Why some foreigners live in Germany without mastering the language

TheLocal.de ^ | 25 October 2017 11:28 CEST+02:00 | Shelley Pascual

[Olog-hai]

Debate has recently flared in Germany as to whether the prevalence of English in urban areas is a nuisance. We spoke to expats who told us why they have not learned the local language.

When Jens Spahn, a politician from the Christian Democrats (CDU), recently condemned people who live in Berlin but speak English as “provincial, elitist hipsters,” he stirred up a national debate on the importance of learning the local lingo. Spahn argued that the use of English leaves out locals who can’t speak the global language and is detrimental to other newcomers who dedicate their time to learning German. […]

Martha Numata is a registered nurse from the US based in southwest Germany who says she doesn’t feel guilty about her inability to speak German and it doesn’t hinder her at all in her daily life. Numata has been working on an American air force base in the Rhineland-Palatine city of Kaiserlautern for four years. “Most of the Germans here, they can all speak English. I see American doctors and a dentist off-base, but he speaks English,” Numata told The Local in a phone interview. […]

Anthony, a Canadian who took German language lessons when he moved to Munich two years ago, said that on numerous occasions he would attempt to speak German only for the Germans to switch to English. This led him to believe he couldn’t speak it and, in turn, made him “more lazy.” …

[Gay State Conservative]

So in Germany has it come to “Press 1 for Arabic,press two for German”?

[Gay State Conservative]

Our family once visited Strasbourg, France. No one spoke English there but German tourists.

The woman who owns the condo above me was a little girl in Strasbourg during WWII.She married an American GI and now lives here.She speaks English well but with a strong *German* accent.She's entirely French (and proud of it) but when she's visited France she's always mistaken for a German and abused by the French people.She's called "boche",the same thing that Corporal LeBeau used to say in Hogan's Heroes.