[West Ender]

I take your point, Cashman, it happens to me in Malta - I think they feel a bit sorry for me when I try to speak Maltese (!) but at least English is their official 2nd language. It's still, in my opinion, only polite to try to learn your host country's language. Unfortunately we English have a reputation, in Europe, for being a bit slow at picking up "foreign" tongues.

I only used the Costa Brittanica as an example, however. It's a different scenario to migrating to a country where you expect yourself and your descendants to remain in perpetuity. Speaking the "lingua franca" is part and parcel of integration.