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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It never, never, hurts to allow folks to *invite* you to speak English, though. I think at the very least, a polite greeting in someone's language is a sign of respect.

IOW, it's not always the language. Sometimes it's the assumption.[/quote]

We have stopped asking "is English okay" when we are traveling in parts of Europe where everyone speaks English because it feels a little silly, but we always say hello, good-bye, and thank you in the native language as a sign of respect, as PP says.

To OP's observation, I think it's long been true (or at least the last decade) that English is the default language in countries where the native language isn't widely spoken outside the country (e.g., Slovenia, Hungary, Denmark), and less so in France, Germany, Austria, etc.  But I did notice when we were in Austria last summer that there seemed to be much more default English than the last time we were there before the pandemic.     [/quote]

I agree—it’s important to be attuned to the local culture to determine how much they want/care about your speaking the local language.

We were in Paris and Amsterdam recently, and my observation was that in most places in Paris conversations still started in French, and they seemed to appreciate the effort/greeting in French and acknowledgement that my French was not good; they would switch to English without concern. At a bakery I stood in line behind someone who started in English, and the person behind the counter was less friendly to her than she was to me after I started speaking in French. That said, I do think Paris has changed significantly on this front; when I was last there 20+ years ago, the shift to English was not nearly as universal or easy.

In Amsterdam, where English is so widely and fluently spoken, the effort to start in Dutch didn’t seem necessary or appropriate. The use of English was so broad that when we went into one store and were mistaken for Dutch we sort of froze because to that point no one had spoken Dutch to us before; the salesperson smiled and switched to English immediately. [/quote]

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