Foreigners in Japan have the same issue. Pretend not to speak a lick of Japanese and you'll get great service. Speak just a little and suddenly they think you can read Archimedes (or the Japanese equivalent).
My experience, everywhere in Tokyo from small restaurants to Disney, was that everyone was nervous to try to speak English with me, but willing to try. Even the waitress at one restaurant that clearly didn't speak much English.
When I tried to speak Japanese, they were delighted. My language partners have highly praised my accent, which I understand to mean that I'm not completely horrible. And I have a decent basic vocabulary and horrible grammar.
I have had some instances (both in Tokyo and with my language partners who were not in Tokyo) where they suddenly started talking way above my level, and I had to ask them to explain things, but I think that's just the weirdness of talking to a full grown adult that speaks like a child, and trying to manage that situation.
I've had the same happen (and then stop happening, to my delight) to me with English (non-native speaker with fairly strong Eastern European accent).
Thanks for that! I hadn't heard of Dogen before.
Not trying to be mean at all, but one should be careful with such assumptions, especially in a country like Japan that that abounds with social norms and codes that foreigners are almost guaranteed to get wrong.
Overall, Japanese people really are culturally and linguistically fairly isolated on their little island chain -- and they hate it. One of the upshots of this is that fluent or even conversational English speakers are quite rare in Japan; and another is that anything and anyone from "overseas" is a potential source of fascination and wonder. (A little scary, too.) So when it comes particularly to the young (< 50 y.o. give or take), as a foreign tourist you will find yourself surrounded by people mildly to extremely intrigued in making a cross-cultural connection -- seeking a "borderless feeling" -- but they have no idea how. With a bit of conversational Japanese, you can establish lines of communication with the Japanese you meet and kick off that connection process, for which they will be quite grateful.
At the very least, learn how to ask for an English speaker if one is available. I did this once in a frozen yogurt shop, and was introduced to the manager, a 22-year-old who wanted to tell me all about her time as an exchange student in California (as well as how to buy yogurt in the shop).
Of course, this was Osaka. So maybe they were just super-accommodating to me so they would get my business. (By comparison to Tokyo, Osaka is hustle town -- matters of decorum and cultural appropriateness can be put aside if it means more business.)
LOL this is my experience in Taiwan. I find my Mandarin is miraculously much better at the night markets than it is when asking directions.
Honestly I love being a poor mandarin speaker in Taiwan. I am pretty sure a good chunk of the population has better english than my mando, but if I start with madarin they will respond in kind 90% of the time. My theory is that they're happy for me to struggle with a language than to do the same themselves - fine by me, great opportunity to practice!
Relatedly, and famously, Shigeru Miyamoto takes interview questions in English and understands it fairly well, but responds via interpreter simply because the idea of people hearing him struggle with English embarrasses him.
I assumed this was because my German sucked.
Someone finally explained to me that my beginner German was fine, but most people relished the opportunity to practice their English.
I learned to just keep going in broken German, my conversation partner in broken English. For the most part, it worked.
I think he was either used to speaking English with non-Germans or just liked having the opportunity to speak English.
I just kept replying in German and he eventually switched to speaking German to me.
I've had more of this kind of experience (Me speaking intermediate Spanish, with my conversation partner speaking intermediate English) in places outside of my home area where people are more likely to speak Spanish than English on a regular basis: a range of Latin American countries that I've visited, and especially when I visited the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
The absolute worst is places where most people speak English well but some don’t at all. Puerto Rico for example. I’d start off in Spanish and get answered back in perfect English a dozen times in a row, then finally give up and just speak English to somebody. Every single time, that would be the person who didn’t understand it. And every time I’d be so flustered at having to switch back on the fly that my own Spanish would disappear.
In rural, undeveloped bits of Central America, though, I’d go weeks at a time without speaking English at all. It certainly boosts your confidence.
Same here in Sweden: I look South European, so if I speak Swedish I'm just a 'foreigner', if I speak English I'm a tourist who should be impressed by how welcoming and friendly the locals are.