Quite a number of members of Israel’s chareidi tzibur travel to New York, Europe and other countries where English is required. However, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the chareidi public is not in good shape at all in terms of speaking and understanding the language.
A survey conducted by the bureau shows that 19% of the chareidi public does not know English at all. This compares to 7% among the religious public, 12% from the traditional public and 5% from the secular public.
The data also show that only 18% of the chareidi tzibur defined itself as someone who knew English very well, and another 155 defined themselves as well-informed. The percentage of those who claimed to know English is medium, at 24%, and the same number of those who said their English knowledge is poor. For the sake of comparison, among the secular public, 43% said they speak English at a very good level.
The survey also shows that the higher the level of education, the better the level of English, and the level of proficiency in the mother tongue (as expressed in reading literacy) and the level of fluency in English. And to those who ask what it helps in life? It turns out that the average gross salary per hour increases as the level of fluency in English increases.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
As if they care?
Probably the same percentage of tourists from any country visiting the USA.
Better than the percentage of Americans who speak Hebrew.
Is it safe to assume that those who are unable to speak English are fluent in Ivrit?
Slow news day. Most spanish russian and french dont know english. That’s tomorrow’s article.
These people know how to be ehrliche yidden and not read these waste-of-time articles.
The author of this article must be among those “who claimed to know English is medium.”
As we all know, the goal of zionism was to make ENGLISH the language of the Jews?????????????????
Since when are we only interested in money?
Knowledge of English opens up a whole world – of tumah.
I guess YWN likes that.
For the record, i’m from England and didn’t learn English by choice.
I question this survey, the last time we were in Israel , we ventured into places where tourists didnt go and the people there who were not chraedi did not speak good english and I had to speak to them in Hebrew (Which I can speak on a OK level, but not fluent). In general the level of English in Israel IMO is quite poor compared to other coutries
not really sure what the point ywn is trying to make here….it doesn’t say it was taken from anywhere so I assume it was written by one of ywn writers…which in that case is quite shocking that such a thing would be written to bring the following idea:
“And to those who ask what it helps in life? It turns out that the average gross salary per hour increases as the level of fluency in English increases.”
that is a ridiculous statement.
1. many many stories of Jews making money without even being able to sign their name….level of education has nothing to do with prosperity.
2. mazel/money comes from hashem regardless of what language you speak in any given country.
3. Google translate anyone??
anyways this article if written by ywn just rubs me the wrong way as does a number of other articles ywn has recently decided to publish… I think ywn needs to decide wether they are catering to yeshiva world or not otherwise i could just be reading CNN for useless news.
Is the main reason YWN put this out there to explain why their (presumably Chareidi) Israel Desk’s English is so poor? I mean, seriously, guys, get a proofreader if you want to sound credible.
an Israeli Yid