Idk what you average over, but I learned English in school from the first grade over twenty years ago. When I was done with school, I worked as a tutor for it too. At least the youth seems to be getting on with it alright, and in the IT world, a level of English proficiency is expected and in places even required. I can mix in English phrases if I can’t think of the German one and my colleagues understand me well enough.
Sure, the other person’s “better than native speakers” might be hyperbolic, but English proficiency isn’t as awful as you make it out to be.
In the particular context of a Hamburg Airport sign, I think the language requirements for working in aviation mean that anyone working there will speak English. I don’t think it’s particularly surprising that their IT system would be configured in English at an intersection between two English-heavy industries.
Eh… Not really. The average German nowadays knows a few “trendy” English words and maybe even knows how to use them correctly but that’s about it.
Idk what you average over, but I learned English in school from the first grade over twenty years ago. When I was done with school, I worked as a tutor for it too. At least the youth seems to be getting on with it alright, and in the IT world, a level of English proficiency is expected and in places even required. I can mix in English phrases if I can’t think of the German one and my colleagues understand me well enough.
Sure, the other person’s “better than native speakers” might be hyperbolic, but English proficiency isn’t as awful as you make it out to be.
In the particular context of a Hamburg Airport sign, I think the language requirements for working in aviation mean that anyone working there will speak English. I don’t think it’s particularly surprising that their IT system would be configured in English at an intersection between two English-heavy industries.