Possible duplicate of How to deal with co-workers speaking in another language?

How best to handle this very much depends on whether or not you are among the engineers who do not speak the local language.

When do you translate the native language? After every sentence? After a speech? After the meeting? Do you translate all of it, or only when the lead is speaking directly to the excluded engineer?

@L.Dutch Are those "coffee machine stand up talks" like official stand-ups where most of the team is present, you do some fixed content, are required to be there etc. or are these just discussions he starts when you are at the coffee machine?

@Darkwing, most of the team is there, except the foreigners

@L.Dutch that sounds then just like a meeting unless it is by chance that the right people are there and he's taking the chance. If he's telling you to be there, it's a meeting and he needs to be reminded, that meeting in a meeting room or meeting at the coffee machine is the same, if it's just by chance that he encounters all of you at the coffee machine other approaches might be in place, e.g. either tell him "We're having a break right now, so let's discuss this in the meeting later" or "That involves dev-X, let's continue at his place" or "let me fetch the other guys for this meeting".

Without German, you can't survive in Germany and best if you won't even try. It is not the mistake of your boss, it is the mistake - or intentional harm-doing - of the HR people saying they want English speakers. And not German is the "local language", English is the "foreign language". Yes, if you are a foreigner in Germany, then you have to speak both English and German, and so is it.

@MorningStar While I appreciate and support anyone who wants to learn German or any local language - you don't have to be able to speak German to live and work in Germany! Yes government institutions can be a hassle and it's certainly good to speak German, otherwise you may need someone who helps translate in some occasions, but for work it totally depends on your employer. There are quite some companies that properly embrace English as the company language. Btw. how do you get that this is about Germany?

@MorningStar: That's simply wrong. I know many people who seem to live and work just fine in Germany without speaking more than a few german words. I think's it's a pity though, so I usually speak German to them. I use simple words and wait to see if they understand. If everybody did it this way with them, they'd speak German in a few months.

Is it possible the offender's english is not strong enough or quick enough for a meeting scenario? Looking for a root-cause other than stubborn bloody-mindedness.

@L.Dutch: please add as a tag the country you're working in: I live in Belgium and I know that language might be a very serious matter in some continental countries, but for different background reasons.

Sounds like you're in the middle of a war you didn't choose. Company wants the company language to be English, project lead (and quite possibly others) do not. The assertion that speaking in a language several team members have no understanding of is "efficient", is total rubbish.

@Criggie according to OP no, but maybe some of the german teammates.

@MorningStar: "And not German is the 'local language', English is the 'foreign language'" In what way are both not true? And do consider that this may not be some small native business, but a multinational that does business all over the place.

@EricDuminil You probably live in a different reality, where the german language as simple as it gets. Even after finishing B2 with 97% marks, speaking every day, some times I have problems understanding my colleagues (ok, they speak mostly schwabisch).

@BЈовић: Same reality : I'm a French guy living in Stuttgart, and I learned German in Berlin, during a 6 month internship. I always asked people to talk to me in German. I didn't say it's easy. But it's very possible to learn it fast if your brain has no other escape than learning the language.

I'm pretty sure a stand-up is still a meeting.

Reply with deliberate mistranslations such as "A donkey? Why would that help at all?" until they get it.