for most of the world.
However, do you know that there are still a lot of countries in our world where English is almost non-existent to the point that it is not even used as a second language?
To clear some things first, countries designate language usage on the basis of these factors
- Official language: one most used for official government business
- Regional language: one that is spoken in a limited area or territory (region or province)
- Minority language: one where it is officially designated as the working language of a specific area on the basis of cultural protection.
- National language: one that denotes the national identity of a state or country.
Now, with that explained, we come back to English. English is a really popular language across the world because of its simplicity, ease of learning and most important of all, widespread adoption across the United Nations. Some countries have English as the official language, some as the second-spoken language (Minority) and some accord it the states of national language.
However, there are some countries that have such a low concentration of English speaking nationals that English can be considered non-existent (not even a regional language) in these countries.
According to a CIA (Central Intelligence Agency, USA) report called "Field Listings: Languages.", countries that speak <=5% of English are:
- China
- Gambia (English is an official language, but only 3% speak it)
- Malawi
- Colombia
- Swaziland
- Myanmar
- Brazil
This means for example, in China with a massive population of 1.3 billion only 10 million people English speakers. That is a mere 1 in 100 coincidence.
Countries that speak between 5-10% of English are
- Russia
- Argentina
- Algeria
- Uganda
- Costa Rica
- Yemen
- Colombia
- Chile
- Tanzania
- North Korea (DPR Korea)
- Iran
- Saudi Arabia
- Peru
- Vietnam
- Turkey
- Azerbaijan
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Indonesia
These countries may have English speakers, but less than 10 per cent of the population can barely speak and understand English.
This fact is reiterated in a book by David Crystal called ‘English as a Global Language’ which highlights that though countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Croatia, Nepal, Italy, Papua New Guinea, etc. (to name a few) may not speak English as much as American countries, they have at least 1/3rd of English speakers and their official business is also conducted in English. This makes such countries more progressive in English speaking as compared to the countries mentioned in the lists above.
There is also the EF EPI or English Proficiency Index which measures countries based on their English speaking skills. There are 45 countries on this scale where at least half of the population is well-versed in English but these countries do not prefer English as a primary language (not an official or regional language). Out of these some are:
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Marshall Islands
- Barbados
- Nauru
- Philippines
- Dominica
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- Grenada
- Sweden
- Palau
- Norway
- Guyana
- Suriname
- Israel
- Singapore
- Belize
- Sierra Leone
Here is a complete list of countries and territories where English rarely figures as an official language or one which is moderately spoken and least used in official work:
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Angola
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Benin
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burma
- Cabo Verde
- Cambodia
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- China
- Columbia
- Comoros
- Congo
- Cote d'Ivoire
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Czech Republic
- Djibouti
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Estonia
- Faroe Islands
- Finland
- French Polynesia
- Gabon
- Georgia
- Germany
- Guatemala
- Guinea Bissau
- Guinea
- Haiti
- Holy See
- Honduras
- Iran
- Iraq
- Italy
- Japan
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- North Korea
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Libya
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Mexico
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- New Caledonia
- Niger
- Nicaragua
- Norway
- Oman
- Paraguay
- Portugal
- Russia
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- San Marino
- Saudi Arabia
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Syria
- Svalbard
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Togo
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Ukraine
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Venezuela
- Wallis and Futuna
- Western Sahara
- Yemen
