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.
------ polite/ good manners is spot-on, i found that if you attempt to speak the language in Andalucia, no matter how badly, they love you to bits and have a friend for life.
unfortunatly if our immigrants did similar,the same would not occur? in many cases. and as for our reputation,many of the english expect people to be able to understand them,so i think the reputation is well founded.