I too spend a lot of time in Germany and with german contacts over the net. Most of the techie contacts I have through work understands english fine and also wr

I too spend a lot of time in Germany and with german contacts over the net. Most of the techie contacts I have through work understands english fine and also write and speak good english. The people I meet socially and in stores are a completely different topic. They have no reason to learn english because they have no contact what so ever with the language. Ten years ago you would be hard pressed to find youth that would speak english but because of internet I guess that has changed. I don't have so much contact with people below 25 any more. I assume this is also very different depending on area and your social level in society :-)