I A FRENCH person who is able to have a proper chat in English, but apparently, I am one of few. According to Jakub Marian‘s map of the percentage of people speaking English in the European Union, only 39% of French people can hold a conversation in English.
In most European countries, English is a compulsory subject in school, yet, when surveyed by the European Commission in 2012, many Europeans self-reported a poor command of English. This is especially true of countries in Southern and Central continental Europe. In Nordic countries, The Netherlands, and Austria, however, the numbers are very high.
