Do most German people speak english?

Question

I have been trying to learn German for my move there in a couple months. I was told that it didnt matter they al speak english anyway, is this true?

Answer 1

Yeah i guess mostly people can speak Little bit English

Answer 2

Most Germans can speak English because we have to learn it in school. Specially the younger people will not have many problems in talking English with you.

Answer 3

You say you are moving to Germany.  Even if this is only for a few months, you should continue with your efforts to learn enough language to survive on.  If you keep on speaking to the shop keepers and neighbours in German, they will eventually shut you off and give you bad service.  Look at it from the other end, don't you expect people who move to your area to learn to speak your language?

Answer 4

In cities you will get along with english pretty well, but in rural areas you might get a problem not speaking german - and especially talking to elderly people.

Anyway, if you're going to stay here [!! I should know what I'm talking about  ;-)  ] for longer, you need (and surely will, if you want to) learn german by and by. And if you show that you're willing to learn the language, most people will try to help you although many aren't really fluent in speaking english - they might never have practised it after learning some (Oxford)-English at school.

Answer 5

Everybody does!

Answer 6

There is a big military presence so most do speak English.  If you travel to the smaller cities away the main areas then you may have a bit of a problem.  We stopped to use the restroom once and my husband asked where the "restroom" was three times with no luck so I said "toilet" and the man smiled and pointed to the bathroom. Europe has so many languages in such a small area and with so many traveling they always find a way to communicate.

Answer 7

In almost all of the cities you can speck English and get by. I have visited every city south of Frankfurt and at the time I did not speck a word of German and I got by well. Now I am learning the language and it is not that difficult, the hardest part is the pronunciation.

Answer 8

Most under 40 years old do, yes.

Answer 9

couldnt agree more to bimbilein. When moving to another country with a different language you should speak the native language of the country, even if it is just out of politeness or for integration reasons.

Answer 10

Most of the younger people speak enough English to understand what you need. However, I do feel that you should continue to make the effort to learn the language. After all, do you like it when people in the states expect you to speak Spanish? If you are going to move here, I think that you should do your best to fit in.

Answer 11

Most speak english to some degree but some were not very good students and some left school early....best to know some german especially if you are having your hair done.....I have run into a bunch of middle age to older germans who know absolutely no english...actually it was kind of fun and funny communicating....

Answer 12

They can speak english.. but they have a very heavy german accent.. though their primary language is German

Answer 13

Most speak it very well as they have had 5-8 years of school English if among the relatively younger set. Some older people don't know it, though.

Do you me understand?

Answer 14

i went their for vacation once and most shopkeepers spoke english.and then i went to the tavern and ordered visen ]beer]thats all iwanted to learn beer beer beer. and sauages.germany has the best sauages and beer in the world.as they would say gumeatlikite  ithink thats how its spelled

Answer 15

most of them yes.... if you check british universities you will meet lots of germans, who also can speak portuguese or spanish or polish (like me;))

Answer 16

Many Germans have had 8 years of English in school.  Mostly the older Germans have not had so much English and are not fluent

When my daughter was there, she wanted to practice German, but most of the students she talked to replied in English because they wanted to practice English.

Answer 17

to tonevault: most of the over 40 aged too... and we speak french and dutch and italian and russian and ...

Answer 18

As  English is mandatory in schools and has been for a while, you will be not facing too many problems with the "younger" generations, although some might be hesitant to use their English (because they feel insecure or because they haven't used it in years). My partner (he is British, I'm German) actually found it quite frustrating because people just refused to talk German with him (I guess it was especially bad since it was a university town) and eventually gave up his idea to learn the language. Depending on how long you are there and how easily you will have access to other English natives you might want to study German to a conversational level anyway since most Germans will willingly talk English to you in shop situations or asking for the way but when socializing it is hard to find someone who would be willing to spend the whole evening talking in a foreign tongue.

Answer 19

Everyone in the world knows how to speak english DONT LET THEM FOOL YOU!