Do people in Germany speak English?

In Germany, students start taking English in fifth grade because of the widespread use of English in business discussions. While different people have different levels of expertise, it is easy to find people in Germany who speak English.

Because of the elevated exposure to English, many Germans have greater expertise in it than Americans do in the foreign language that they studied. Many times, if a German claims to speak a little bit of English, that means that he has a working knowledge and can manage most basic conversations, only needing help with some of the more rarely used words.