Don't judge easiness of learning language based on English - its one of the easiest out there to learn (I speak 5 languages and english is absolutely trivial compared to others), especially for folks with similar base (ie roman/germanic ones). Slavic languages are much harder to learn and basically useless outside given country (with few exceptions but usable mostly for C2 or natives level).
Also, compared to many other languages even very basic level of english gets you somewhere, in some languages like French natives basically refuse to speak to you or simply don't understand you unless you have cca B2 level (this is personal experience of me and folks around me where I live)
Slavic languages are much harder for you. For speakers of other Slavic languages it's about a year of passive exposure to be somewhat conversational.
I've never seen this happen, but I do notice a lot of tourists asking for services or starting conversations without saying 'hello' or 'bonjour,' which is considered disrespectful in France
Could be russian. :D We have people living here for 60+ years and cannot speak local language.
This is ridiculous. According to their resume they lived, studied, and worked in Poland for over 10 years and don't speak Polish? This isn't considered a red flag? This was a screening call and the head of operations categorically failed.
>Communication was a bit choppy, and the candidate did not speak Serbian, despite graduating from the University of Kragujevac, in Serbia. Once again, they sounded motivated, so proceeded to the next round.
So no actual lessons learned from the last time.