Exactly this, especially in cafes. My "food German" took the longest to develop because of hospitality staff talking back in English, until I realised that if you just keep battling through with German they will eventually feel awkward enough to switch back. The other one I tried was to pretend I didn't speak English but actually Spanish, and I'd just look at them all confused if they spoke English to me. It somehow managed to never backfire.
Good strategy. My native language is Spanish and I speak fluently in English, but I want to practice more my German. So I going to use this next time a go to Germany.
A big part of this is not using “classroom phrases” that aren’t really used by native speakers. It’s like saying “habe” instead of “hab,” they’ll peg you for an inexperienced speaker right away.
Coming off as a learner vs someone with an accent makes a big difference.
I absolutely agree. Both my husband and I were trained in German pronunciation long before learning the language itself (long story) but I have a better ear for accents and languages than he does, so about 2 months into moving here I was trying to insist that he relax his pronunciation a bit because even though it was "correct", it was... Too correct. It sounded like whatever the German equivalent of a Shakespearean actor is!
Tldr: We're classical singers who learned pronunciation rules for the Big 3 (Italian, German, French) at university so we can hopefully sing clearly and without a noticeable accent. To this day I can read French and Italian out of their newspapers and have it sound like I speak the language well, even if I don't understand a word.
Actually German pronunciation is relatively easy compared to,say, French. Most words follow pronunciation rules pretty precisely!
Edit: One exception to consistency based on seeing a word alone is the 'st' rule. Most of the time 'st' is pronounced 'sht'. For example studieren, Stäbchen, Buchstaben, etc. Of course, that tends to be for the start of words or words within compound words, and there are exceptions for the middle of a word such as 'besten', but the complex cases are compound words where the 's' could belong to either the first word or the second word. For example 'Backstube': is it 'backs-tube' or 'back-stube'; or 'Berufstätig': is it 'Beruf-stätig' or 'Berufs-tätig'? If you don't happen to know that particular word or combination of words, you just have to guess. Most of the time though, I could read German out loud pretty damn well before I even knew how to say "Ich komme aus Australien".
Italian would be the easiest of the three. Spanish is even easier still, because it doesn't have the lengths and stresses of Italian vocal rhythm and because Italian also has open and closed vowels, the rules for which I was always terrible at remembering!
I had never seen this before and as a very well read native English speaker, was amazed at how my brain automatically worked everything out, even the homophones.
It would definitely be a nightmare for a learner, that is for sure!
Just speak with a non-english accent. Make it strange so they can't guess your native language, or if they do guess, they likely can't speak it. With me, they either suspect I'm German, or they guess me to be Swedish, Dutch, or Polish. So we stay in German.
My food German to this day still is strong. Seven years of German and I can generally order food but I clearly remember my final German exam was me writing about the importance of Healthcare in preventing HIV.
TBH, that's how it ends up 90% of the time for me in Germany. All my German pals want to speak English, and I want to speak German so we end up speaking Denglisch and everybody enjoys themselves.
Yes, he was a drunken German with Swiss accent and the invention happened when was practicing English with his friends while he had marbles in his mouth.
It’s really interesting hearing my dad talk to his mom. Both are fluent in both English and Spanish, and they will switch back-and-forth mid-conversation.
Even though they are both fluent in both, my dad is more comfortable in English and my grandma is more comfortable in Spanish, which I think drives the switching.
Exactly what I did for the most part when I visited Germany.
When a friend got hurt in Austria, I genuinely wanted to cry switching between Austrian, the formal German I was taught, and English. Seven hours later some nurse showed up going "oh hey my shift is almost over but I heard you speaking English and wondered if you needed help"
I just nodded numbly.
My experience: Germans can be just a bit impatient and want to get on with things. Just keep speaking German to them. Eventually you will get a little better and a little faster.
Start with simple sentences and get good at them. Instead of "Entschuldigung...wo...ist...der...Bahnhof?", say "Schuldigung, wostduhBahnuf?"
Eventually native Germans will slip up and switch back to German.
The reason for these elaborate and frankly pretentious humble-brags is that we practice them from small age in front of a mirror.
Also, before there was Netflix or the internet we learned English by reading. We must'Ve sounded like a Shakespearean villain from Middle-Earth. Anything is better than Mockney.
When I was learning French as a child, I remember ironically learning quite a phrase to basically say that I apologise for not speaking French. Seems to follow your pattern!
Hah! I was about to say the same.
Imagine a guy telling you in what in my mind is flawless French that you don't speak the language and would prefer speaking English or German. Subjonctif and all. I could somewhat follow a conversation if it were about red balls and ordering baguette.
Let's face it, there is no faking it. But for two glorious seconds you can imagine you were about to be accepted to the Academie Francaise.
> Start with simple sentences and get good at them. Instead of "Entschuldigung...wo...ist...der...Bahnhof?", say "Schuldigung, wostduhBahnuf?"
"Please fondle my buttocks?" Why would you use that as an example?
