Dear Jonathan, My rough impression (you don't expect someone's able to give you figures any close to exact, do you?): In younger generation (from early post-elementary-school age to about 25) it may be about one half in average. Then it's declining with increasing age giving perhaps 10% of average in total population. The rate is probably higher in large cities, especially Prague; I'd say 20% combined and 30% in Prague. One question, however, is how much English the people speak. A lot of 30+ age group folks who have learnt English have never reached a higher than elementary level and their practical abilities to communicate in English are poor. The same sometimes applies to younger Czechs as well. Maybe the rate of those false beginner students of English is far higher than I indicated above. I imagine the situation is very similar in other post-communist East European countries including former East Germany. Jirka Bolech
I have found some figures, but it is just a "public opinion research", so a bit unreliable, and more than one year old (8.2003): Number of foreign languages spoken: 0 - 27,5 % 1 - 35,5 % 2 - 24 % 3 and more - 13 % Foreign language spoken: German - 40,7 % Russian - 29 % English - 27 %
