[oytis]

> she encountered barely any native speakers, and many people tried to speak English to her instead

Germans often switch to English when they hear an accent or hesitation

[dgellow]

I can confirm, that does make it pretty hard to learn if you’re in a large city where people generally speak fluent English

[nephihaha]

As I say above, I've used various tricks. Pretending to be Finnish. Putting on a very strong Scottish accent when they speak English to me. All that kind of thing.

[oytis]

You just continue speaking German to them until they give up.

[nephihaha]

You could be round all day trying to do that. Much easier to pretend you don't speak English.

[dgellow]

Yep!

[nephihaha]

I know they do and if you're trying to learn German, it's not great. But foreign residents in Germany often default to English when dealing with each other.

[oytis]

Depends on background I think. Educated foreigners will default to English, worker class would most likely speak German

[nephihaha]

Plenty of foreign workers default to broken English I notice, even among each other (if their native languages are different). This situation occurs more frequently in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands.