Do most German people also speak English?

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treestan111

Well the new generation are all being taught English.
My dads family is German and they all speak English over there only except for my grandmother. she tries though:P

blue_daffodil2005

all pupils have to learn English at school...most learn other languages live French, Spanish, Italian oe even sinic too! Perhaps there are a few older ones who never had English at school who don't understand much German...but the German language has been overwhelmed with English words and we use more and more English vocables. I often see tourists trying to say something in German but German people usually answer in English.

Roland Â©

Yes they do

AndrÃ©

Yes most do also a lot of them speak french

Fenris Troll Ripper JPA RT ATL Â®

That varies. On a whole of the 88 or so Million that live there, a good percent do but I would not say half!

A GUESS would be maybe 30-40% max speak English well and that is a lot on perspective so you often can find people all over that can speak English. ALL 30+ of my friends speak English just some better than others.

I also learned German, not quite fluent, but enough that I can still have a conversation with some one using it. So if you are going try to learn some German regardless how many speak English.

You will probably find the age range of speakers that speak English between High school (Gymansium Level) to probably their mid to late 40's or early 50's. After that less speak English for sure and more so in the former East per say also among the older folk where more speak it in the former West.

Most are taught in school, just after not using it long enough you forget it. so those that use it and practice remain able to speak it or they become like me and forget all four years of my French basically!

Athena E

Yes, they always say "little bit" then they speak better English then I do lol but sometimes when you go to really small towns off the beaten path some older ones do not really speak very much.

Timothy S

Yes they do,

For me almost to the point it was annoying, i speak german and there were sometimes they would hear my accent and right away start speaking english. If you go away from the big cities in little towns you might have trouble, but they are teaching kids from 1st grade on nowdays over there, so even if you go to mcdonalds, you'll find someone who can help you. Just learn "Sprechen Sie englisch?"

Spitzelwesen

Yes, all pupils have to learn english at school any a lot of adults speak it, too.

Bruce T

Many Germans have studied English in school. I can't give a percentage who would actually feel comfortable speaking English, but in my travels, I did often find that I would ask a question in German and get a reply in English. In most museums and big dept. stores in Germany you can find someone who speaks some English. In rural areas and areas not frequented by tourists, you get the sense that fewer ppl speak English. It's probably easier to get around Germany speaking English (but be polite, ask if they speak English and speak slowly the same as you would in any country where English is not the official language) than for someone to travel around the US or Canada speaking only German.

down_under_lover_forever2006

It's true that kids nowadays start learning English in primary school. And they go on when changing to a higher grade then.
But it doesn't mean that they are fluently speaking as most of them don't have the practice and soon forget it.
I was 10 years old when I started which was 40 years ago. It always had been interesting for me and when I turned older I started to have a lot of pen pals from all over the world.
And I still have my pen pals but the way of communication has changed. I don't write "normal" letters any longer but emails or I chat with them which wasn't possible when I was a kid. And as I'm always practicing I'll keep it fluently.
By the way, my husband doesn't speak English.

boogie

not sure about most but people we do business with speak English

gartenzwerg8

Yes. I know for sure since I am an American student living in Germany. Every student in Germany learns English in school. Older people may however speak better English in west Germany than in the east because in east Germany, which was ruled by the Russians, they had to learn Russian and had no opportunity to learn English. Even the younger people in east Germany speak very good English though.

Sean B

Yes, they'll all say "my English is very bad" when it's infact brilliant.

I spent a while there to improve my German and the second they find out that you're British, they speak English no end - I couldn't pay them to speak German with me.

brittbrat544

as a matter of fact they do.. my finacee' is a german in germany at the moment.. and when i went to germany for high school we were required to either take english, latin from the 4th grade till the 9th then they have to choose to take french or english from the 9th till the 13th.. given that they stay in school till the 13th year. :) hope this helps so most germans speak relatively good english.

Alwin E

Just assume that they do. They'll be delighted, however, if you address them with a phrase like
"Entschuldigung, ich spreche kein Deutsch. Sprechen Sie Englisch?"
[ant-shooll-day-gung, eech spray-kay cain deutsch. Spray-can see english?]

Don't get confused by Germans who call their mobile phone a "Handy". It's the German word for it. Sounds English, but isn't.

ppiksderf

English is the most spoken language in the world and it's a Germanic language lots of English words are arrived from German and are pretty obvious and most foreign schools learn english and its in europe so i think quite alot will speak english and some know some english so they will problybe able to understand you

horses_4_life2942

Yes, children these days in Germany start to learn English when they are in about 4th grade.

IRISHBANDIT

not perfect (like me) but the most young people do.They must learn it in school.The most old germans donÂ´t speak english.

Ladyhawke

Teenagers and high educated German people speak pretty good English....especially in the cities. I find that the older, rural population don't speak English or just don't want to even try.

Alucard

Yes.
Most people have learned it in school for 5 to 8 years nowadays and since there's music and TV in English everywhere you really can't escape it. There are some older people though who can't speak much English. In the Eastern part of Germany people used to be told Russian instead of English (when it was still the DDR), so some older people never learned it at school. And then there's lots of immigrants who can speak German and their native language (e.g. Russian, Turkish, Polish, Italian), but can't speak much English.

imrealok30

German isnt what it used to be now, Now Germany has heaps of Turkish people and the most of the people speak english now well, people are learning

Katie in Germany

Most do speak some English , its a little more difficult in the old east Germany because in schools they were taught more Russian but the younger people speak well now .

Jamie

it's kinda called this:
1. GET ON UR COMPUTER
2. TYPE IN WWW.GOOGLE.COM
3. TYPE IN ENGLISH-GERMAN DICTIONARY
4. LEARN THE DANG LANGUAGE!

Bob D

Many speak some esp if they work in the hosptality industries, near American bases and more likely in the bigger cities

singh s

Vladimir ILL

Yes most German people also speak English

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