@B19: I have never flown outside Europe, actually I have never left Europe in any way, so I can't really compare. But it seems obvious that, compared to the US, or to Canada, Europe is a smallish place, with lots of local differences. Some countries always use English in the radio, mostly the smaller and Nordic ones. Bigger and/or more Southern countries mostly use local language plus at the larger fields English too.
Some countries (Germany, for example) oblige aerodromes to have a (licensed!) radio operator, though this person would not be called a controller unless at a controlled field. OTOH French authorities do all they can to make life easy for aerodrome operators, so that most fields merely have a published "air to air" frequency where blind calls are expected.
And don't even think of flying into Russia, where altitudes are in metres and wind speeds in metres per second.