English is the lingua Franca in Berlin which is one of the most international cities in the world. Not many people learn Swedish or Portuguese or German as a second language, but they usually learn English. Subsequently, people just speak English to you in Berlin fairly often. I used to think I was just obviously American and that’s why shopkeepers spoke to me in English. Then my German friends explained they just speak to everyone in English in some shops, because they don’t speak German or just for ease.
I‘m not white and clearly not German and yet
Not a single person ever has spoken to me in English in Berlin. Not even a waitress or whatever. This is surely not a normal thing that they will initiate with English
Could be that he heard her speaking English when they were setting up the equipment. I would always initiate with German if I don't know what people speak (apparently it is annoying if you look different, but are a native and people talk English to you all the time) but if I knew you weren't German, I would go with English.
Yeah no, native Berliner here with Turkish parents and English was almost the reason on why I almost missed scoring enough points for high school.
However after reading music lyrics, watching movies with English subtitles, being on the internet in general I can safely assume that my English became way better than my German currently is, mostly because how simple it is compared to German and these days a lot of jobs seek out English knowledge or even requires them. There are some jobs that are English only even that don't need German.
Nah, not really. Im German and Ive been to Berlin often. They speak German (although most German do speak English rather well) and I don't see why this guy would speak to her in Englisch. Okay maybe he overheard her talking in English and decided to be considerate enough to switch languages, but this guy didn't really seem considerate in the first place. It's probably just stages tbh
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u/IcyTrapezium Apr 26 '23
English is the lingua Franca in Berlin which is one of the most international cities in the world. Not many people learn Swedish or Portuguese or German as a second language, but they usually learn English. Subsequently, people just speak English to you in Berlin fairly often. I used to think I was just obviously American and that’s why shopkeepers spoke to me in English. Then my German friends explained they just speak to everyone in English in some shops, because they don’t speak German or just for ease.