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I would separate the topic of language and xenophobia. The language is hard and acceptance to speak English - while generally there - is not universal. However,
by oaiey 5y ago
I would separate the topic of language and xenophobia. The language is hard and acceptance to speak English - while generally there - is not universal. However, the bubble of non English speakers, the bubble of xenophobic people and bubble of racists in Germany have not the biggest overlaps.
Native languages in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japanese or China have a very long history and the countries are very confident of themselves. A German thinks: you are here so you should speak German. Maybe I am nice and talk English to you, but I expect you to learn German if you are here. The French are even stricter on that.
- AdrianB1 5y agoTourists don't have to learn the language if they are there. I was a tourist most of my travels in Germany.
- oaiey 5y agoThey should but they do not need to. But we are talking here about some individuals being declared xenophobic because they did not want to speak English inside of Germany despite having English language capability. Germany is very welcome to tourists, but we are 80 million country where tourism is a tiny fraction of our GDP. We are not Mallorca, Ibiza or the Bahamas. There cannot be an expectation that as a tourist you have an easy way there.