Have you noticed how uncomfortable people in non English speaking countries are, when a foreigner speaks English to them. Especially in Japanese and Korean entertainment. I've also heard police in my country letting go foreigners for speeding(not too fast, just 10-20km/h over) coz they don't know English.
It must suck in their case. Imagine having to bank on your foreign language lessons from who knows how many years back to do your job
It's because people are not used to talking in English, even if they are good at reading and writing, most of the non-English people don't have opportunities to talk to others in English so when a guy shows up and try to converse with them they will get nervous, that my observation and experience. As police and foreigners part, it's pretty much a pain to deal with foreigners and police know that both the foreigner and police are not gonna get anything out of it, because most of the time foreigners are don't know the law and If you warn them then they will not repeat.
Hmph to not even know one very easy language which is also a language half the world speaks and is constantly on TV, internet and technology.
Letting people get away with speeding... aren't speed limits usually written in black numbers on a white sign or something? Even if it's not the case outside of the US... surely speed limit signs have something unique (color, shape) even in other countries, and not knowing English doesn't mean you can't read numbers...
Our cops have a quota + dashcams + bodycams so they're unlikely to let people off for not knowing English seeing as they can get in trouble for not enforcing the law. At worst they'd just call in an interpreter or another officer that speaks the other person's language (if the latter is available).
Are they? I've never been there so I wouldn't know. But if someone spoke in a foreign language to me, I'd still try to help them the best I could even if I couldn't understand them. I remember this girl from Thailand who was in my English class and I was happy to help her out. She was pretty lost.
Ikr? It's hard especially when you see them and get excited while your brain keep brainstorming things to say in English lol. This happens a lot here and yeah, we just need to learn more to understand more.