How does German sound?

Well, I'm not quite sure whether one can call Old English really a form of English - it could equally stand for some old Norse, Icelandic or Gothic or old German. With my knowledge of German, I understand more of Old English texts than native speakers of English, i.e. one cannot call this English. Otherwise, we could call all Gothic and Frankian scripts German - which would mean that German is far older. But I think this would be wrong. German starts about the 7 th century - everything before is just some proto-german . I don't see why the fact that English might be older ahould explain the loss of this special distinction! Even if it's older, this difference is not a 1000 years!

It is less a question of education. There are rules of behaviour which were developed in each country and which exist for historical reasons only. In Japan it is possible to be confronted with someone who bows to welcome you and you have to pay attention to the depth. American businessmen are used to address each other with the first name and not with the second one.
To be offended by sounds of foreign languages or the different way of speaking should be quite normal. But is it overrated? Are the Germans far away from the international average and should they try to change there way of speaking?

By the way not only the Germans. Americans abroad: Excuse me , do you speak English? – should be first.