Swenglish

It's amusing to think how ignorant I was in my former assumption that English is the so-called 'international language' and in order to survive on a cross-cultural basis, one should know how to speak it.

After talking in Swedish with a Hungarian girl in my class, who was a physics teacher in her homeland, I was quite surprised to discover that she could not speak virtually any English. At first I was almost confused - how could someone not know English in this day and age?
I guess if I think about it, there's really no need for her to know English - once she masters Swedish she will know Hungarian, German and Swedish fluently and I'm sure her existence will go undisturbed without having to learn the Queen's language.

Then again, I think Chinese is more commonly spoken anyway.