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.
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
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.
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.