First of all, this is certainly a case of throwing stones in glass houses here, but all Germans make the same mistakes when they speak English. Learning these common mistakes will help you communicate.
First, the most annoying, Germans think Handy means cell phone. Telling them that the word Handy is not English for cell phone will make you endure a horrendous joke about how a Schwäbian guy actually came up the term. Do not tell them its not called a Handy in English under any circumstance, just know that they are talking about a mobile phone and move on.
Beamer is not a BMW, it is a projector.
Eggzill is a spreadsheet program from Microsoft. A warning from first hand experience here is in order. After hearing your German colleagues talk about using Microzoft Vord, Eggzill, and Axis, do not call the other program Microsoft Proyekt, like you think your German colleagues would pronounce it. They will make fun of you for being stupid, if you do.
Actual does not mean actual to a German. To a German actual means current, or up-to-date. For some reason they think aktuell = actual, which gets super annoying, since every German will always make this mistake till they die, no matter how many times you tell them.
Fitness Studio is a gym. Sounds like you’re going to get filmed while you work out, but no worries, it’s just a gym.
Der Smoking is a tuxedo.
Mobbing gives you the image of an angry mob of 50 people ready to kill you, but in German it is any form of harassment or mistreatment, especially in the work place by coworkers or management.
Informations, trainings, etc. Germans make up plural forms of words you can’t really do that with, which sounds pretty ridiculous.
Lucky means happy to Germans. Kind of weird since most Germans use the word happy now and then, as in “This film is a happy end.” By the way Germans, if you are listening, you mean “This movie has a happy ending.”
An Oldtimer to a German means a vintage car, not your grandpa.
A shooting is not what happens on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard once a day; Germans use it to mean a photo shoot.
Shrimps is the German word for shrimp, even though they could use their own lanuage, the Germans prefer to misuse ours.
A Body bag in Germany is not what the authorities take dead people to the morgue in, but rather a back pack or a fanny pack.
deutsche Übersetzung für Astrd
Meine liebe Astrid,hier die Übersetzung:
Deutsche sind multilingual
Dies ist sicherlich ein Fall von “Steine im Glashaus werfen”, aber alle Deutschen machen die gleichen Fehler, wenn sie Englisch sprechen. Wenn Sie sich diese häufigen Fehler merken, erleichtern Sie die interkulturelle Kommunikation erheblich.
Der erste und nervigste Fehler ist, dass Deutsche denken, Handy heisst Mobiltelefon. Wenn man Ihnen erzählt, dass das englische Wort für Mobiltelefon nicht Handy ist, fangen sie sofort an, Ihnen einen schrecklichen Witz über einen schwäbischen Mann zu erzählen, der das Wort Handy erfunden hat. Also, tun Sie das, was die Deutschen nicht können und lassen Sie das Korrigieren.
Beamer ist kein BMW, sondern ein Projektor.
Eggzill ist eine Rechensoftware von Microsoft. Auch wenn die deutschen Kollegen immer von Microsoft Vord, Eggzill und Axis reden, sprechen Sie das andere Programm von Microsoft nicht wie Projekt aus, wie Sie vielleicht denken, dass es Ihre deutschen Kollegen tun würden, sonst besteht die Gefahr, dass diese Sie auslachen.
Actual heisst für den Deutschen nicht actual. Für den Deutschen heisst es aktuell oder zur Zeit. Aus irgendeinem Grund denken sie, dass aktuell=actual heisst, was sehr sehr nervig werden kann, weil jeder Deutsche diesen Fehler macht, bis er eingegraben wird, egal, wie oft Sie ihn darauf aufmerksam machen.
Fitness Studio ist ein Ort, an dem man Sport treibt. Es hört sich zwar an, als würde man dabei gefilmt werden, während man dies tut, aber keine Angst, es ist wirklich nur eine Turnhalle.
Der Smoking ist ein sehr formeller Anzug.
Mobbing impliziert das Bild einer wütenden Meute von mindestens 50 Leuten, die einen umbringen wollen, aber auf deutsch steht es für jede Art von Bedrohung oder Misshandlung, besonders bei der Arbeit durch Kollegen oder Mitarbeiter der Führungsebene.
Informations, Trainings, etc. Deutsche erfinden Pluralformen von Wörtern, die eigentlich keine Pluralform haben. Das hört sich ziemlich lächerlich an.
