How many chinese players talk english? A 100 player sample

Many players believe that we cannot communicate with chinese players with english. I like to have some data to support my beliefs, thus out of curiosity I decided to ask 100+ random players from the  中国 (china) channel about their english skills. Obviously I first asked one of them with good english skills to check my translated message. The following sentence passed the test.

Greetings, I am making a poll for my friends. I would like to know how many players know how to talk in english. Please answer in english if you understand. Thank you.

你好，我想提出一个民意调查为我的朋友。我想知道的玩家有多少人知道如何用英语交谈。如果你了解请英语答案。 谢谢。

So here are the results :

Players that answered are blurred to respect their privacy.

Grey = No answer at all

Traced = Offline when whispered

Red = No English at all or refuses to talk it

Blue = Light English skills (admits using a translator, short sentences, simple words only)

Orange = Medium English skills (full sentences, can talk about specific topics, few sentences)

Green = Good English skills (can make full sentences about many different topics, fast to answer back, can translate back and forth, curious and asking many questions)

Total

83 players whispered (+23 players offline)

33 answers (40 %) and 50 players not answering at all (60%)

17 didn’t know english or didn’t want to use it

11 had light english skills

2 had medium english skills

3 had good english skills

Thus among those that answered I had 16 players that could talk english (either light, medium or good) and 17 players that could not or did not want to. This is fairly close to 50% among my sample.

I might have gotten even more answers if my question was worded differently and with a better chinese. Maybe those that didn't answer feared the english players or believed I wanted to harm them. Maybe I have a name that sounds weird. Maybe being whispered by someone you know nothing is fishy. I can't know, they did not tell me. What I know is that among those that answered, roughly 50% could say and understand simple english. What I also know is that 60% of players whispered not answering is exactly the same as what I had got back when I asked random english players in english about the world channel. We might not be that different.

Obviously when talking with so many players it is expected that some of them behave in bad ways, which means I also got some insults from 2 players, some complaints about foreigners from another and one was trying to get money for his answers (he remained friendly when I declined his offer and wished him well). I also had mixed answers, with some saying that many of their players didn't talk English and others that basically said the exact opposite, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle. My favourite answers came from those that said they didn't know english (written in english) and then talked a bit more with me (which to me means they knew at least a bit, but maybe they were too modest).

From what I understand many of them do learn English at school, but they have few occasions to use it at all afterwards and in real life, which leads to a loss of those skills. Or they are rusty.

Anyway, I believe we can communicate with them. Many can talk english, or at least try.

I wish you well.

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