Hi lads, I have a question about the working language while in set. I am currently residing in a German speaking country and I can speak German at an almost native level. Nevertheless I stick to English while in set. In my opinion, it’s a DHV when you open a set of German speaking HBs in English. It is a form of a little extra bonus at the beginning, which I am using to my advantage. Questions like “where do you come from” result in prepared and field tested answers. Besides, the birds have this urge to prove themselves to you, how good they can speak a foreign language and so on. Later in set, I would usually switch to German and they get really amazed. That’s another DHV spike. This strategy has always worked for me.

What’s your opinion? I am right?

I'd recommend sticking to this strategy. I've done a similar thing in Spain; I really don't look like a Spaniard, but my Spanish is pretty decent. This lead to me being approached often because of the looks (different is always interesting), which was sort of DHV, and then I could easily have a conversation in Spanish, which was another DHV. At some point, they would ask me where I come from, which usually lead to how many languages I speak, and five is quite a number in Spain. One girl I met even occasionally switched to English (not my native language, but native-like level), probably to prove herself to me, like you said.