language proficiency: June 16 2024

starters

oh what a beautiful sunset we have today. it was so good and striking that i had to take a second picture just to be sure that i took the best shot. i could still feel it's warmth just by looking at these pictures.

this other picture was a bit dark but highlights a different element, or does it? maybe it is just me overthinking. but this this is not the topic for today.

olive chicken segue

allow me to rewind a bit. before taking the sunset pictures, we went out for lunch at the nearby station. the restaurant was in a mall, bbq olive chicken was the name. they were selling chicken of course, different types of chicken dishes from yangneom chicken, to thai style basil chicken, to korean style bibimbap with chicken toppings, and even hainanese chicken. it was a mish mash of chicken dishes from different countries, but i ordered the original fried chicken and some cheese balls on the side.

this shop took pride in their use of olive oil for cooking. extra virgin olive oil was used as an ingredient for a healthier option. just don't mind the spelling misses, japan is quite infamous for that. and that is main topic for the day.

english proficiency

admittedly, japan is not the best in english. in fact, they are getting worse per year according to a 2023 survey conducted by the Swiss international education company EF Education First. from the 2023 result, out of 113 participating non-english speaking countries, japan ranked 87th. it ranked 14th on the first year of the study conducted last 2011; but there were only 40 countries that submitted test data. japan's english proficiency continues to fall with each succeeding year. ^source

of course i got curious of the other rankings so i looked up the original site and checked. the top countries per region were as follows:

• netherlands topped them all for both europe and the world
• singapore leads asia and came in 2nd
• south africa ranked 9th and is the leader in africa
• argentina leads the latin americas at 28th
• israel ranked 54th and is the leader for the middle east

the netherlands ranking first was not a surprise for me; english — the language — has lots of loan words from dutch after all. both of these languages are close cousins if not brothers even.

my beloved philippines ranked 20th and is the 2nd in asia. and allow me to share the complete south east asian region rankings.

• laos and brunei were not in the rankings

now, these rankings were based on free online test results from EF Standard English Test (EF SET) or one of the English placement tests in 2022. the site admitted that the sample data were self-selected and were not guaranteed to be a representative of the population, and that these results were biased to english learners as only they would take tests and would like to know their english scores. they also mentioned that only cities, regions and countries with a minimum of 400 test takers were included in the rankings. you can check more of the results and methodologies in here.

with that in mind, this ranking more likely shows the state of proficiency among english learners in each country; furthermore, it shows the state of how effectively english is taught as a second language. but english is not a priority here in japan, so it is very much likely that the true state of the general populace is much lower. that could also be true to our south east asian neighbors.

so what can we derive out of this survey?

on top of my head, this will serve as guide to travelers to other countries. to those planning to come to japan, japan will not be able to converse well in english so better prepare your online translators or elevate your gestures or miming skills. use simple words when you communicate and just lengthen your patience, it is you who came to a non-english speaking country so it is you who must learn to adjust and adapt. and this also applies to other countries on the lower ranks. that is just the reality, i don't think that is too much to ask.

but don't interpret this study as a measure of intelligence, this study is only about english proficiency. and proficiency in a language may be one facet of intelligence but english is not the standard but just one of the many languages you can be proficient in. the fact that these people are learning a second language is already amazing by itself.

as always, stay safe everyone!
AMPNG KANUNAY!

_{all content is by yours truly unless otherwise specified}

^{all photos are taken with a galaxy s23 ultra}

This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

16/06/2024

9638

Daily Activity, Gym, House Chores, Shopping

Height 168.0 cm		Weight 71.9 kg		Body Fat 19.1 %
Waist cm		Thighs cm		Chest cm