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> I don't think that's the case, especially among the younger generations which are largely English speaking and grew up with the internet. In Germany and as

> I don't think that's the case, especially among the younger generations which are largely English speaking and grew up with the internet. In Germany and as far as I am aware also in France and Spain - all three are among the largest EU countries - the younger generation is hardly largely English-speaking. Only the more educated people (who studied at a university) are typically somewhat confident in their English, and at least in these three countries English is nevertheless only used as a second/"helper" language. With UK having left the EU, the only EU countries where English is an official language are Ireland and Malta; in both of these countries English is only one of the official languages, not the only one.

Semaphor 4y ago
> the younger generation is hardly largely English-speaking I agree. While I don’t have any direct contact with younger people, our fantasy stores went from being 50/50 English/German products to having 99% in German.
- yorwba 4y ago
  That indicates that there is no strong preference of English over German, but not that the people buying German products aren't largely English-speaking. If only 20% of German speakers don't speak English, then a store can expect a 25% boost in sales by offering a German version. And assuming German-English bilinguals are indifferent to the language, there's then little reason to offer the English product anymore. It's a winner-takes-all situation. (FWIW, first-time university students have consistently made up >50% of Germans in their respective age cohort for the past decade, so most ≈20–30 year-olds are in that university-educated English-speaking group.) https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bildung-Forschung-Kultur/Bildungsindikatoren/studienanfaengerquote-tabelle.html https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bildun...
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    Point taken. Though my experience in university (2005ish) was that most people could hold a conversation, but were often struggling with vocabulary and grammar. > And assuming German-English bilinguals are indifferent to the language Well, I stopped going to those stores because I prefer English, but I’m not exactly representative ;)

Semaphor 4y ago

> the younger generation is hardly largely English-speaking I agree. While I don’t have any direct contact with younger people, our fantasy stores went from being 50/50 English/German products to having 99% in German.

yorwba 4y ago
That indicates that there is no strong preference of English over German, but not that the people buying German products aren't largely English-speaking. If only 20% of German speakers don't speak English, then a store can expect a 25% boost in sales by offering a German version. And assuming German-English bilinguals are indifferent to the language, there's then little reason to offer the English product anymore. It's a winner-takes-all situation. (FWIW, first-time university students have consistently made up >50% of Germans in their respective age cohort for the past decade, so most ≈20–30 year-olds are in that university-educated English-speaking group.) https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bildung-Forschung-Kultur/Bildungsindikatoren/studienanfaengerquote-tabelle.html https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bildun...
- Semaphor 4y ago
  Point taken. Though my experience in university (2005ish) was that most people could hold a conversation, but were often struggling with vocabulary and grammar. > And assuming German-English bilinguals are indifferent to the language Well, I stopped going to those stores because I prefer English, but I’m not exactly representative ;)