Why do so many Germans (and other nationalities) lack confidence speaking English?

Today is a big day in our household as it's my daughter's last day at primary school. Overall it's been a good experience for her. We are very lucky with our local school, its beautiful playground and great facilities. Most of the teachers are good. However, the older she gets, the less I like the school system here.

In Germany, from a very early age, there is a huge focus on grades and a huge focus on accuracy. At 8 years old, my children were losing marks in maths because they wrote outside the margin, or they hadn't written a number exactly right, even though it was perfectly obvious which number it was.
The same happens in German lessons. Isabel writes amazing stories with great descriptions. All she gets back from the teacher is the story with the spelling mistakes highlighted in red and a grade, possibly with "good" written next to it. No comments like "What an exciting story", "Great story, well done", or "Lovely description". Just the mistakes highlighted.

I'm not a psychologist, but I'm sure this way of teaching has an effect on how professionals who use English at work.
They:

• sit there in silence in meetings, even when they have something useful to say, in case they make a mistake.
• put all their focus on "Is my English correct?" and "Is my English good enough?" rather than communicating their message.
• feel too embarrassed to say they don't understand.

The result is that perfectly capable professionals hold themselves back—often not because their English isn't good enough, but because they're afraid of getting it wrong.

The good news is that this mindset can be changed. It's not easy, but it's possible.
Start by looking at what you measure. Instead of asking yourself, "Was my English correct?", ask, "Did people understand me?"

If you are someone who avoids speaking English wherever possible, give yourself the aim of contributing one idea or asking one question in the meeting. Don't worry about accuracy or your level of English. Your goal is simply to speak.​