Germans understand you to mean that your German is terrible, but since if you wanted them to slow down and speak clearly you would have said so, they think nothing more of it than that your German is terrible and you are surprisingly self aware for an American (or whatever you are).
too true. I'm always caught out by how direct everyone is here :) It's refreshing in a way, though it does come across as incredibly rude too.
I'm always thinking "why do you think I said that to you now?", because if someone said to me "sorry, my English is really bad" I'd respond with something like "Oh OK, I'll slow down then, or is there another language we share?".
I was brought up in England, and there it can be very rude to ask for what you want directly (usually depending on class, as most things do in English culture). So it feels very wrong to just come right out with it ;) but I'm learning.
