Someone’s never been to Germany. The only people I met who spoke English were a guy working in burger king who sounded like the terminator, and a baked teenager.
The 10 phrases I remembered from highschool did a lot of heavy lifting.
Yeah in my experience pretty much everyone under the age of around 40 in any major city speaks English there. Cities like Berlin sometimes it seems like half the people there don’t even speak German haha
Yeah that makes sense, that’s right about when they started teaching English in schools from grade school on. That’s why everyone under 40 tends to speak great English but over 40 and it’s hit or miss.
Zeuthen was technically in the DDR but it’s also a satellite city of Berlin, so I’d expect more English proficiency. Even if you go to the most provincial shit kicker town in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland every homeless alcoholic or heroin addict is at least bilingual but my experience in Germany was that outside tourist traps you’d be lucky to get a couple of sentences out of anyone.
Huh. Literally everyone we interacted with in Germany spoke English. They’d start speaking it to us before even trying German - apparently the smiling is a dead giveaway that we were Americans and they all clocked us immediately.
One museum staffer looked at us when we came in and said, “American?” before we even spoke, so yeah, pretty much. She wasn’t rude about it, she could just tell.
I’m in the middle. I’ve been to Germany a couple of times, met plenty of English speakers, met plenty of people who had to endure my Dutch-infested attempt at German, and one lady who spoke no English but was born in France so had to endure my by then atrophied schoolboy French.
I was in Austria and had very little problem finding people who spoke English, except for the housekeeper for when I needed extra towels, she didn’t speak a word.
Someone’s never been to Germany. The only people I met who spoke English were a guy working in burger king who sounded like the terminator, and a baked teenager.
The 10 phrases I remembered from highschool did a lot of heavy lifting.
Sounds like you visted a rural area maybe in the former GDR? Definitly not a normal expirence.
Yeah in my experience pretty much everyone under the age of around 40 in any major city speaks English there. Cities like Berlin sometimes it seems like half the people there don’t even speak German haha
When I lived there in the 80s to mid-90s most people I encountered didn’t speak much English. I’ve heard it’s different nowadays.
Yeah that makes sense, that’s right about when they started teaching English in schools from grade school on. That’s why everyone under 40 tends to speak great English but over 40 and it’s hit or miss.
Zeuthen was technically in the DDR but it’s also a satellite city of Berlin, so I’d expect more English proficiency. Even if you go to the most provincial shit kicker town in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland every homeless alcoholic or heroin addict is at least bilingual but my experience in Germany was that outside tourist traps you’d be lucky to get a couple of sentences out of anyone.
Huh. Literally everyone we interacted with in Germany spoke English. They’d start speaking it to us before even trying German - apparently the smiling is a dead giveaway that we were Americans and they all clocked us immediately.
Yes, we Germans never smile. That’s an unambiguous hint you’re from far away
One museum staffer looked at us when we came in and said, “American?” before we even spoke, so yeah, pretty much. She wasn’t rude about it, she could just tell.
Americans are always obvious.
Scowl… when in… Germany. Noted!
I’m in the middle. I’ve been to Germany a couple of times, met plenty of English speakers, met plenty of people who had to endure my Dutch-infested attempt at German, and one lady who spoke no English but was born in France so had to endure my by then atrophied schoolboy French.
I was in Austria and had very little problem finding people who spoke English, except for the housekeeper for when I needed extra towels, she didn’t speak a word.