How popular and how many German people speak Spanish?

I did learn Spanish in school, kept doing it on the side in uni for a while. Never did a language test but I would guess somewhere B1.2 maybe even B2.1 at my best times? It was enough for surviving and chatting in Southamerica if people spoke slow enough. It was also enough to serve customers in Spanish while I worked at an airport.

Now, I havenn't had an opportunity to speak Spanish in 4 years and learned a new language from scratch in the meantime. I hear Spanish, I understand what is being said, I open my mouth to respond...and the words coming out are Finnish. It is beyond frustrating, but it appears to have lost all abilities to actively speak. Conclusion: my Spanish skills were obviously never good enough.

If I think real hard I can still order stuff and do a bit of chit chat, but for having a real conversation or introducing myself beyond "my name is mkugelfisch and I am from Germany" I would need to do some serious studying and repeating what I once learned.

/r/germany Thread