1. South Korea has been ranked 36th out of 111 countries for English language proficiency, while Japan has been listed at number 80.
2. The list was published by education company Education First. It based its rankings on the results of more than 2 million people taking its Standard English Test or one of its English placement tests in 2021.
(1)Have you ever taken an English proficiency exam? How did it go?
(2)How is the English-language education like in Japan?
3. Countries, as well as cities, were given a proficiency score out of 800. They were also put into one of five proficiency bands, going from “very low” proficiency — or a score of less than 450 — to “very high,” which is 600 or more.
4. With a score of 537, South Korea is in the “moderate” proficiency band, being listed just below Italy, Spain, France and Ukraine. It also has the fifth highest score out of 24 Asian countries included in the report.
(1)Have you learned any languages besides English? How well can you speak them?
(2)What languages do you think are the most useful to know other than English?
5. Japan’s national score is 475, putting it in the “low” proficiency band along with countries like Turkey, Sri Lanka and Colombia. Seoul has the highest proficiency score of South Korea’s cities with 580, while Tokyo is the number one city in Japan with 522.
6. Singapore has the highest national score in Asia with 642, while it’s in second place on the global list. The Netherlands is at the very top of the international rankings with 661. The lowest proficiency score is Laos’ 364. The Democratic Republic of Congo is just a little higher than Laos with 367, while Yemen has the third lowest score with 370.
Phonetic Chart
