What are some things about Europe that you don’t like?

Honestly, this is a minor one, but sometimes it irks me.

Europeans are too damn good at speaking English, and they’re way too willing to speak it to me.

Last year, I was at a Starbucks in Germany, because I’m spiritually a white girl trapped in a white guy’s body. I love Starbucks so much. And I wanted to try and order Starbucks in German, because it’s polite to speak the language of the country you’re in.

I’m half German, and I speak German at a 2-year-old’s level, because that’s when my family stopped trying to teach me German, and switched to English instead. I’ve halfheartedly tried to learn it again, but with limited results.

Anyways, I went up to the Starbucks counter, and tried to stutter out my order.

“Hallo, ähm, kann ich bitte Kekse und Sahne haben…”

“It’s okay sir, we can speak english…”

That was kind of embarrassing, because it made sense. I was kinda relieved that I didn’t have to stumble through the rest of my cookies and cream frappucino order.

But that’s the problem. There’s little to no incentive to learn the language, especially if you don’t live there, or if you’re living in an ethnic community of other people who don’t speak German as their first language.

It’s even worse in the Netherlands. I didn’t even try learning Dutch, beyond watching some TV shows for Dutch babies with my little cousin. When I tried to say the most basic things to a cashier, she reverted to English instantly. I literally only learnt a handful of Dutch words from a two-year-old.

This is barely a complaint, because I’m literally just complaining about Europeans being too nice and accomodating to me. But sometimes I wonder if I’d learn the language faster if I had more chances to speak it.