I've pushed it even harder with a gTLD ('.jetzt' -> 'now' in German). My email looks like ${firstname}@${some-german-word}.jetzt and I never had a problem with German speaking people. Ok, some people, especially state officials, are asking if it's a joke, because they never heard about gTLD's, but it's pretty rare.

I wouldn't use it outside of German speaking regions and that's why I still have a ${lastname}${firstname}@gmail.com address.