Posted in English language, Spanish learners















What other reasons might there be for Spanish struggling with English?

Are Spanish poor at English or is this a myth?



32 thoughts on “5 reasons why Spanish are bad at learning English (according to some Spanish friends)

  1. Do you mind if I quote a few off your articles as long as I provjde credit and sources
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  2. No necesitamos hablar inglés pues el idioma nuestro tiene mucho peso internacional al contar con unos 500 millones de hablantes con quienes comunicarnos. Aunque no doblaran en España no significaría que de repente hubiera más personas que hablaran inglés pues hay muchos programas de televisión de países como Italia, Francia, Austria y claro también de América, Claro que si uno quiere aprender este idioma que se apunte a clases pero ingleses, dejad ya de tratar de convencernos que para salir adelante el inglés es imprescindible que eso es mentira.

    1. Buenos días, Felipe:

      Lo de su comentario “…pero ingleses, dejad ya de tratar de convencernos que para salir adelante…” etc, pues sólo quería preguntarle – ¿Se refiere a los escoces, galeses, irlandeses (del norte) y desde luego a los angloparlantes del EE.UU. también? Era sólo pregunta.

      (No iba a mencionar los Australianos ni los neozelandeses tampoco, aunque supongo que Ud. sabrá que en el continente de Oceanía es el idioma inglés que se habla por la gran mayoría.)

      1. Nací en Filipinas y estoy superorgulloso de no saber ni una puñetera palabra de inglés. Trabajo en el mundo de los negocios y contrato intérprete cuando voy al extranjero así de fácil. Los anglos sois unos arrogantes e insulares. Después del Nerita seguro que no encontráis curro en España. No se os quiere nadie. Estoy harto de que digan que hay que hablar inglés para salir adelante. Mentira. Díselo a los jamaicana que viven en la miseria.

  3. I think Felipe has answered the original question very nicely. Attitude. I’ve had students tell me that they are not interested in learning English because it is the language of the “enemy”. I cut them short before they started singing “de cara al sol”!!

    1. No necesito hablar inglés y gano muy bien. Los ingleses sólo miran por sus propios intereses.

  4. The other factor involved in Spain’s poor English skills is intellectual laziness, which is part & parcel of Hispanic culture. Most Spanish speakers also have an inflated view of the importance of their own language, too. They think it is as important as English when it clearly is not. To wit: Three times more nations have English as an official — or semi-official — language than Spanish. English is also the language of science, entertainment, diplomacy, business, sports and technology. Spanish is not and never will be.

  5. There are other reasons why Spaniards are bad at learning English. One of them is that Spaniards have an inflated sense of the importance of their own language: Spanish. They say there are more Spanish speakers in the world than English ones, which is highly debatable. Even if true, there are 2 billion people in the world who have English as a first, second, or third language. I doubt there are even 700 million people with Spanish as a first, second or third language. English is the world’s only truly global language whereas Spanish is nowhere to be found in Asia, Australia or Africa — 5 billion people right there. Also, English is the language of academia, science, technology, entertainment, business, international sports and diplomacy. Spanish is none of those. So when a Spaniard says to a non-Spanish speaking tourist, “You should learn Spanish!” — that Spaniard is wrong for four reasons: 1) Tourists are spending money in Spain and should be served in English. 2) In Europe today, those who cannot speak English are considered either uneducated or perhaps old. 3) For every one person in the world learning Spanish, ten are learning English. 4) Spanish is not a global language. English is.
    Yes, I know Hispanic culture is intellectually lazy and not goal oriented. Still, there is no excuse for Spain’s
    poor English skills.

  6. ANYONE HEARD ABOUT THE TENERIFE AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT ? The worst in the aviation history up to this date.One of the main cause is the language barrier. The Spanish ATC controls the airport and two English speaker pilot (one dutch but can speak decent english) collided

  7. Unfortunately, so many years under Franco and very little immigration until the 1990s have contributed to Spain remaining a surprisingly culturally isolated country. As you commented, English is seen as a requirement for graduation, an imposition, a way to get extra points in order to get a job, but it’s not understood as a way to expand your acess to resources, knowledge, information, varying world views and perceptions of reality that would otherwise not be available to you. It’s unfortunate, but it does explain why many students and teachers prefer to focus on form.

  8. Why do people in the education business excel at never calling a spade a spade? Hispanic culture is many things — and one of the aspects is intellectual laziness. That is why native Spanish speakers are poor at learning anything. It’s why if America/the U.S.A. had been a Spanish-speaking nation, it never would have landed a man on the moon.

    1. ¿Qué dices conacho? Si los españoles fueron los primeros en circunnavegar el mundo más el real de a ocho fue la primera moneda mundial. No tengo nada en contra de los inglesiños pero no todo el mundo necesita hablar idiomas extranjeros.

  9. The reason Spanish people cannot learn English is because they do not listen and they think they’re always right. I have taught so many Spanish people and they talk over you 90% of the time and in the remaining 10% of the time, they answer questions that you didn’t ask. Why? Because they don’t listen. When you correct them, they absolutely hate it, because their horrendous grammar just has to be correct.

    1. Hi, Ana. I was going to suggest maintaining one’s patience and moderation, always giving the student the benefit of the doubt etc. until I reminded myself of the comment by Felipe R.P. above.

