Before moving to the area once known as DDR, I foolishly thought I could manage anywhere with strong English and a good spirit. I can’t stress enough how many important lessons I’ve learned in Weimar since then. I quickly came to the conclusion that the customer servants in the area of Eastern Germany simply are not capable of speaking English. They might, or might not, understand some but they seem to possess a vigorous thrive to do just about anything rather than speak the language. At first their tendency to start pouting and/or shouting when spoken to in English seemed slightly rude, but after a careful study of their behavior I realized that interaction with foreigners simply isn’t part of their contracts. And it really makes perfect sense that attempts of communicating in the international language are met with reactions that can only be described as genuine fear. One can’t help but feel guilty after realizing that the poor lunch ladies, cashiers, tourist guides, post officers or conductors in trains most obviously aren’t aware of the lurking danger of coming across someone who doesn’t speak German when picking a trade. It is no wonder these poor victims of globalization refuse to communicate further or in some cases even feel so threatened that they just ignore their surroundings completely and back away slowly from the hazardous situation. Someone really should get round to making sure all customer servants were protected from such vile linguistic attacks.