I am currently reading a book which deals with the topic of how tiny nations like Denmark, Luxembourg, and Singapore have become successful and affluent over the past few decades by deploying strategic macroeconomic policies, developing industries best suited to today’s global economic needs, and cultivating a population that continues to retrain and reinvent itself.
Japan used to be highly prosperous and was the envy of many in the world economy, but its advantages have waned significantly during the past 30 years or so. Nowadays, it’s placed behind dozens of nations in global rankings of competitiveness. It’s reminiscent of the trajectory taken by Argentina, which used to be one of the wealthiest nations at the beginning of the 20th century, but has since declined into mediocrity due to bad politics and severe mismanagement of its economy.
Since I don’t know much about economic theories, I can only approach this issue from the perspective of language learning. One of the common denominators allowing the aforementioned tiny economies to thrive and prosper is a workforce that’s well versed in the English language.
I don’t believe there is anything inherently superior about English in relation to other major languages such as French and Chinese, but since it has effectively attained the status of the sole lingua franca of international commerce, proficiency in the English language has become a must in terms of being on top of the latest trends in the world economy and thereby staying competitive.
In terms of outstanding English proficiency, Nordic countries like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden come to mind, along with the Benelux countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Curious about their advanced levels in English, I asked ChatGPT about what makes people of these nations so fluent in English, and it came back with some very informative answers.
According to ChatGPT, people in these countries have more ample opportunity to consume native English content—such as TV series, movies, and novels—compared to people in countries like France, Spain, and Italy. In the former, Hollywood films are normally released in original audio with subtitles, whereas in the latter, they tend to be dubbed into the local tongue in cinemas. Constant exposure to native content allows viewers to develop familiarity with vocabulary and sentence patterns of English, leading them to consume even more content.
In another comparison, schools in the Netherlands tend to start teaching English as a subject at a younger age than in Japan, and their class hours are consistently more numerous from elementary school all the way to university level. Without even considering the linguistic proximity of the Dutch language to English, the sheer amount of English education they receive affords Dutch students an overwhelming advantage over their Japanese peers.
Much closer to home, Singapore offers schoolchildren an immersive environment in which they learn English and effectively grow up as its native speakers despite coming from households that speak Chinese, Malay or Tamil. In Singapore’s education system, English is the medium of instruction in all subjects except for the Mother Tongue Language class administered according to each student’s ethnic background.
In my opinion, most ordinary Singaporeans speak English in a form that deviates from what’s considered standard in British or American English, committing tiny grammar errors here and there, but that doesn’t prevent them from being effective communicators in English, allowing them to convey their ideas clearly to their interlocutors from around the world. This, combined with their knowledge of their respective mother tongues, put them at a great advantage in international commerce.
The success in developing fluency in English—or any other language—ultimately comes down to the amount of exposure, studying, and practice. Ignoring this rule and hoping to become fluent by some miracle is simply a pipe dream that will never come to fruition. I need to remind myself of this fact whenever I feel lost in my language-learning journey.
