[Verginius Rufus]

I know...I was just kidding. It would be unreasonable for a foreigner in Sweden to expect a Swede to be able to speak any foreign language beyond English, German, or French.

[Cronos]

Not so unreasonable. There is a stereotype of Swedes among most Europeans -- the English, Poles, Spaniards, Germans etc. who I've met think that all Swedes speak English perfectly with no trace of an accent and speak it as well as their own native tongue.

That's been my limited experience too, and perhaps these folks expected the same. But you are correct that one should not expect all to speak English well -- some non-English speaking Europeans who speak very good English are still embarrassed to speak to a "native speaker", thinking their English is not good enough

However, again these guys spoke English -- we don't know if they were speaking the bad English which is prevalent in Britain these days with an atrocious accent "innit?"