Yeah, not my experience with Germany and English-speaking folk. Last time I was there I had to use Google Translate and a lot of hand waving to purchase U-bahn ticket. My friend living there had a doctor downright refuse to read her results to her because she had a weird accent while speaking German.
I remember one time I was at a resort in Mexico and I asked reddit how service workers feel when foreign guests start speaking their language. Don’t remember what the hive mind said.
All I know is I asked for my drinks muy fuerte and I didn’t feel anything until I switched to cerveza. I watched them pour, I’m pretty sure the booze was watered down.
I once tried to order some drinks in a noisy bar in France. I thought I was explaining it ok but was not being understood by the girl behind the bar. It got really awkward and was making me seriously question my French (I’m English). Eventually it turned out that she was Irish and had equal but opposite holes in her own French. We had a good laugh about it and spoke in English thereafter.
Had she been Scottish tho we probably would have still been better off speaking in French.
I backed into someone in a crowded bar in Sapporo and said excuse me in Japanese and heard the same thing behind me. We both turned around at the same time and saw we were both foreigners.
One night I found this gorgeous picture of an old cobblestone pub outside a cozy village, and couldn’t tell if the tricolor hanging over the door was from Italy or Ireland until I disabled the filter.
Dutch people’s reaction is probably more of a combination of blue and pink (“Congrats, that’s cute, but why’d you put yourself through this? We can just speak English”), but most people will actually appreciate the effort and go through with speaking in Dutch if you insist.
English Brother-in-law had finally decided to learn the language after like 15 years of living there. Had just about learned enough to order the drinks and have a basic conversation.
He orders slowly. The barman looks increasingly perplexed. He finishes and looks up, proud of his first real test of Icelandic.
“Sorry mate, I dunno what you’re saying” says the barman in a thick Australian accent.
Honestly, just try English. Most small European countries speak it better than we do.
Lol I have a similar problem, I’m from Iceland but I don’t live there anymore, so whenever I go back I try to enjoy the novelty of speaking my native language as much as possible. Trouble is, almost every service worker downtown doesn’t even speak Icelandic lol
My experience in Germany is quite the oposit, they don’t wanna talk in english and will entretain your broken german unless they literally can’t unterstand you.
Even in the street I am approached in german and “I do not look german” at all.
You see, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I have internalized the complex syntactic fabrics of the english languaje but I can make myself understood and even, under good conditions take syntactic liberties to stress my points, furthermore, although my vocabulary is not as extensive as my heart deasires, I have been making great strives to make it richer and fuller.
My experience is this: In Austria they want to speak English. In Germany they want to speak German. On a Lufthansa flight it’s 50/50 whether they ask me questions in English or German.
Granted I was only in Berlin for two weeks, but all but two people I interacted with didn’t immediately switch to English if they had something to say beyond the transaction. (A bus driver and a currywurst seller, who seemed genuinely annoyed that I was a tourist)
This happens that people approach and start speaking in German, but I never had a problem that they didn’t want to speak English once they realized I dont speak german
It probably depends on where in Germany you are. One time in Berlin I started on my broken German and they reacted with a big question mark, and then back to English.
And 20-30 years ago you had to use German most places.
“Verstehe nur Bahnhof” is a common German expression to say that you have no idea what someone just said (because of jargon, or whatever), which supposedly comes from people that came to Germany and only new/understood “train station”.
Paris, they’ll pretend they don’t understand neither your English nor your 100 words of French.
Towns in the country, you meet indifferent professionalism and you kinda get by in English.
Rural areas, you encounter the greatest of enthusiasm for your knowledge of the local language, and just as well, because those 100 words are all you can rely on for the entire duration of your stay.
Depends where you go and when and for what. For most part of things I got by with my 100 words of french and English, but I avoided the touristic areas at the minimum possible.
The prejudice against learning French only applies to the French, not the lovely people they brutally conquered in Africa.
I was once at a party with a group of gentlemen from the Ivory Cost, and saying “Côte d’Ivoire? Bonjour, je m’apalle Godriq, Comment se va?” after they introduced themselves made us best friends for the evening, even through they were initially surprised and very mildly disappointed I was not a Frenchman, as my grasp of the language was those few well-pronounced phrases.
Still, a great night with them from what I remember, great people, great amounts of booze, and a great amount of French learned!
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