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Comment by dkjaudyeqooe | Hacker News Reader

> Europe is so heterogeneous that any claims about it as a whole are misleading at best.

I don't think that's the case, especially among the younger generations which are largely English speaking and grew up with the internet.

Also, for example, if you looked at the US in detail you'd find just as many cultural difference between individuals states, it's likely true of any large country or federation.

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> I don't think that's the case, especially among the younger generations which are largely English speaking and grew up with the internet.

In Germany and as far as I am aware also in France and Spain - all three are among the largest EU countries - the younger generation is hardly largely English-speaking. Only the more educated people (who studied at a university) are typically somewhat confident in their English, and at least in these three countries English is nevertheless only used as a second/"helper" language.

With UK having left the EU, the only EU countries where English is an official language are Ireland and Malta; in both of these countries English is only one of the official languages, not the only one.

> the younger generation is hardly largely English-speaking

I agree. While I don’t have any direct contact with younger people, our fantasy stores went from being 50/50 English/German products to having 99% in German.

That indicates that there is no strong preference of English over German, but not that the people buying German products aren't largely English-speaking. If only 20% of German speakers don't speak English, then a store can expect a 25% boost in sales by offering a German version. And assuming German-English bilinguals are indifferent to the language, there's then little reason to offer the English product anymore. It's a winner-takes-all situation.

(FWIW, first-time university students have consistently made up >50% of Germans in their respective age cohort for the past decade, so most ≈20–30 year-olds are in that university-educated English-speaking group.) https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bildun...

Point taken. Though my experience in university (2005ish) was that most people could hold a conversation, but were often struggling with vocabulary and grammar.

> And assuming German-English bilinguals are indifferent to the language

Well, I stopped going to those stores because I prefer English, but I’m not exactly representative ;)

> I don't think that's the case, especially among the younger generations which are largely English speaking and grew up with the internet.

Have you been to Europe outside of its big touristy capitals? To describe the younger generation as "largely English-speaking" is absurd. I'm from a medium-sized city in northern France. Go there and try speaking English to the young people in the street. See where that gets you.

OK, maybe I should have been a bit more specific. Most young people speak some English is what I meant, not that it was their primary language, which is obviously not the case.

I'm here in coastal Croatia and English ability is common, if mixed, with younger people being mostly proficient. Of course the French are in a class of their own when it comes to (not) speaking English, but I'd still posit there are plenty of young French people who speak or understand English to some degree. If I needed help on your streets with only English I'm sure there would be someone who would be able to help me out.

France is an exception. In most parts of Europe the young people speak excellent English or are even fluent. France takes a sort of cultural pride in the French language that other cultures don't.

I've traveled a lot in Europe. People like to harp on France, but I've found that in most countries, outside big cities, English proficiency was not widespread.

Not been my experience but I guess it depends a lot on what you mean by proficiency. Also depends where you are and who you talk to. In the Nordics I never encountered a young person who wasn't nearly fluent in English. In bigger countries like Germany you can easily find people who don't speak English but they tend to themselves be immigrants and e.g. working in shops. Germans themselves learn it in school and do better.

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