Us Brits aren't exactly renowned for our willingness to parler français during our trips across the Channel. It's an inexact science, but while a 2014 report suggested that 54 per cent of Europeans claim to speak at least one other language, that figure falls to just 38 per cent for UK residents.

Of course we've got an excuse. The rest of the world speaks English. Indeed, as the map below shows, it is spoken by more than half the population in 45 countries beyond the UK, including The Philippines, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Singapore, Austria, Finland, Malaysia, Belgium and Greece.

45 countries where at least half of the population speak English

Barbados Ireland Marshall Islands New Zealand Jamaica Australia Nauru United States Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Dominica Philippines Palau Denmark Grenada Guyana Netherlands Sweden Norway Malta Trinidad and Tobago The Bahamas Suriname Canada Israel Vanuatu Sierra Leone Liberia Belize Singapore Antigua and Barbuda Saint Kitts and Nevis Austria Cyprus Germany Finland Ghana Malaysia Switzerland Belgium Slovenia Micronesia Luxembourg Nigeria Greece Estonia

According to David Crystal's book English as a Global Language, more than a third of residents in Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Croatia, Nepal, Latvia and Italy speak it, so you should also get by in those countries without dusting off your phrasebook (what's Nepali for "two beers, please"?).

"My hovercraft is full of eels": Beware of Hungarian phrasebooks Credit: ALAMY

But where will you really struggle? China, for one. Around 10 million people - in a total population of 1.3 billion - speak English. That's fewer than one in 100.

Don't venture too far in China without a phrasebook

It's a suprise to see that fewer than 3 per cent of folk in The Gambia, where English is an offical langauge and tourism a major industry, speak it, according to Crystal.

Colombia, Brazil, Russia, Argentina and Chile are also places where it pays to brush up on the local lingo. Figures are not available for numerous other countries, including Peru, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Vietnam and Indonesia.

13 countries where fewer than 10 per cent of the population speak English