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this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Don't know about other countries, but in Norway you always have the option of getting websites and government information in English. Everyone speaks it including cashier's, cleaners etc.
The same thing is not true in Germany and Spain.
Dutchie here, we do the same. Everybody speaks (some form of) English, almost everything is also available in English.
This is true but also keep in mind that Dutch is still leading in most cases. E.g. if you have a contract that's both in English and Dutch, if issues arise the Dutch translation will usually be the one that is followed
Sint Maarten should check-in and tell us about the English-Dutch separation and the class system it all but foments. It's 90% fascinating if 10% disappointing.
The Dutch speak better English than some parts of England.
My experience is purely based on Germany and I hate it even as a native. Plus having ADHD and paper being a chore doesnt help at all...
Also most folks (in my experience of south west Germany) of age >40-50 have little experience with English and can't converse beyond the most basics.
For some reason France really doesn't like giving english (or any other than french) options on their gov sites. Every other country in the eu are fine.
In France, I feel French is heavily a part of their identity; and contrary to Americans fairweather-jeering their best revolutionary ally, the French do not surrender lightly. It feels like that's the one thing even the poorest French person has, and taking away one iota of that will be met with a resistance we've learned to respect.
I would most certainly disagree that every person speaks English. Especially older people don't, but in general many people here do not speak a good english
Oh, I see that I totally forgot to mention I'm from Germany
No, pretty much anyone in Norway can speak English, some don't feel confident in their ability though. But if you ask any rando on the street if they speak English you get the answer of course ".
Scandinavia is absolutely killing it for bilingualism, among so many other ways they're killin' it -- no, really, other countries should just study them for clues in general. My experiences (just Sweden, Denmark and bonus Iceland, so far) is that they say Hej and listen for your "hello", flipping over into beautiful and perfect English without hesitation. Their language programmes are just fucking astounding, really.
Spain's fine in the touristy spots, but Spanish itself is VERY accessible as a language, so it's kinda moot like France.
In Germany I will have to rely heavily on the kindness of strangers as I will never grok the language.
They're exposed to English every day from multiple sources. You aren't allowed into university unless you can read and write English to a high level. Your text books are in English at university and classes open to exchange students are taught in English. All English media is subtitled. And school lessons in English start when they're 6. No mystery, just practice.