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> The person who answered couldn’t speak English. It sounds like this was the main point of failure. I’m not sure it can be considered an error in the system.

• scrollaway 2y ago
  Germany is the only country in which I’ve had 112 (emergency services) hang up on me because they couldn’t speak English. It’s worse than France in this regard.
  • jhrmnn 2y ago
    Sure, that’s bad, and a service dealing with train ticket machine failures not available in English isn’t as bad.
    • f1shy 2y ago
      Go to any museum… just brutal.
    • yxhuvud 2y ago
      Ticket machines are still something foreigners can be expected to interact and need help with.
      • aziaziazi 2y ago
        People visiting a foreign country can still expect to have to interact with local not speaking their language.
  • aziaziazi 2y ago
    Yes, but it’s still fine to have a customer service only answering in the official language. The chance are high that a random German speaks english so you’ll probably be good but if that’s not the case, blaming the company seems unfair to me.
    • kleiba 2y ago
      > The chance are high that a random German speaks English Not sure how random my selection process was, but that certainly wasn't my experience when I lived in Germany a few years ago. Maybe in big cities, yes. But even in the burbs, chances are you have to look for the metaphorical needle in the haystack to find someone speaking English. Your best bet might just be teenagers and young adults.
      • f1shy 2y ago
        Absolutely. There is a big myth that “germans (all?) speak good English“ and nothing can be further from the truth. There are good ones, sure, maybe even more percent than other places, but go out of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich… and good luck!!!
    • f1shy 2y ago
      Please look my comment to the parent comment. If you do find a german that speaks understandable english (that you can differentiate “think” and “sink” or “g” and “she” or “zoo” and “sue” then may be the arrogant crap that got my friend. For that they receive years of “Ausbildung”…
      • LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
        Jaa. Vell. Trai zamm Turkish or Arabic zen? What THE FUCK is it with the expectation that everybody has to understand and speak in-glitch? Employ a local guide. Too expensive? Bad luck. Entitled little .....
        • f1shy 2y ago
          Well... who won and who lost the war?
          • LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
            Voult juh äsk zät in China, tu?
  • f1shy 2y ago
    Yes sir. A friend of mine, the girlfriend passed out, being pregnant. In the moment of total stress, we called 112, and said “passed away“ instead of „passed out“. The guy on the other side “well, if she is dead, why are you calling?!” Very rude. He went on to explain, it was an error, an instead of just dispatch an ambulance, had to hear a 10 minute lesson in english (from a german) after which the ambulance was dispatched. When the ambulance finally arrived, she was “ok” so they had to pay couple of thousand Euros for a “negligent dispatch”… The level of arrogance and lack of empathy and service is beyond limits.
    • bmicraft 2y ago
      > When the ambulance finally arrived, she was “ok” so they had to pay couple of thousand Euros for a “negligent dispatch” That part seems really hard to believe for me. The only time you should get charged at all is for prank calling. In fact, if you call and tell them and decide you don't need EMS after all they will in fact come anyways because they need to check on every call. And you will not get charged for that.
      • f1shy 2y ago
        Believe me, it was charged. I could not believe until I saw the papers. This is noones land.
  • chgs 2y ago
    I tried speaking German to a random security guard in Arizona and he just walked off.
• eloisius 2y ago
  If I had been buying a ticket at a window from a human, there's no way I'd have handed over 50 EUR without someone understanding me. If fluency in the local language to the level that you can have a phone conversation (which is many times more difficult than face-to-face) is a prerequisite for visiting a country, you are either an impressive polyglot, or don't travel enough.
• simonask 2y ago
  In Europe in 2024, it is totally unreasonable to expect every visitor to speak the local language at a high enough level. Yes, your language is big and important, but we can't all learn all of English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Polish, which are the 5 biggest - alongside our native language. The absolute arrogance of particularly French and German speakers is staggering. All of us from smaller countries and language spheres speak at least 2-3 languages, often more at a basic level, but they scoff at anyone who visits that didn't happen to learn theirs. Contrast this with Spanish and Italian speakers, where my experience is that they are often not great at English, but very much willing to try. To add, I've also never met an American who wasn't willing to do their best to help out. When somebody is asking for help in a language you don't understand, your obligation as a human being is to do your best, if nothing else to help them find someone who does understand one of the likely several languages you have in common. Not everyone who speaks English at you thinks less of you because you aren't good at it, and everybody is just doing their best.