HoppityBun, there is a lot to discuss and unpack in your post. Apologies to the OP for what is a bit of a derail but I would like to try to answer some of the points that you make.
Obviously none of us here know anything much about the OP's relationship other than the small amount that has been shared here. And perhaps I'm totally wrong and there is a deeper relationship issue. Only the OP and her partner can know that. I just wanted to share an experience and a perspective that I think a lot of us Brits don't consider much as we don't need to.
Of course there are geographical, historical, economcial and current reasons for why lots of Europeans, and people around the world generally, speak English and other languages. I'm surprised that you seem to think that this requires no real special effort on their part. Yes, it helps if they learnt from a young age in school / watch American films, etc but that all takes effort and will all the same.
You said:
Do they mix frequently with different language speakers? We don’t here in the UK but it’s a normal part of everyday life in many parts of Europe. Again, something your superior relatives and people you know should be grateful for.
That's just rude. It's rude about my relatives and the idea that we don't mix with different language speakers in the highly multicultural UK is simply not true. The idea that people should be "grateful" because they live or work in places that require them to make the effort to learn at least one foreign language is exactly the attitude that I was talking about in previous posts.
Do your friends and relatives who speak different languages think that someone who speaks Welsh and English is ignorant and lazy if they go to Sweden and do not speak Swedish?
I don't know. I've never asked them. So I'll answer for myself and then try to circle back to why I joined in on this thread in the first place.
It is normal in many parts of the world to speak at least 2 languages. Often they will be the official administrative language of the country and then a local / regional language or dialect. And then possibly English / Spanish / fill in relevant additional language here.
So for me someone who speaks Welsh and English is pretty much the global norm in that they speak at least 2 languages as part of their everyday life / culture. If they go on holiday to Sweden for 2 weeks it's fair enough that they probably don't know much more than "hello / goodbye / please / thank you".
If however, and now I'm trying to circle back to my original point, they were in a serious relationship with someone from Sweden and or went there regularly / socialised with Swedish in-laws, etc then I would think that they were pretty rude for not trying to learn some basic social Swedish. I would also think that they were missing out on a cultural and humane experience and probably hurting their partner's / in-laws feelings to boot. Plus, according to you, it doesn't take much effort to learn a foreign language - they just have to watch some TV and they will pick it up.
And yes, English has become the global lingua franca and Belgians and many other nationalities use it communicate with each other. But they are still making the effort to speak a 2nd language when they do so. A native English speaker is not.
We native English speakers often seem to think that it's very easy for the rest of the world to learn our language and speak it to us fluently when we are visiting their countries. And yet, it seems to be beyond difficult / an impossible demand for us to learn the basics of any other language at all...