Efficiency over Language-Empathy or Vice Versa?
First of all, as a German asking fellow Germans, I'm asking this question in English in order to include even those who're still learning our language, yet feel free to answer in German if you want to - so haben manche vielleicht die Gelegenheit etwas zu lernen.
And that's what my question is about: Why does our culture differ so much regarding the responses toward even only slightly imperfectly speaking German-learners? I also speak Spanish and Dutch and have been improving my Italian and Portuguese - all that with native speakers. My personal experience is that cultures in which these languages are spoken tend to be far more forgiving towards beginner level learners and far more appreciating and "praising" towards beginners and advanced levels in general.
An argument could be that English wasn't always an option to switch to, and their own general foreign language capabilities weren't as "diverse," so they genuinely seemed fascinated by mine (not wanting to brag) - yet, even when they did speak English on a high level, their compassion, their patience and their tolerance for mistakes was much higher than what I perceive from us Germans when talking to a learner.
Especially as a language-enthusiast I always find it heartbreaking to see when a learner actually does the effort to speak German, already feeling insecure and uncomfortable, and yet their efforts are disregarded by a simple switch into their own language or English.
Other times, there are non-german natives who have an incredibly high language proficiency already, yet German natives highlight some disregadable flaws like an imperfect pronunciation or a wrong article.
How do you guys react in these situations yourselves - openly and in your head? Do you tend to switch to English for efficiency's sake, even in casual conversations?
Do you think that my observations reflect your own?
If so, do you think this has not only to do with cultural but also historical and/or economical reasons (i.e. us being used to having many migrants who want to work here looking for better lives than back home, other than the type of migration Spanish- and Portuguese speaking countries have been having, which usually involves, as I think, less appreciation for their customs and economic prosperity).
Thanks for taking the time to read all of this! Shoutout to everyone learning German out there, viel Erfolg und viel Spaß beim Lernen! (Hope I did everything correctly. This is my first post on Reddit)