Comments on: Germans think they speak better English than they do

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:17:33 +0000

I’m Australian and I call a BMW a beamer. My favourite German-ism is saying this night instead of last night. It’s a beautiful case of direct translation ‘heute Nacht’. I think these changes in how different people speak a language are fascinating and fun. I know there are bits of my German that are complete crap, though my accent is apparently good (yay!). My Swedish is even worse, I keep getting German caught up in it!

By: Miracle74-AnotherGerman!

Miracle74-AnotherGerman! — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 07:38:32 +0000

Well .. I also just discovered your page. It started out very interesting cause there are many things to learn or to remember like the topics of actual, informationS, etc.
But the further I scroll down the page it becomes sometimes more an more anoying. Some here really over-simplify these topics too much in my opinion. I worked and lived a year in the US and believe me .. the english I sometimes learned and heard there was the same worse style like (I admit) the german young guys sometimes speak here in german when they think the english from MTV and the american rap-stars is “cool”. So there are definately quality differences in every language. But I mostly like ASTRID’s blog entry…. because you have to remember …. like Herman said.. we germans had to start learning english when we were already around 11-12… that’s how it was in my generation (I am mid 30 now) , the younger kids already start now learning english at age of 4-6 .. that for me is amazing and I really like that .. BUT … WE learn and study foreign languages !!!! … and belive me … that is something we in gemany can be proud of … because other countries “sit” on their opinion “The world speaks english” . So a student who has finished all his school and university or whatever education minimum speaks 2 foreign languages in Germany .. so I don’t want to be rude but how is that in the US ?
And never forget … the generation of my parents and grandparents never had a chance in school to learn english . So if you have next time a manager in a meeting in the US ..let’s say in the mid 50’s … never forget that for him it was much harder to learn a foreign language … and everyone here in this blog who is not just 20 knows how difficult it gets more and more to learn something new when you are getting older … right ?

So let us not start blaming each other for gaps we have in language knowledge but just remember that a native language is of course stronger connected to yourself than anything else you have to learn extra…
So see this blog as a chance to learn phrases you should remember next time when you need to use them….
Cause if you like to start a ping-pong game “who knows what” we could start to discuss “HISTORY Knowledge outside the US of Americans” , ok ? (Just kidding a bit at the end “Nothing for ungood” LOL

By: pauline

pauline — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:27:34 +0000

I’ve only just discovered your website - but modifications of your statements can certainly be accepted even now?

So please check this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:00:04 +0000

at least they know a little english.easy for u to judge.i bet your german isnt very good:)

By: Marjorie Bach Mota

Marjorie Bach Mota — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:17:47 +0000

Your writing is offiensive. Only a racist would insult African Amercans by defining “shooting” as that which “happens on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard once a day;” You are very cozy with the stereotype that all African Americans are violence prone.

You are the type of person who expresses hostility masked as humor. I find you very hostile to German people and your observations are mean-spirited and at total variance from my experiences in Germany.

You should not attempt to discourage people from learning German, just because you had a difficult time. If you had respect for language, you would study harder, and I recommend that you start with English.

By: Florian Blaschke

Florian Blaschke — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:10:03 +0000

Well, I think it is quite true that a lot of Germans - especially younger ones - think that they can converse effortlessly in English - believing that it is the easiest-to-learn and most logical language in the world - while in reality, their pronunciation is horrid, their grammar dodgy and they keep stumbling over false friends without noticing it. When they try to integrate English expressions into their German, not infrequently hilarity ensues, as well …

What’s worse is that quite a lot of German youths do not even seem to be able to speak *either* basic German or English “unfallfrei” (”without accidents”), let alone advanced German or English (which they will probably dismiss as “medieval” or “arrogant-sounding” anyway, at best, consider wrong or even fail to understand). All they can trot out (whether in writing or in talking) is a mix of vulgar German and English or pseudo-English (often Internet) slang, chat talk, SMS shorthands, and expletives - part of the so-called “PISA-Syndrom”.

On http://www.german-bash.org I just found the following:

” Twitter is eine typische Erscheinung der Generation ADS & SMS. Für einen Brief zu faul, für einen kompletten Satz zu dumm und für korrekte Grammatik zu cool.”

DeeKay: It’s even more confusing, as I only relatively recently found out:

Paprika (ger) = Pepper (eng)

To a German, “pepper” is likely only the spice Pfeffer, not a Paprika, Peperoni (spelt with only a single “p”!) or Chili (I was not even aware until relatively recently that Gemüsepaprika - which are not spicy -, the grounded spice called Paprika, Peperoni and Chili are all part of the same species). I keep discovering that my English in practice often sucks, which can be a quite awkward insight.

By: Clavain

Clavain — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:33:55 +0000

LOL,
OBTW a fanny in American is your bottom, but in British English, a women’s genitals.

I was really shocked the first time in America someone said to me, “she needs a boot up the fanny!!!”.

These cross cultural mistakes happen all the time.
Clavain

By: loulou

loulou — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:42:50 +0000

you forgot to talk about the german word “sunnyboy”, i am sure you heard it:-)

By: Iliana

Iliana — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:23:13 +0000

When i was watching TV this morning i saw an article about your website in german TV.
Now i look at this site and i think it´s great.
It´s in my list of favourites now because there are so many things to find out.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:20:48 +0000

Yeah!
I´m german and i know what a “cellphone” is

but i`ve regognized, that i often made the mistake about the plural forms.

(but i can`t guarantee that my currently spelling is right)