Get certain things wrong and he made Hitler look soporific. Certain errors saw him deduct marks left right and centre. Once got minus 29 and was still 9th out of 30. Learnt later, from his son, he was so good at speaking German colloquially he was parachuted into occupied Europe in the war. Was still under the official secrets act which pissed him off when others were writing books about their experiences. Could trace the history of German words back to when they were first used. Couldn't teach it though.
Yes. No one English should speak a foreign language. They should all understand us if we shout a bit louder. That traitorous Klopp, eh?
As most the world speaks English, no Englishman should have to learn a foreign language. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing so, so long as that language isn’t German or Arabic.
" As most the world speaks English..." Some English people don't do it too well. Most of the world doesn't speak English, BTW.
A lot more can't speak English. If you want to do business with China being able to speak the language helps somewhat. As it does if you want to work there. People with your attitude are why so many young people can uproot themselves and come and work here, even those without high qualifications, whilst our monolingual lot aren't as able to do the same and go abroad to work.
I've been working in Hong Kong and China for thirty years and I've barely ever met anyone who doesn't speak English. Obviously, after thirty years, I picked up some things and it goes down well if you do speak a bit. But my Chinese speaking ability runs to 'turn right', 'turn left', 'stop here', 'you need to make them quicker', 'the price is too high', 'no problem', 'you must be mad', 'Marlboro, red colour', 'the bill please', 'happy new year', 'good morning', 'one Tsing Tao', 'two Tsing Tao' etc (I can only remember how to order up to four, there were generally only ever four of us in a bar). Ironically, I recently did a trip to Spain visiting footwear factories and most of the people I met didn't speak English.
I have done business with China. Nothing major, outsourced a couple of jobs over there and bought some machinery and bits of tooling. All done via the English language. Their sales girls seem to be horny quite often too...
Get away from the business quarters in China and the more developed parts and they don't. A lad who used to go in my local teaches English at a private school in China. Earns over £50,000 a year. Great when he uses bars the locals use at 30p a pint. Met his Chinese wife last time he was over. Interest to get a perspective from someone living there.
Get away from the main cities in Spain, Italy, France etc and a lot don't speak English. And why should they?
Go over and meet some of the people living outside the cities and you'll find English speakers are not a majority.