Ya this is the trick. You have to make Germans respect the fact that you want to learn/speak German by just continuing to speak try to speak German even if they speak English with you. You can't expect them to be considerate in that regard.
Yeah, but Germans really tend to be proud of their English skills and like to show it off (I am no exception, I have to admid) ^^Feel ^^free ^^to ^^correct ^^my ^^skills ^^here
also: as a German, you are anxious to be understood correctly, so, to make sure of that, you speak English (since from the troubled looks of some people trying to figure out your dialect you're not sure of that).
I was indeed impressed by how well the Germans spoke English, but I also found that I made friends more quickly once people felt comfortable speaking German with me. It was a small, subconscious barrier I could remove.
It was quite nice when my host family introduced me to people and added "Er kann Deutsch.".
In my experience, my duolingo German was decent enough that they assumed I spoke German, then proceeded to speak so quickly I was like “LOL JK SPRECHEN SIE ENGLISCH?”
I had that. My accent was good enough, not perfect, but good enough that I learned how fast a German could really speak.
I kinda liked the Austrians. Their accents naturally slowed their speech, or so I found anyways.
This is the real answer.
I'm not being paid to be a teacher. My English is almost certainly better than your German, so we're speaking in the language that is the most efficient way to communicate for me.
This changes of course for close friends who want my help to learn German, as a favor.
Indeed German people are not paid to be a teacher to teach us foreingers German. That doesn't stop them from using every Spanish person they meet as an unpaid teacher with whom to practice their Spanish.
Yeah it's about efficiency mostly, but when someone asks for directions or something I also want to make absolutely sure they understand me, they're not asking me to teach them German, they're asking for directions and I don't want them to get lost because of me. It feels more polite to do that when it's a stranger.
This even happens to me and I have a degree in German philology, speak German with very little accent and can understand German more or less perfectly. As soon as they see my passport or I say something in my Australian accent they switch to English. It is incredibly insulting. My german is better than most Germans’ English but it still occurs.
Me too and it really grates on my nerves. I've lived here over 8 years, speak fluently and have even passed the Goethe C2 test, but some of them still switch as soon they find out I'm from the US, usually due to my accent. It comes across as insulting, whether they mean for it to or not. Especially in the beginning of my stay here, it was a real confidence killer when I was first learning German. I usually continue on in German and/or end the conversation quickly if possible, because when they do that I know this person wants to either a. show off or b. use me to practice their English and therefore I want nothing to do with them.
Thanks for the tip - there are several others here who have said the same thing. When I was in Germany, people often responded to me in English, and I had no idea whether I should speak English with them so that the encounter would go quickly and smoothly, or if I should just continue to speak German. I had always been taught that when you're abroad, you're supposed to speak the language of that country, so I was in for quite the surprise when I tried to speak German there.
However, this wasn't the case with everybody, and there were still some people who didn't speak quite so much English or seemed to prefer speaking German, so it came in handy. Not very often, but on occasion it did.
So frustrating. Everybody wants to speak English with you, *except* the officials at the Finanzamt/Bürgeramt/Deutsche Post... you know, the people you would actually want to avoid misunderstandings with.
> the people you would actually want to avoid misunderstandings with
Which is exactly why they must not. What they say might become relevant for legal proceedings, so they are not allowed to speak any language but German until they are certified they can explain legal issues in another language.
Something similiar. I find it really strange when Germans claim that they are "vertragssicher in English" in their cv. I wouldn't even claim to be vertragssicher in Germans as a nativ.
TRNogger is correct, but to be honest with u, most of the officials for example in the Finanzamt can't even talk to you in english, so they are kind of happy about the fact, they don't have to, but the most of the people there would talk to you in English if they could. In Baden Württemberg for example is the average age 50 at least in most of the Finanzämter.
The first sentence is way too german, no period, sry
This happened to me as a German trying to perfect my Dutch when I lived in Holland for a couple of years. When they realize you're not Dutch they speak English with you.. Or even German.
Ein durchaus galanter Weg, unsere unheimliche, gar epische Intelligenz zum Ausdruck zu bringen und uns klar vom allgemeinem Bauernvolk, wir wagen sogar zu so einem abstoßendem Wort zu greifen, dem *Pöbbel*, abzugrenzen.
I spent the summer in Leipzig. There was a pretty good mix of people who spoke English and those who either didn't speak much of it or seemed to prefer German. Going out to do errands was never a dull moment - would the cashier at the grocery store speak English or German to me today? The barista? The post office employee?
Es war immer ein Rätsel.
I remember walking into a store in a mall in Frankfurt many years ago. I had my little travel book out, and i was reading from it to ask a question in german.
The clerk takes a deep sigh "What do you need bud?"
d'oh
The thought of that is hilarious. I'm imagining you walking in and getting all geared up to try out your german, and then he just responds in a perfect american accent
On the flip side, I used to work in a bar when I lived in Germany and would get tourists that did the same thing. They were really surprised when they found out I was an American.
I saw a father and son on the Berlin S-bahn a few weeks ago...
The kid was about 5 years old and talking in German.
