Two thirds of the Spanish (63.1%) admitted that they cannot speak or write English, while 7 percent say they only read it and 6.4% can only writeit, according to the latest barometer for the month of February by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS).
By contrast, 23 per cent of respondents claimed to be able to speak and write English. One in four respondents acknowledged that at some point in their careers or in their studies they have felt hindered by not speaking a language.
The poll, conducted from interviews of 2,491, also shows that 8.8 percent of the Spanish are fluent in French, 1.6 percent in German, in Italian 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent in Portuguese.
The report shows that only 8.3 percent of Spanish are studying a foreign language, of which most are learning English (68.4%), followed by French (7.8%), German (5.3 %), Italian (3.9%), Portuguese (2.4%), Chinese and Arabic (1.9%). Half the people who are studying a language say it is because they need it for work, while a third states that they "like to learn languages."
One in four do not want to learn another language.
In addition, half of the Spanish state that, if given the chance, they would learn English, but 26.5 say they want to learn any language. Of those who say they want to learn other languages, for the majority it is because they like to know languages and to travel to other countries and for promotion at work.
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