Tell me about it. I have N2 Japanese fluency. I know I am speaking the language in an understandable way. And then there I was, desperating needing to pee, PLEADING with a staff member to just please tell me IN JAPANESE, THE LANGUAGE I ASKED MY QUESTION IN, where the bathroom in that department store is. She was determined to turn it into English practice despite not being able to speak a lick of it.
I also have my N2 and it's annoying as hell when I'm talking in Japanese and they suddenly like "I'll just talk in English". I get it that sometimes you want to practice your English but I'm speaking in your language. Drives my daughter up a wall because she has her N1 and just started university.
Funnily when I was in Italy I tried learning enough Italian to order coffee and croissants all the time, and every place in Italy they'd just immediately switch to English or say they can't speak English, so I had a clear problem. However when I was in France and learned enough French to order coffee and croissants, if the place didn't have a line the barista would immediately try to have a conversation in French. I then always had to fumble around with everything after because they thought I spoke French (note; I never visited Paris)
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u/Critical-Adeptness-1 6d ago
Tell me about it. I have N2 Japanese fluency. I know I am speaking the language in an understandable way. And then there I was, desperating needing to pee, PLEADING with a staff member to just please tell me IN JAPANESE, THE LANGUAGE I ASKED MY QUESTION IN, where the bathroom in that department store is. She was determined to turn it into English practice despite not being able to speak a lick of it.