this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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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.
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)
Sounds like Berlin! Bit yes, most people in Berlin will speak english with you, even sometimes when you speak german.
In Berlin in particular they might not even speak German themselves...
We used to joke that most Germans don't speak English until you get them drunk, and then they are more fluent than native speakers.
Do you speak english?
A bit
How much is a bit?
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.
...
...
Dude...
Was denn?
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.
Yeah, Berlin is a diferent breed. They will speak english to you there, is quite common.
when my dad was stationed in germany all he ever learned to say was "which way to the train station?"
So he literally "only understands train station".
"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".
Germany has a very big immigrant population, so plenty of people who don't look German at all but speak fluently or even natively.
About English, they are very self-concious and they often say that they speak "a little bit" when they are for all intents and purposes fluent.
Exactly!
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.