Asking a German if they speak English

I'm surprised she didn't correct his grammar.

"Actually you should not have used a preposition at the end of that question."

Yeah I think it's mostly a confidence thing because you don't really want to sound dumb in another language. I think anyone who's tried to learn a foreign language has come to grips with this at some point. Unless it's something that you speak in very often, you're not going to feel comfortable speaking in front of a native speaker in their language.

It's a really interesting phenomenon because I try to be respectful and I'll try and start speaking in German. If it's something basic it's fine but if it's something more complicated then we end up switching to English usually anyway. They always say the same thing, like, "Ah my English is not very good but I will try." Meanwhile their English is literally B2 compared to me A2 German.

Even though my German is worse than their English, they usually still prefer to speak in German if possible, which is understandable really.

I worked with a bunch of Russian guys that would pull this shit. One of them was a very skilled photographer and hed do these side gigs shooting weddings and whatnot, and id say "Victor, you should fuck this not worth it job and go full time as a photographer." And hed argue that he could only do Russian weddings cause his English wasnt so good. To which id say "one, there are a shit load of Russians in this county who would probably pay extra since you speak thier native language. And two, you just had a perfect conversation with me in ENGLISH!"

In western and northern Europe, both the Germans and the French are actually known for their relatively poor English compared to their neighbours 😅

This is probably more accurate

Very well, now ask the same question to a French.

tschüss

Last week I had to call a big manufacturing company in germany.. the guy on the line was ''Ich speche kein english., nein kein english!''

Like im Dutch im not prepared to go from my home language too english to german in 5 seconds.. maybe if u give me 2 minutes to prepare I could think up the 3 scentences I need in german but not on the spot like that..

Back in 2010 I spent 5 weeks in Germany so I learned just enough phrases to ensure I could navigate with some simple input from locals. Upon landing at the airport I learned how accurate this is. It may be even more accurate for me as a Canadian. In fact the whole time that I was there the only time I needed the German I learned was when at the train station there was an announcement that they changed what platform my next train was arriving at.

Idk most germans i meet donw know shit and will just keep speaking german to you even if you tell them you dont speak german. Its def more of an older generation thing though