Glad we are getting publicity . <| sep |> Yup . It ' s a sports game , not government policy . <| sep |> From my experience in German speaking countries and what I ' ve heard from natives , it should be pretty obvious that we aren ' t fluent as soon as the conversation begins . In most cases , the German speaker will just switch to English assuming they know it once they detect that you aren ' t speaking native German , which makes immersion difficult for native English speakers sometimes . Many times this switch to English is seen as a courtesy by the German speaker , because they assume their English is better than your German . However , if you communicate that you are trying to practice your German and want to continue the conversation in German , they will usually oblige , and often , be complimented by your attempt to legitimately immerse yourself in the culture . So you were kinda right in saying that you may probably won ' t even need to point it out . The more important thing to be prepared to say would be something to the effect of If it is not too inconvenient for you , I ' d rather stick to German for this conversation so that I can improve In most conversations , they ' ll probably simplify their German a bit if they know you want to continue in German and will almost certainly be understanding if you throw in English words when you can ' t think of the right word in German . Most people tend to be pretty understanding and appreciative of foreigners who make it clear that they are trying to actually interact with Germany ' s culture as opposed to just being a tourist .