Originally Posted by terenz

Sorry if I touched a sensitive bone but I stand by what I said.

Most of the older persons in my GF's family (people 40+ - her and paren'ts generation) have very limited, if any, English. This is rural Austria we're talking about - not the major tourist/commercial/financial centres. You certainly don't distinguish between rural and urban. I don't doubt Austria has a good education system but you can teach a foreign language all you want but if there is no reason to practise, it becomes rusty all very quickly (much like how much French is spoken in english-speaking Canada).

As for attacks, I have come across potentially very dangerous situations due to my appearance in Denmark and the U.K. that I can recall right now. It can happen anywhere and Europe is no stranger to attacks on visible minorities.

BTW, I was in Wien only last month.