Map: Where Europeans speak English It shows that though Europeans are very widely exposed to English, there’s a stark regional divide in how comfortable people are with really using it. In Northern Europe, most people can converse in English whereas in Southern Europe they can’t. One big difference is that in smaller countries, television shows imported from the United States tend to be subtitled into Swedish or Dutch whereas in Italy they are dubbed. Subtitling turns every day entertainment into a kind of subsidiary language lesson. More goto Vox