William BirdwellFounder and President of Birdwell Institute

I recently had the opportunity to accompany a

group of extremely bright, highly educated,

young French professionals ages (23-26) on a

week-long professional field trip to New York

City.

New York Immersion Programs

This program included visits to

companies in their sector of activity and

consisted of a series of presentations

and debates with peers at Columbia

University.

● All students had at least 10 years training

● Most had participated in short immersions programs before

Question?

How many of the 14 participants do you think

were efficient in English?

Proficiency Rate

Of the 14 French professionals probably only

4 were really effective in English!

What is English proficiency?

For me, being proficient in English means:

● Being able to express ideas clearly with

appropriate social or professional

vocabulary.

● Being able to understand native speakers

with a minimum amount of repetition.

How is this possible?

How can so many highly educated young

French professionals be so poor at the

English language?

I have seen the overall level increase and it is

pretty safe to say that real beginners are very

rare these days. Despite this overall

improvement in English, the French are still

lagging behind almost all other European

countries.

Over the last 30 years...

English Proficiency Index

Source: http://www.ef.edu/epi/

France Ranks

● France ranks 23rd out of 24 in Europe.

● France ranks 35th out of 60 in the world.

● On the EF EPI Index, the English

communication skills of the French actually

regressed in 2012.

The French Paradox

The French realize the importance of English

in professional life, but...

They are often content with a “good-enough”

attitude.

The French problems

● The belief that “We are not good at learning

languages” is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

● They believe that language learning is an

academic pursuit, rather than a natural form

of human behavior.

The solutions

● Finding the right mix of educational resources

● Discipline, rigor, and organization

● Develop a positive can-do-attitude “Life begins at the

end of your comfort zone”

● Think of training as a financial investment and demand

a ROI from your language service provider and yourself!

Birdwell Language Training Courses

Get up to speed with the rest of your colleagues

You can read the full article here:

http://www.birdwell.fr/en/how-does-france-rank

Visit LinkedIn Profile:

William BirdwellFounder and President of Birdwell Institute

I have over 30 years experience in intercultural

management and language training in the

business service sector. I am specialized in

professional coaching, intercultural

communication and multicultural team building.

www.birdwell.fr