the fact remains that much of the business, political and academic communication between 2 or more coutries is invariably conducted in english, being able to communicate sufficiently in english is therefore of greater importance to many than it is for the british to achieve similar levels in foreign language
Na ja....the most spoken native language is German and you can bet that business partners in the Swiss, Germany, Austria, Netherland, Belgium, Liechtenstein etc. speak german between them.
They have to resort to english when speaking with Brits or Americans because those barely speak german, it's a matter of necessity.
vistawide.com/german/why_german.htm
1. German is the most widely spoken language in Europe.
More people speak German as their native language than any other language in Europe. It's no wonder, since Germany's 83 million inhabitants make it the most populous European nation. But not only the residents of Germany speak German. It is also an official language of Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein. And it is the native language of a significant portion of the population in northern Italy, eastern Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, eastern France, parts of Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Romania, as well as in other parts of Europe.