Lucky heisst glücklich für Deutsche. Was etwas merkwürdig ist, da die meisten Deutschen das Wort happy schon gelegentlich verwenden, wie in…dieser Film hat ein happy end. Übrigens, Deutsche, wenn Sie zuhören: Sie sollten eigentlich sagen…dieser Film hat ein happy ending.
Ein Oldtimer hat für den Deutschen die Bedeutung eines alten klassischen Autos und heisst nicht Großvater.
Ein Shooting ist nicht das, was Konny Reimann den unerlaubten Besuchern auf seinem Grundstück in Texas antut, sondern ein Fototermin.
Ein body bag ist kein Leichensack, sondern ein Rucksack oder Ähnliches.
Streichel den Joschy von mir,
John
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April 29th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Not sure if this is a German thing, but all of my students in Austria don’t understand the difference between “fun” and “funny”. So I get to hear about how “It’s going to be so funny when we have summer holidays.”
May 5th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
excellent blog but I think you’ve missed a few:
A floor is not what you’re walking on, it’s a hall way (floor = Flur)
One I ran into recently myself: irritating means confusing (irritating = irritierend)
Not as common as the other but ver annoying: who might mean where and where might mean who (who = wo, wer = where)
here are probably many more
May 5th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
One of the most annoying things is actually already knowing the meaning of these terms when they come into use by the German public…
I still get confused when someone wants to “shoot” somebody.
Even worse are people who think making up half of their sentences in bad English would make anything they say cool or important. Do you know this kind of manager or wannabe expert who keeps on telling you about flowcharts and stuff and uses the wrong terms all the time?
May 5th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Yeah Crescent, the absolute most annoying to me is when Germans are speaking in German and then say a word in English, then pause to say, “also … auf Deutsch”, then continue on with the sentence after translating the word into German for the “dumb masses”. This happens a lot on TV or by wannabe managers who are trying to make themselves look superior as experts in some subject.
The vast majority of Germans don’t do it, unless they are trying to convince you they are experts or are trying to sell you some product.
But when they do it makes me want to kick them in the shin.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I think those things happen because most of international business communication is in English, so people are forced to speak a language that most haven’t learned to that extent. Obviously Americans do that, too: just to mention the leitmotif (which is written Leitmotiv in German).
and: nothing for ungood
Those things happen
May 5th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
You are me perhaps one.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Anatlo Stefanowitsch of Bremer Sprachblog has an interesting entry on mobbing.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I suppose Americans also take [i]body lotion[/i] for something rather creepy, then, or do they actually have the ability to distinguish between a body and a dead body?
May 7th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Nope, body lotion is fine. Body bag is kind of a special case, I guess.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
It’s odd to me (for me? Well, my English is considered excellent in the eastern parts of Germany only…) that until today so many peope do not know that Handy is not the English word for cell phone. It’s always taken as example for english-sounding words that are used exclusively in Germany. Why is ist so difficult for them to remember that?
May 12th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
There are some reasons why cellphones are called handies here (http://www.u32.de/handy.html). It’s all about marketing. The american term cellphone couldn’t be used because of the association with the german word for phone booth (Telefonzelle), while the englisch word mobile or mobile phone wasn’t used, because germans associate everything mobile with cars, and carphones where already in use when the first cell-phones came around.
The term was first used by Motorola back in the forties, when thy called their new generation of smaller walkie-talkies simply handie-talkies.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I’m sorry, but you are listing things that have nothing to do with “Germans think they speak better English than they do”. Words like “shooting” or “mobbing” are words we use in our common German language, but i would never use it in an English sentence. Hm, I know nobody who says Microzoft Vord, Eggzill, and Axis, but some older people can’t speak English very well, but that’s because they are a completely different generation. Nearly everybody under 30 can pronounce those words correctly.
And one last thing: Yes, in German sentences i say “Handy”, but not in English sentences.
