In the US, the most common phrase spoken is the rhetorical question in its various forms, “How are you?”. Germans don’t often greet each other with “wie geht’s“, unless they actually really want to know how you are doing.
In German, the most common phrase spoken is “Das geht nicht!“, or essentially you can’t get what you want. Germans must be trained in school to turn down every initial request for anything outright.
If you move to Germany, one thing that will require some getting used to is that any request you make to a German is always responded to with a small diatribe about how your request is impossible. You must learn to never accept this, but rather get over your emotional shock that someone would be so inconsiderate of your needs, and factually explain your case. The majority of the time the answer will change from impossible to agreement, but usually only after some arguing.
In the US of course people will always tell you “no problem” to just about any request. One refreshing thing about Germany is that once people agree to your request, you can rely on it actually being completed.
Unless of course, you are dealing with the German Telekom, they will never do anything for you.
deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid ein/ausblenden
Heyho, Astrid,hier die Übersetzung:
Mission Impossible
In Amerika ist die am häufigsten verwendete Phrase die rhetorische Frage “How are you”, von der es verschiedene Abwandlungen gibt. Deutsche begrüßen einander nicht oft mit “Wie geht´s”, es sei denn, sie möchten wirklich wissen, wie es dem anderen geht.
In Deutschland ist der am meisten verwendete Satz “Das geht nicht!” oder sinngemäß “Sie können nicht bekommen was Sie wollen”. Deutsche müssen in der Schule gelernt haben, jede einzelne Anfrage für irgendetwas sofort abzuweisen.
Wenn Sie nach Deutschland ziehen, wird es gewöhnungsbedürftig sein, dass jede Bitte an einen Deutschen immer mit einer kleinen Hetzrede darüber beantwortet wird, wie unmöglich Ihre Bitte ist. Sie müssen lernen, dies nie zu akzeptieren, sondern über den emotionalen Schock hinwegzukommen, dass jemand so rücksichtslos gegenüber Ihren Bedürfnissen ist und Ihren Fall sachlich schildern.
In den meisten Fällen wird die Antwort dann von unmöglich zu Zustimmung wechseln, aber erst nach einigem Argumentieren.
In den USA sagen die Menschen gewöhnlich “Kein Problem” als Antwort auf jede Anfrage. Eine erfrischende Tatsache in Deutschland ist, dass sobald einer Bitte zugestimmt wurde, Sie sich darauf verlassen können, dass diese auch tatsächlich erfüllt wird. Ausser natürlich, Sie sprechen mit der deutschen Telekom, die werden nie etwas für Sie tun.
Gruß an die Fische,
John
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May 5th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Geht doch !
May 6th, 2008 at 1:39 am
It makes completely sense to me. “One refreshing thing about Germany is that once people agree to your request, you can rely on it actually being completed.” -> Replying with “yeah, it will work, lets do it!” would mean “i will do it!” as well. Imagine real problems coming up, it would let me become a liar. “I will do it!” and later… i cannot do it. Unacceptable.
Try to hear “Das geht doch nicht!” as “I am sure problems will be met!”. This statement could be founded on experience, so you have to argue
my 0,02EUR
May 6th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Good observing. And you better also think of the outstanding : “Das haben wir schon immer so gemacht” (That is the way we have done it forever). An Answer you always get whenver you want to change ways of working progress oder intodruce something new.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I have to agree with flipflop: we do often times turn down a request or say it’s not possible, but once convinced and we commit to the cause, you WILL get a result for sure and most time the result you wanted.
In my experience (I spent one year in the US and now work on a daily basis with colleagues in the States) it can be very frustrating when I am being told “No problem, we’ll handle this” only to find out weeks later that nothing has happened.
I think we Germans take pragmatism over politeness. The latter is of no use to me when things don’t get done
May 8th, 2008 at 11:39 am
@bunki: And never forget “Das haben wir schon immer so gemacht!”’s [grouchy] little sister: “Das haben wir noch nie so gemacht!”
May 11th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I don’t know what anti-social drug you’re on, saying “Hi, wie geht’s?” is quite common in Germany.
May 11th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Hey Bob, normally I don’t really defend what I write, because I don’t really care whether what I’m writing is accurate or not, these are just my perceptions. But I think you are a little off-base here.
First of all, “Wie geht’s?” is of course a phrase used in Germany, but the difference to the American version is that it is a sincere question. To me “Hi, wie geht’s” would be an invitation to start a longer conversation, whereas in America, we would ask “hi, how are ya?” and walk on by without waiting for the response.
I don’t know where you are in Germany, but I can’t think of a region where adding on “wie, geht’s” to the standard greeting sounds natural. i.e.
Servus, wie geht’s?
Grüss Gott, wie geht’s?
Moin moin, wie geht’s?
Mahlzeit, wie geht’s?
It all sounds pretty unnatural. The best I can come up with is “Na, wie geht’s” but that’s a legitimate question, not a greeting.
I notice my American friends, when they speak German asking everyone “wie geht’s” all the time and it sounds pretty goofy to me.
But hey, I could be wrong…
May 12th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
It _is_ goofy
At least I agree it is uncommon.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
I love your blog. When I first got to the States people asked me over and over again “How are you.” and I really thought they would like to hear how I am feeling, so I started to tell them that the weather sucks or that I would have a migrane. They were totally confused about it. But I am living here in the dschungel of the US as a German and lots of things are so different. Really nice to read about your experience on the other side.
I really miss the honesty of what people say. Like you said at the end of your post. It’s really confusing for Germans who are newbies here to figure out that “Talk to you later” doesn’t mean, “later” but in a few days or months or maybe never again.
Gruesse aus Oregon!
May 15th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Well, I’m not sure about the “wie geht’s?”. If it is expressed in germany, the asker expects an answer, that is true, but the only answer he expects is “good”. When people ask you this, they don’t actually want to hear that you only slept four hours or that your cat died or anything like that, they just want to be reaffirmed that everything’s good - even if it isn’t. The whole phrase is just something like an ice breaker for everyday life, quite like the “It’s a nice weather outside, isn’t it?”
June 4th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
He’s completely right about Deutsche Telekom.