[allendoerfer]

> because Germans generally place low emphasis on learning other languages (just like Americans do)

I agree with everything you say, except that. Older people form Eastern Germany obviously did not learn English in school.

In Germany it is not like the Netherlands or the Nordic countries, but I would say in Western Germany you have a much higher chance to meet people who can speak English or French at a decent level than you have in France or Italy to find someone speaking English or German. And that is inspite of the German market being much bigger and people from Eastern or Northern Europe also often being able to speak German.

Of all highschool student exchanges to France or Britain I know of, the students ended up speaking the other language, not German. I remember a neighbour had an exchange student from England over at his home. He supposedly learned German in school, but just repeated his sentence "Um 5 Uhr fährt der Zug nach Berlin.". This really changed my perspective on the foreign language education in Germany.