Yes, we’ve all heard those embarrassing mistakes whilst ordering our morning coffee at the café bar, but keep out tongues in our heads to remain polite, but in general the millions of tourists that visit Croatia every year are greeted with a very high level of English.

English is taught from the first year of primary school across Croatia, so this good base combined with the opportunity to practise on a daily basis with tourists means that Croatians generally have a very good level of English. If you are applying for a job in tourism in many of the tourist destinations along the coast you won’t be asked if you speak English, it is simply assumed that you do.

And now Croatians have received some official confirmation of their English level with a new list produced by the World Economic Forum. Croatia has been placed in the list as “very high proficiency” and is the 14th most proficient country in the world.

English language skills, according to WEF, are declining in some of Europe's leading economies. Of the four largest European economies (France, Germany, Spain and Italy), only the Germans speak English very well and are part of the group with Croatia.

At the top of this list are the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Singapore, and Croatia is last in the group of the highest ranking.