Stefan wrote:

They rather are disgusted by people walking in and boldly starting to
chatter English and expecting everybody to understand them. It often
helps a lot if you start by modestly asking whether somebody understands
English.

Right. My comment was made under assumption that all normal requirements for
politeness and civility have been satisfied. So, factoring in what you've
just said, I can rephrase it: even though you're starting out by modestly
asking if somebody understands English, in many cases you'll find that people
are being reluctant admitting their English abilities in an attempt to avoid
having to communicate with you in English and show their bad pronunciation and
grammar mistakes, and if you leave them no other choice, they can be quite
irritated, and much less helpful than you could expect had you spoken their
native language.

Andrey



Stefan