[w1ntermute]

Yeah, it's not really accurate for the PIGS , and even in northern Europe, it's not as high as in the States.

[bdcravens]

I had to look the term up, but my first guess was correct ("Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_(economics)

[mbesto]

FYI - Another one I learned while being in Europe is FIGS, which sort of represents the "more economically developed" Euro languages - French, Italian, German, Spanish. This pretty much covers every nation you would need to speak to in order to do legitimate business in Europe. (Scandinavia generally will do business with English speakers)

[w1ntermute]

The Germans are pretty solid English speakers too. More so than the French, Italians, or Spaniards, anyway.

[pjmlp]

I live in Germany, good luck trying to speak English outside the big cities or people with lower levels of education.

Thankfully it doesn't matter to me as I speak the language fluently.

[V-2]

I was about to flag him for being offensive to Italians ;)

[forrestthewoods]

Possibly a dumb question, what does PIGS mean?

[sthatipamala]

Maybe "Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain"?

[atmosx]

Actually it's PIIGS you add Ireland to the mix and you're right.

[aditiyaa1]

Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain