GasGas:
Not if you still live in ‘The Woower’ as some here wittering on about Germany invading other countries seem to do.The UK should take a good look at Germany, particularly its education system, and try to emulate it.
We can learn a lot from various European countries, but I’m not sure whether that requires EU membership though?
GasGas:
For example: Why is Germany so good at selling stuff to the UK, while the UK is quite bad at selling stuff to Germany?
Why are we bad at selling high volume goods to the Germans, simple we went down an ideological route of manufacturing was old hat, service industries was the future, so governments didn’t support industry and were quite happy for them to be sold off and for production to move abroad, however a hell of a lot of goods people think are made in Germany that are now made elsewhere in the EU or even in the far east, due to lower costs of production.
GasGas:
Could it be that almost anyone with a good job in Germany (including German truck drivers) can speak English?
English is the International language of business; it’s a requirement for almost all jobs where you are likely to sell internationally. I’ve seen plenty of situations where 2 people who speak a different first language will use English to communicate.
GasGas:
Interestingly…I meet quite a lot of German engineers, and they are actually quite enthusiastic about British engineering. We just aren’t always very good at selling it to them.Likewise France…there’s a British bloke in a very senior design role at Renault Trucks, for instance.
Considering how many people in the UK who seem to be stuck with a WW2 mentality over the Germans, I find it strange, but am thankful that many Germans seem to like the British and Britain, I’ve spent many night getting very drunk with Germans, who in my experience seem to live up to their stereotype of efficiency, including their ability to organise a ■■■■ up anywhere, 
but definitely don’t live up to the stereotype of a humourless bunch. 
We are very good at selling them the high end, high value, low volume, engineering, one example, but by no means unique. A couple of years ago I was at the launch of a major German car manufacturer’s latest hypercar, only to find the body was built about 5 miles from my house and engine somewhere near Northampton and in charge of the project was the first person to give me a job in motorsport.