      Certainly, active listening is a SKILL which needs to be learnt and practised. There are many people (not just of Spanish nationality) who do not listen; they merely wait for *their* turn to speak.

      Some of the feeling you express certainly resonates; though, in fairness, I do have some students who even said once in a class discussion that they dislike the (largely Spanish) habit of interrupting. These students are well-educated people who are working towards professional careers.

      Oh, mustn’t forget: I agree in that if you’ve ever watched the constant interruptions on programmes like La Sexta Noche (Saturday nights), it’s very wearing.

  10. All I know is that if you put a typical Asian in an EFL classroom with a typical Spaniard, the Asian
    will always learn English 5 times faster than the Spaniard — or Mexican, or Dominican, or Puerto Rican, etc. Intellectual laziness is a strong part of pan-Hispanic culture. P.S. Don’t expect a Spaniard to ever win a Nobel Peace Prize for science.

    1. Or a peace prize for … peace (like it?) and quiet. Have you watched them all interrupt each other on La Sexta Noche?

      Yo creo que deberíamos dirigirnos al Felipe Robles Perales (May 2, 2017 at 8:03 pm) y lo de “No necesito hablar inglés y gano muy bien. Los ingleses sólo miran por sus propios intereses.”
      – ¿Y qué? ¿Su actitud más follonero y sus ingresos son vinculados, o algo? ¡¿Usted no mira nunca por su propio interes?!
      (apart from his other ramblings.)

      I’d suggest his supposed level of income is IN SPITE OF not being able to speak English – NOT BECAUSE of it…

    2. That’s an absurd generalization, I speak english fluently and I’m from Argentina. But now that we are at it, do you know how many native english speakers I know that can pull off a decent spanish avoiding that thick and embarrassing accent they usually have? none, zero. Never met one.

      1. It’s unclear to whom Emilio was replying (above) and which part of the thread he considered to be an “absurd generalisation”. However, how many fluent hispanohablantes do we know (and the Argentinians are no exception) who finish their words properly — so English speakers don’t have to work hard when we’re trying to understand whether it’s the past or the future they’re talking about? Doesn’t everyone get fed up of how they can’t say would, world and word, not to mention ‘bear it in mind’ instead of inadvertently mentioning walls and wool, or beer and mine?

        As you got me started: if you want “thick and embarrassing” accents, try watching this (if you can put up with it for long enough!) …


      2. Mark – My comment was addressed to Chris, and had you taken a second to read it would have been more than evident, Chris accused all spanish speakers no matter the country of having a bad english and being slow learners, ridiculous assessment. I don’t understand how you couldn’t contextualize my comment on your own. And on the other hand… you put an old Spanish man who was born during World War II as an example of bad pronunciation? And he’s supposed to represent all Spanish speakers in the world? Give me a break. Quite a few things have change for the new generations in case you haven’t noticed, the learning technics and tools have improved enormously, an so has our learning curve. But I don’t know why I bother with you I’m not surprised at your behavior at all. I’ve seen many anglo speakers mock foreigners about this kind of thing and then you think to yourself, man most of you don’t speak any foreign language at all, how come you get to criticize others that have worked their asses off to actually accomplish something.

      3. I don’t think you need to lecture us about working hard, Emilio. Although many English speakers don’t speak much Spanish, yours is also a sweeping generalisation by any stretch of the imagination — some of us DO. In fact, I happen to know several British and American people (and some of other nationalities) that are bilingual or have gone out of their way to learn and speak Spanish. Many of us still get treated as idiots by brainwashed shop assistants when we go to buy bread, no matter how well we speak the language, have Spanish partners, etc. THAT is what is *really* embarrassing.

        Movong on, we’re all probably aware of the latest learning methodologies and tools, which help motivated learners (of whom you may well be one). However, there are still plenty of lazy people of ALL nationalities.

        By the way, I don’t know why I’m bothering to reply either! Must be a love of languages ;-]

        Finally, you may find it helpful to read up about comma splice errors and follow the advice at this URL: — as well as a punctuation guide, although at least you had begun to use capitalisation of nationalities and languages (Anglo-…, English, Spanish, etc.) a little more in your last missive. Paragraphs enhance readability, too.

        Off to work… in a language-related job.

  11. I think one of the main reasons is the phonemic orthography of the language. For example you only have five vowels, and five sounds for them. Spaniards cannot even hear the sounds they don’t know, let alone pronounce them.
    Ask a Spaniard to pronounce the following words: chip, ship, sheep and cheap, have fun!

    1. Indeed, then there are the /i/ vs /i:/ — “Chips are cheap” and “Is it time to eat” are others.

      Not to mention “The world of work”, “Under the table”, ‘bar’ vs ‘path’ (or “paff”), “I won’t want to walk to work”, etc. They usually start talking about walls and wars… you must have noticed! 😉

  12. Chris, I am Spanish. After being living in 4 different countries (now in the UK), I do speak 4 languages in addition to my 3 degrees. I can assure from my 57 years pinnacle that it is nothing related to how lazy a person is. It is only related to the style of life. I know many retirees living in Spain and after 10 years they do not speak more than a few words in Spanish. Isn’t it lazy mentality? It is always easier to mention the others’ defects, but when I read comments like yours, I can only see prejudices and ignorance. Also, it is impossible to compare behaviours in a global way. Have a good day.

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