So when it becomes apparent that the person doesn't understand English, does the tourist repeat himself, only louder?
Louder and slower. That is indeed the stereotype, source of much comedy and something I have seen actually happen on numerous occasions.
And I've always understood that so many Europeans are polyglots because they needed to be, what with being surrounded on all sides by foreign languages.
My experience of continental European countries is that the less internationally spoken their own language is the more able they are to speak several others. For example the Dutch people I have known all seem to speak a bit of every main European language and are fluent in a few. Germans too. The French and Spanish less so. The British least of all.
But now my ideas have been challenged by the British. They're surrounded by foreign languages (indeed, English is mainly an amalgam of different languages) and yet they follow the isolationalist pattern. Is the UK being a group of islands what leads its population to be insular?
There is definitely a mindeset in some (most?) that consider Europe as "over there". We often use the term Europe to mean continental Europe rather than something that includes Britain. Politically we are not part of the European currency and have a history of being a relatively reluctant part of the wider European political process. Geography and history must be part of the reason for this and for our relative linguistic ineptitude as a nation.
Question: when do British schools start to teach foreign languages?
I started French at 11 (first year of secondary school). I had never done any language classes of any sort before that age. I hated it. I think there have been a number of measures to encourage earlier language learning since I left school going on 20 years ago. But to my knowledge there remains no compulsory requirement, or even standard practise to do so, before the age of 11. If anyone else knows different I would be interested to hear what the current situation is.