I spent two weeks cycling through France, and I met maybe two people that spoke English. Everyone was very nice (contrary to the stereotype) but yeah would have been tough without google translate ngl

Depends what part of France, really.

Paris: probably yes, but fuck you.

Rest of France: probably yes, but fuck you - though we'll speak it if your French is positively offensive.

Why would they speak English after going through all that effort to try to force the English to speak French

Rest of France: probably yes, but fuck you - though we'll speak it if your French is positively offensive

correction ➜ rest of france: non.

Quality.

In my experience as a substandard French speaker, the French outside of Paris (particularly in the north) will switch to English if you are positively stuck and not even a beginner at French.

However, if they get an inkling that you can or are leaning to speak la langue, then you better think fast because they will absolutely let you sink and make you dig yourself out of a problem. It's not outright shithousery, it's just tough love and I'm absolutely all for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_France
English (39%)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Germany
English (56%)

At least 81% of the German primary and secondary students were learning English as their first foreign language in 2017.

They only did that out of jealousy. Do you know how bad your language has to be to be jealous of English?

Why do we keep expecting countries to want to learn english? Novody likes Americans, and the British have kind of isolated themselves. I mean Yeah i am writing in english now because thats what i learned for a second language back then, but i dont think kids now a days need it so much.

I'd much prefer if the youth of my country was taught german or french as a second language and english as Maybe a third.

This might be interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Europe#English_as_lingua_franca

English is the most commonly spoken foreign language in 19 out of 25 European Union countries (excluding Ireland). In the EU25, working knowledge of English as a foreign language is clearly leading at 38%, followed by German and French (at 14% each), Russian and Spanish (at 6% each), and Italian (3%).

On average in 2012, 38% of citizens of the European Union (excluding the United Kingdom and Ireland) stated that they have sufficient knowledge of English to have a conversation in this language.

English has become the pre-eminent second language of Europe not in the absence of any colonial history or diaspora, but rather as a concerted effort to increase fluency in English by Europeans since the Second World War. English has become the most useful language to connect different language groups in Europe.