A rueful but refreshingly honest reflection on the state of DF's German skillz

Let’s be honest: my German sucks arsch. All I can really do in German well is explain that I can’t speak German well, and politely ask that people speak English with me. They do, of course—everyone in this country, or at least those who travelers need to interact with—seems to have a solid grasp of the international language. It’s just a bummer that this is necessary. I’ve worked pretty hard at getting basic German down, but I just don’t have very good language skillz generally, I guess, and I pretty clearly lack the confidence that would convince people that I know what I’m doing. Also, no one I interact with seems to have any time or interest in helping me engage in the struggles that would be necessary to get to a point of adequate fluency. I get it—it’s not the job of a hotel desk worker or restaurant waitress to be my language tutor—they’re busy, and they just want to get the interaction over with as quickly and efficiently as possible. Plus, everyone here speaks anywhere from solid to perfect English, so it’s just simpler and more efficient to go ahead and use our common, fluent tongue.