YUROP

I guess pilot is some kind of a special thing. They really need to speak english and require some minimal level. They will learn the basic they need for the job. Also, they get constant exposure to English, which help maintain and improve it.

IT people, that's a different story. I know "many" that don't speak english or have such basic knowledge that they understand something different than what is actually said or written. Many job in IT will not require english, mostly a bonus. Take microsoft docs for instance, their website auto-translate to french. And even when needed, read/written is often enough. It's also easier because we mostly learn to read & write english in schools and both language have common/similar words. Tools like google translate are also a blessing. Those 2 categories are in the upper class and I don't really think they represent even 5% of the french people :)

The real pain point is the accent. Because we mostly learn through text (reading/writing), many will fail to identify the word pronounced because it doesn't match how a french would read/pronounce it out loud despite knowing the word. Same goes the other way, there were a few times when someone had a hard time understanding me because I failed to pronounce a word properly : brother vs browser. Any french would read out loud those two the exact same way.

And about your point on social media I cannot say. I grew up at a time when they didn't existed, and I don't have youngsters around me to see their exposure to english and how they deal with it.