I always hear that Germans are so educated and rank so high in English proficiency. Not my experience at all.
I’ve had to help some German tourists before who came to my island, and their English sucks. Trying to tell them that there’s something wrong with their tires when they don’t even understand what a tire is in the first place is maddening. Also, having to explain directions to them when they don’t remember where their hotel is, but still don’t understand what you’re explaining to them is exhausting. They’re very unpleasant about it too, they don’t ask for your help they demand your assistance as if you were some kind of service, I’m just a random citizen.
Now, I’m not going to learn German just because these tourists come here without bothering to learn any Spanish. It’s already good enough that I speak English and French. I’m not going to learn another foreign language especially for Germans, who tend to be the type of people who are snarky and rude behind the pretense of being “straightforward and genuine”.
Where does the stereotype that Germans know how to speak English come from? Even the ones with some grasp of it have that terrible accent that sounds like a goose trying to mimick human speech but failing terribly.
My apologies for my lack of appreciation for these barbarians, living in a touristic place causes a deep tourist fatigue when they don’t even bother to do the bare minimum.
I met “some” Spanish dude who didn’t speak English well so the “average” spanjard sucks at English so you probably suck at English so that’s why they don’t understand you.
That’s how you think.
I never said we did, we’re not known to be good at English, now krauts on the other hand are falsely known to speak English very well, they don’t, they speak like they have a potatoe stuck deep down their throats.
It’s okay. The average English speaker sucks at German.
What? Germans are usually horrible at speaking English. The accent is very noticeable, the pronunciation sucks and often they’re just bad at it.
Can confirm, am German.
Older people often never learned it well enough at school or forgot it because they never used the language. And we have many old people.
Expecting a random German to be able to have a conversation with you in English is unrealistic.
Maybe it’s diffrrent because it was a port town, or because it was over 20 years ago, but when I was in Germany I only encountered one person who didn’t speak English well enough to do business with (the cell phone store clerk when I was buying a cheap prepaid phone to avoid using public pay phones to call home). And they just called their manager over, who did. 🤷♂️
Older people
it match the “asking for direction”, I don’t see a “Young” person doing this now, we just use smartphones
I am going to shoot you an unpopular answer. Did you ever consider that your Spanish accent makes it hard to understand your English when you speak? In my experience the “average Spanish person” has strong accent while speaking English. Commence the downvotes!
The average German’s English is probably better than my German, so they get a pass from me.
Sounds like the tourists you’re running into are real jerks though. Having worked in service myself, I promise you that’s not limited to a particular country.
Where does the stereotype that Germans know how to speak english come from?
The US troops stationed in Germany. I was stationed there for three years in the Frankfurt area and it was very rare that I interacted with a German who did not know how to speak English.
Is it a very small island?
Well, I am a German and I can tell you there’s lots and lots of fellow Germans who don’t speak English very well. There’s also some who do. But I wouldn’t say we’re anywhere close to some other European nations.
And a decent amount of people are genuinely straightforward. Might change if they’re on “vacation mode” though. And they feel like everyone else is supposed to serve them for 2-3 weeks?!
I just want to say there are plenty of primary English speakers who also can’t speak well or read.
:: takes out map of American South::
Germans themselves are horrible. They have somehow had every stereotype of “Europeanness” attributed to them (industrious, practical, stylish, subversive, hardworking, rational, humor, etc.) while actually having none of those characteristics. But because “French” is somehow an insult, no one wants to talk about that.
Their cars, architecture, and drinks are horrible. They’re better sellers of plastic capitalism than China.
tja
Xenophobia is a helluva a drug.
Goose trying to mimick speech
Hahahaha, oh man that’s a funny analogy
I have no comment on the rest, that was just funny
