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I am surprised to find Germany that high in the rank. Outside of large international cities, and particularly in former DDR lands in my experience it is not tha
by playing_colours 7y ago
I am surprised to find Germany that high in the rank. Outside of large international cities, and particularly in former DDR lands in my experience it is not that good.
Among my neighbours, in an area of Eastern Berlin, far from gentrified places only 1-2 out of 10 adults between 30 and 50 years old can speak English fluently, half can somehow communicate.
- dmichulke 7y agoThis is relative. They're not saying "All Germans speak English well", they're saying "In average, Germans speak worse than the Dutch, better than the French and much better than Kuwaitis."
- fishnchips 7y agoMy experience as well. I visited a client in Berlin this summer. Pretty much everyone at work spoke perfect English and there were even workplace conversations in English between German native speakers, for the benefit of their international coworkers. All the usual touristy places in West Berlin were pretty much the same. I stayed in Pankow though, which is a residential area of East Berlin, and I literally wasn't able to communicate a word in English. There wasn't much sympathy or patience to be seen when I was trying to speak German either, only annoyance. Which surprised me somehow - I remember living in Denmark people were both supportive and amused when I attempted to communicate in their language.