> I've heard stories of CEOs meeting with other companies where they spoke English and their German counterpart only answered in German, requiring someone who s

> I've heard stories of CEOs meeting with other companies where they spoke English and their German counterpart only answered in German, requiring someone who spoke both languages to translate for them, for example; this was such an alien concept to me that I laughed at the story, but I wouldn't ever want to work in such a situation! There's a good reason for that. If you're CEO you do not want to have potential misunderstandings because your foreign language skill is not up to C1 level. You want to be able to express yourself fluently and have professional interpreter for your target language instead of your stammering, looking for right words and generally slowing your speech just because you're not fluent.