I was in rural Northeast Spain one time and a French lady tried to get me to help her communicate with a Spanish storekeeper. Given that I only speak bits of Spanish and basically no French, and I seemed to have to the most bilingual skill of the three of us, we had a pretty hard time communicating. I'm still not exactly sure what the French lady wanted, and my vague understanding of what the Spanish person said was, "I can't be bothered with this."
replyThe easiest place in France I've traveled as an English speaker was Nice. They all speak English well and don't seem to care if you don't speak French.
Ahh France. I was in Paris trying to order a sandwich.
I asked: "Parlez-vous anglais?"
Them: "Non!" (rudely and went back to what they were doing)
I then tried explain in my very butchered french I learned in elementary school:
"Jambon du pain et...."
And they immediately turned back with a big smile on their face:
"What would you like?"
replyIt seems the fact I knew some paltry french and I was trying was enough. A strange but nice experience.
> even if many of them know English, they'll just refuse to speak English
replyHow they keep their English speaking "in shape" then?
Who knows, I guess music, film, TV and video games, like most of us who learned English outside of English-native speaking countries. School classes helps for sure, but I'd wager most people who speak good English learned it from multimedia one way or another.
replyAlso relevant to note that some European countries dub everything while others sub. That no doubt plays a part in the population’s understanding of foreign languages.
reply> and "shortcuts" for pointing/hand-waving through what you want
To expand on this idea, there are books designed specifically for travels which are pocket sized and contain a bunch of images so you can point at what you want.