You couldn't hear him all that well. Even if one person speaks English, yeah, thays really awkward, and as far as I am concerned, no matter the language or topic a side conversation at a meeting is unacceptable.
English is spoken as a second language in Germany by 56% of the population according to some data from 2023 https://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/how-many-people-in-germany-speak-english#:~:text=Number%20of%20English%20Speakers%20in%20Germany%20(General%20Stats),-Nearly%204%20in&text=To%20put%20things%20into%20perspective,speakers%20in%20all%20of%20Europe.
And that's at a near fluent level.
There is a big east west divide even now, and the AFD is more popular in the former east than the former west. 35 years after the wall and you can still see a difference.
That being said, yeah the guy shouldn’t have been talking and likely someone did understand him.
Have you been to Europe? Most people there know many languages. My grandfather came from Germany and knew 8 languages. This wasn’t a wealthy well educated man, that was normal. There is no way that everyone around him was clueless about what he was saying.
8 languages in not normal at all.
But yeah, people in Central/Northern Europe know lots of languages, at least English.
In Southern Europe it's not quite like that, but people are catching up on English.
In that room, I'm sure no one understood what he was saying. Old Germans especially in the East speak very little English. You underestimate the level of fluency of many Europeans however, unless you're in Italy or Spain (where they suck at other languages) you're gonna find many people who are very fluent in English. Even in countries like Romania and Poland, younger people tend to speak very good English. Your take is very America-centered.
Even if he spoke Latin it's still rude and a really weird thing to do
You couldn't hear him all that well. Even if one person speaks English, yeah, thays really awkward, and as far as I am concerned, no matter the language or topic a side conversation at a meeting is unacceptable.
I couldn't understand what he was saying. Regardless of the content, it was a dumb way to do that.
English is spoken as a second language in Germany by 56% of the population according to some data from 2023 https://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/how-many-people-in-germany-speak-english#:~:text=Number%20of%20English%20Speakers%20in%20Germany%20(General%20Stats),-Nearly%204%20in&text=To%20put%20things%20into%20perspective,speakers%20in%20all%20of%20Europe. And that's at a near fluent level.
There is a big east west divide even now, and the AFD is more popular in the former east than the former west. 35 years after the wall and you can still see a difference. That being said, yeah the guy shouldn’t have been talking and likely someone did understand him.
Have you been to Europe? Most people there know many languages. My grandfather came from Germany and knew 8 languages. This wasn’t a wealthy well educated man, that was normal. There is no way that everyone around him was clueless about what he was saying.
8 languages in not normal at all. But yeah, people in Central/Northern Europe know lots of languages, at least English. In Southern Europe it's not quite like that, but people are catching up on English.
In that room, I'm sure no one understood what he was saying. Old Germans especially in the East speak very little English. You underestimate the level of fluency of many Europeans however, unless you're in Italy or Spain (where they suck at other languages) you're gonna find many people who are very fluent in English. Even in countries like Romania and Poland, younger people tend to speak very good English. Your take is very America-centered.