Howling Wilderness

[RN7]

Originally Posted by CDAT

Two things here and then I am done with the topic, first maybe I am the outlier but almost every person of that age and almost every WWII Vet that I have had the opportunity to spend much time around did speak at least some of their ancestral language. Second when I was in Germany (and I do not speak German) I was able to get around OK, as it was amazing to me how much I understood because English is descended from German.

I visited Germany in the late 1980's (West Germany) and in the 1990's and I had very little problem communicating or understanding signs due to the fact that (1) most West Germans under the age of 50 had either some knowledge of or could speak English very well, and (2) reading and understanding most written German worlds is not that difficult for an English speaker because as CDAT pointed out English is descended from German.