May 18th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Hi,
I think you forgot two words:
eventually = Eventuell (or not)
and the Klassiker: I become a steak (bekommen = to receive)
Andreas
May 18th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Hmmm, well /me thinks you just mix up 2 different things:
- speaking bad english
- english words sipping into german language and becoming genuine part of german
IMHO “handy” is not a ‘wrong english’, but a ‘correct german’ word now, as there are many other of the words you mentioned. you think of these words in english terms, but they already are part of the german language and have changed their meanings more or less. this happens all the time in history (just look at the large amount of words with french origins in the german language).
this process is speeded up by english being the “lingua franca” of today, the language people from many different countries with different english language skills communicate….
a short anecdote:
an english friend of my brother once walked into a “handy” (cellphone) shop in germany. as she was aware of the different word, she asked to buy a “hondy” - she tried to pronouce the word “german”…
the guy at the store corrected her: “This is ‘handy’, not ‘hondy’ - its english, you know…”
May 19th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Here’s one of my favorites from a meeting:
The (German) leader of the meeting wanted to organize some sort of trade fair. Now, “fair” is “Messe” in German.. if you can’t guess it yourself, she suggested to “make a mess.”
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Here’re two more:
On a worldfair a german reporter states: “This is the biggest mess i’ve ever seen.”
Many germans when telling about their school they say “i went to the gymnasium because my parents wanted me to go to university later”
(gymnasium in germany is the type of school that enables you to visit a university later)
May 25th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Just one thing, unlike “mobbing”, “handy” etc., “body bag” is by no means a universally accepted word in German. AFAIK it’s a lingual lapse of one or a few companies, much derided in German media.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
My personal flavorite is the direct translation (into english) of the German usage of “oder,” as a clue-in to a question.
For example: Would you like to meet for drinks in the center? or?
Perfectly logical sentence auf Deutsch, but akward for a native english speaker. “Or what” would be a typical response.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
The problem with the germans is they don’t even speek german. They speek extremely strange and ugly dialects instead. At the same time they like to say “Deutsche Sprache schwere Sprache” to show their intellectual superiority. And yes ! They even think their englisch is better than the englisch of all other people and they want to teach better german and english to persons they have discovered not to be Germans !!!
Sorry for my bad english. My mother language is a german dialect (unfortunately ) close to standard german, closer at least than the ugly dialects spoken by the germans like swabian, palatinian, bavarian… But as I said their favourite sport is to teach me german and english.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:45 am
It’s a bit late (a bit very late…) but: Dent mentioned carphones; In Switzerland we actually have another word for handy / cellphone, which is “Natel”. Originally: “Nationales Autotelefon” - “national carphone”
June 25th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Nice website!!
June 25th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I don’t hear much of this, as I insist Germans stick to German. The Auslaenderin angle covers a multitude of sins - in meetings, I innocently ask what the German term is for every single term they use in English.
For some terms, e.g. corporate governance, there really isn’t an equivalent. One of my pet peeves is “das Feedback” used when they mean “Rueckmeldung” but don’t dare say it, b/c they _really_ mean Kritik.
It does seem that more-educated Germans - HermantheGerman as an example - are far less likely to throw bad English around than are clerks who’ve been in the same small company where they did their apprenticeship after completing the “mittlere-Reife.”
My own English has gotten dodgy, so I can’t be too critical … I mean, I can’t give them too much feedbacks on their English.
June 28th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
was für ein unsinn, kein deutscher denkt, er spreche besser englisch als ein muttersprachlacher. klar, die angliszismen sind schon grausam, falsch und vollkommen unnötig, aber ich denke das legt sich auch wieder. früher wurden französische wörter übernommen, heute englische. das vergeht.
aber was ich hier in den kommentaren viel schlimmer finde ist die tatsache, dass sich über das schlechte englisch der deutschen lustig gemacht wird. kann jemand von euch überhaupt deutsch? vermutlich nicht. und es ist nun mal immer schwierig sich in einer sprache auszudrücken, die nicht muttersprache ist, vor allem, wenn man nicht in dem land, in dem die sprache gesprochen wird, gelebt hat, sondern nur in der schule diese sprache gelernt hat. die meisten bemühen sich wenigstens sich verständigen und einigermaßen gut ausdrücken zu können und dass man ein paar falschen freunden auf den leim geht, passiert in jeder sprache.
nur ein paar gedanken von mir.
June 28th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
@biene: why, if you assume none of us can speak German, do you ask us in German? Is that the famous German sense of irony we hear so much about?
July 18th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Another annoying one. alot of Germans (that I have met) cant pronounce the English “V” which is strange because it is similiar, if not the exact same to the German “W”. My German host sister and alot of my German friends often say Wegetable (for vegetable), wery (for very), etc…