How hard is it to travel to Germany if you don't speak German?

Question

My great grandparents came to America from Germany.
If I wanted to go visit Germany, how hard would it be to not speak German?
Do many people speak English?

Being from america, we mostly speak spanish as a second language. I could also communicate in "Span-glish". Do people speak spanish also?

Answer 1

Not hard at all.

My first time I spoke NO German and relied heavily on traslations from my friends that spoke English or used the dictionary or translator often.

Many speak English but they will respect you more if you try to learn some of their basic language. Trust me. After 18 years I speak it well enough to now have small conversations and I only learned by being there.

get books, a translator and immerge yourself into it and learn as much as you can and use it as often as you can while there in shops or restaurants. It will get easier and easier.

Enjoy. You are better speaking English than Spanish to them in my opinion.

You could just speak English and never use German but personally I think you should learn enough to get buy and understand signs and such as your menu!!

Have fun.

Answer 2

We just got back from Frankfurt, traveling also to Heidelberg and to a small town called Ilshofen. In the bigger cities English is spoken and the Germans are very helpful if you can't figure things out. In Ilshofen which is a small town, there is no English. You will need some basic understanding of the words that can get you around and order from the restaurants. But we had no problem with English in the cities and people were more than helpful with the subway and train systems. In the hotels everyone spoke English and again were very helpful. But we were mostly in the larger city environments. You would find this to be true in most European countries. Small towns are just not going to have the use of the language in the same way. There is no spanish in Germany and I have no idea what Spanglish is so I am clueless as to what language you are talking about there. Europe is Europe. You are either speaking the language of the country or English. Bone up on basic Germam as you should with any country you are visiting and try to fit in. It's important and they will respect you for trying.

Answer 3

It's easy. Many Germans speak some level of English, with the single exception of the former East Germany, but even there enough people can communicate, and virtually all the folks in the tourism industry speak some English. More people in Germany speak English than Spanish.

That said, in general you should never decide to go somewhere JUST based on language. It is easier than you would think to communicate without a common language, and requires only a little bit of adventurousness to get beyond that. Buy a phrase book and do your best. It is worth it for the great experiences you have.

Also, it is always most polite to try to communicate to some extent in the local language, even if your knowledge is limited to Bitte, Danke, Sprechen Sie Englisch? and Bitte, wo sind die Toiletten?

Answer 4

It is very easy to move around Germany if you do not speak Deutsch. You only really need to learn a couple of phrases to get around. They are; Do you speak English (sprechen sie Englisch), to pay (zahlen bitte), restroom (Toilette), no German (Kein Deutsch). These are only a few. Usually if you ask if they speak English or say that you do not speak Deutsch they switch to English. In Europe it is not uncommon for people to speak several languages. So if one person does not speak English just go to the next. If you are going to places tourist usually visit, you will not have any problems. One suggestion if you are renting a car, get a GPS. The auto bahn is very different from our highways/freeways. If you make a mistake if can be up to 20 k before you might be able to turn around. The GPS systems over there are great. You can plug in sight seeing, hotels, gas stations or anything else you might need. It has saved me more than a couple of times when I was driving over there. Also know that the dollar is worth very little in the rest of the world. The Euro is kicking our butt.

Answer 5

All children learn English in school. Many Germans are fluent in English. English has almost the same status in Germany that Spanish has in the USA. (The difference is that there are no Spanish-speaking immigrants, Germany's immigrants speak mainly Turkish, Kurdish, Russian, Arabic or other languages.) Other foreign languages that are taught in school are French, Russian and Latin, sometimes Spanish, Italian or Dutch. But if a German speaks a foreign language well it will likely be English.

So yes, it is very easy to travel in Germany if you speak only English.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Germany#Talk

Get a good guidebook like the Lonely Planet Germany or the Let's Go, Rough Guide or similar. Cost of travel in Germany is roughly 50 EUR ( http://www.xe.com ) per day and person if you do it super-cheap, staying in hostels and buying your food from supermarkets. Cost of flights across the Atlantic varies between 600-1000 USD, with 800 USD being a good average. http://www.ltu.com has some of the cheapest flights from the USA to Germany. Another possible option is to fly into London ( http://www.flyzoom.com ) and connect from there to Germany with a budget flight.

Answer 6

As a tourist it is not so hard - just avoid asking in the streets the older generation, they may be willing to help you but they don't speak english, you have better chances with the younger generations. Anyway, in big hotels, restaurants and such they do speak english (not the bus drivers though).
The only problem will be that , even in cities like Berlin, 99% of museums have descriptions of their exhibits only in perfect german and rarely can you find an english guide book. But this should not deter you. Just try to say a couple of words in german, like guten Tag, Danke etc to show that you are not just an arrogant only english speaking tourist.
Of course, it is another story if you intend to mix up with german friends; no matter how friendly, sooner or later they will convert to german between them and you will end up wondering what they are talking about.

Answer 7

Not many people speak Spanish in Germany, but English. They start to learn with 3. grade English as a second Language. So there is any problem when you visit Germany.

Answer 8

Hello, you will not have any problems to speak with German people if you are not able to speak German. It`s right that all children learn English at school. They have to practice it minimum 5 years at every school type.
If you would like to be prepared a bit in our language try this website > http://www.dict.cc/?s=übersetzen&failed_kw=übersetzten <. You can put in any English word and you get a lot of possibilities of the common/ current uses from the word you gave in.
But the best of all is....you can "hear the pronunciation"....only click on the little loudspeaker next to every word.
Have fun with it. I wish you a wonderful and eventful trip to and in our country Germany.

Answer 9

Hi from Germany.

No, most people in Germany still don't speak Spanish, although many go to Spain on vacation.

But you'll have no problems speaking English, and if you acquire some words of German, the better. But there's no absolute MUST for you to even learn one word. I simply think that you might just WANT TO.

Answer 10

If you speak with Peoples they are over 20 years old its okay. The most People cant speak American Language but English very well.