Germanic people incline to speak English towards foreigners?

<<Some people even think pronunciation is not important, but guess what, not everyone cares enough to try decoding your (many times autistic) speech.>>

I agree with that, especially when the pronunciation doesn't make sense at all. English speaking people often have the tendency not even putting some effort in proncouncing easy vowels correcty. For instance I have often heard an anglophone pronounce "Georges Lemaître" as "Georgus Lay-meetruh". It's ridiculous. This is not a foreign accent, but a totally WRONG pronunciation that makes you sound like a retard.
Also pay attention on the intonation in sentences. You must have the feel of the language too of course.

For the rest, you'll meet people who bitch about your foreign accent, but they're the morons (so don't worry). People ALWAYS speak in their native tongue when you're fluent enough and they don't have to decipher stuff.

Also, the correlation with proficiency in English and prosperity is bullcrap. It's all about better education. Monoglot anglophones/francophones/hispanophones/germanophones of course remain lazy morons.

>>Also, the correlation with proficiency in English and prosperity is bullcrap. It's all about better education.<<

Generally ... rich countries can provide better education. If you had some yourself you would have seen/known this.

"Is it just me or do Germans tend to have notably strong accents? You can tell a German a mile away the second they open their mouth in most cases (although some are really great). Not that other races don't have accents, but it seems their accents are more subdued and less immediately identifiable."-guest

It may be your perception. I can recognize other "strong" foreign accents when I hear them in museums, restaurants, etc.

Does "strong" mean "loud" as well as noticeable to you? People who haven't quite got the language down sometimes speak loudly as they try to speak clearly and ennunciate English. Germans do this, Italians do this, heck, I have to watch that I don't do this when I am learning a new language. Of course, I am an American and everyone already has a stereotypical idea that I am language-impaired and loud, lol. I ain't, of course.

BTW, Word reference now has dictionaries in MANY languages including Japanese, Russian, Greek, Polish, Korean, Chinese, Czech (I think)...

"For instance I have often heard an anglophone pronounce "Georges Lemaître" as "Georgus Lay-meetruh". It's ridiculous. This is not a foreign accent, but a totally WRONG pronunciation that makes you sound like a retard.
Also pay attention on the intonation in sentences. You must have the feel of the language too of course."

It's hard for anglophones to pronounce French correctly unless they have studied pronunciation in French. I once heard "Apple PEE" for "Apple Pie" from a francophone. Then there are the false cognates...oh la la! French and English are a pair- a pair of tough languages to decipher because the orthography/spelling doesn't go hand in hand with the pronunciation. I have sympathy for anglophones and francophones who are testdriving the phrasebook sentences or even isolated words.

I'm not sure why anglophones would go for "ee" in the example you cited, but I believe it happens (maybe because of the circumflex?/to frenchify or gallicize the name?); however I object to your use of "retard", which I find offensive. Let's not bring in the disabled when we talk about people who haven't bothered to do their homework and learn the pronunciation, or who honestly mispronounce words without knowing it because no one is nice enough to correct them.

"People ALWAYS speak in their native tongue when you're fluent enough and they don't have to decipher stuff." Breniak

I agree with this. Unless you meet someone who is dying for English conversation practice, the most fluent language wins. If you are better in German, you'll get German.

Why do you expect people to pronounce French words correctly. French words in English are now English words and we can pronounce them as we please. As for names, do you know how to pronounce Polish names correctly? What about Swahili?

^that's just stupid. Of course that if you're in Poland, you'll pronounce the Polish names correctly, or you won't get much sympathy.
If you're speaking French (or in your case not even trying to), you should speak with the correct pronunciation in French!

<<If you're speaking French (or in your case not even trying to), you should speak with the correct pronunciation in French!>>

No I shouldn't because I'm not speaking French. I'm speaking ENGLISH with a French word thrown in. I find it absurd when I'm having a conversation in English and someone suddenly pronounces a foreign name or word in some bizarre way. If you're speaking English to people who don't know the language of origin, DO NOT PRONOUNCE IT HOW YOU WOULD WHEN SPEAKING THE OTHER LANGUAGE. It sounds pretentious and absurd.

<<If you're speaking English to people who don't know the language of origin, DO NOT PRONOUNCE IT HOW YOU WOULD WHEN SPEAKING THE OTHER LANGUAGE. It sounds pretentious and absurd.>>

I do just that, but the other way around: when I'm speaking my native language, I pronounce the English names/words with an American accent. It's a reflex. This is the result of practicing English for years on a daily basis. And frankly, I don't care if it sounds pretentious. But my bet is it doesn't, as I don't mean it this way.