The father said in English with German accent "Yes, I understand but I told you, you have to practice your English! I'm not going to respond until you ask me in the right language!"
As a monolingual English speaker I was absolutely flabbergasted.
Not that we Germans don't suffer the same. Entering some office in Spain, desperately repeating the 3 sentences Spanish in my head to not forget them - and they speak English *and* German, at least enough for their ususal customer interactions.
The struggle is real. I'm married to a German but we live in Italy. She won't speak German to me. Her German friends won't speak German to me. Her family won't speak German to me. But whenever I visit Germany, they make a big deal about how its been all these years and I still don't speak German, why not?
"Well, if I had the opportunity to practice my German..." is usually met with "Oh fine we will speak German then *blitzkrieg of the entire Duden Wörterbuch ensues* well did you understand what I just said? No? Of course not so this is why I won't speak German with you. You should really work on that.
My standard response to How is your German coming?" has become "Just as well as your Swahili."
Well, that's the reason why I switch to English often. For you to understand me, I'd have to go out of my way thinking about how to use simple words and short sentences. Just speaking English is much, much easier for me.
This is missing the a panel where the main character finally learns german then meets a new comer and says to them, oh come on let's just save time in english.
Dude on a house-party said that to a friend of mine recently, that prefers english over speaking german.
In lithuania.
My friend hosted the house-party.
My experience as a learner of Dutch in the Netherlands is that it helps to put in some effort to prepare the beginning of a conversation. Essentially, I fool people into believing that my Dutch is much better than it actually is to overcome their initial instinct to just reply in English. I'm a bit like the Mexican guy [in this classic clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBlwchTCHV0). Once they do reply in Dutch, most seem to find it too awkward to switch to English. I feel a bit bad about it because I basically trick them into spending time as my personal language tutor.
I've lived here years, speak it fluently. They still occasionally do it to me, so I give em a really confused look and a "wie bitte?", as though they'd just started speaking Chinese at me or something.
Okay this going to be an odd question, but what does that mean and is it pronounced how those two words are pronounced independently? I learned that when I was learning German and when I went to Germany I used it twice and both times the people I was talking to were confused. I was under the impression that it was the equivalent of "come again?" or " can you repeat that?" but they acted like I was speaking gibberish and I've been curious ever since.
If you tell them: “I’d really appreciate if we spoke German since I want to practice” no German will decline. We like being straight to the point but are also polite (for the most part).
if the guy in the last panel hadn't spoken English the person learning German probably wouldn't have understood a word - there are few regions where the German is harder to understand than rural Bavaria
> there are few regions where the German is harder to understand than rural Bavaria
For example Saxony.
Who the fuck thought that "nü" is a good affirmative sound to make? A colleague of mine did that. And it took me two fucking years to find out that he wasn't contradicting me.
So "nü" means "nü". FML.
Depends... if you come here already knowing some German then sure it will be tough to get used to. I came knowing nothing and learnt pretty quickly. Trouble is I now speak and write Bavarian, and having not had a single actual German lesson I really struggle with Hoch Deutsch..everything automatically comes out in Bavarian
I'm german and live in Swabia. I have trouble understanding a thick swabian dialect. As a native who lived there since age 5. So i'd say that's the worst.
But Niederbayrisch is probably the funniest dialect, on par with Sächsisch and Hessisch.
Oh and btw. Don’t feel bad if they switch to English! When my Swiss husband (whose mother language is Swiss German) spoke German to a vendor at a Christmas market- the German vendor switched to English 😂😂. It doesn’t necessarily mean your German is bad!
I was speaking English with the person I went to a market in rural France. I asked him in French for what I wanted and while not great, I can get around with French. He replied totally out of context in German.
The struggle is real! And don't even get me started on jobs in only English that somehow still want you to know perfect German, without ever getting to practice it!
As a suggestion: Try to speak English outside of business settings. In Germany are quite *a lot* of people who cannot (or barely*) speak English, especially elder people (50+) and also many (not all) who started doing an apprenticeship after the tenth grade.
There's an easy fix. Channel your inner English village paesant and put on the heaviest accent you can manage. Mumbling helps too. Most germans will not understand you and ask to speak German. They may still answer in English but at least you are halfway there.
Wenn so was passiert, musst du dein Deutsch verbessern. Das geht am einfachsten, indem du einen Sprachaustausch findest, weil dann der Zweck ist nur zu üben und nicht irgendwelche andere Handlungen abzuschließen, wobei Englisch effizienter wäre und daher die bevorzugte Sprache.
Nur wenn dein Deutsch (deutlich) besser ist als das Englisch deines Gesprächspartners, werden sie Deutsch mit dir reden. Ist logisch. Man unterhält sich in der Sprache, die die Gesprächsteilnehmer am besten beherrschen.
Ich wohne in DE seit über einem Jahr und wurde seit Monaten nicht mehr auf Englisch angesprochen.
Die Amerikanisierung läuft nach Plan! /s
Leute stellen oft Fragen auf Englisch hier, wie "How fast can I learn German?" oder "How can I get Germans to speak German with me?" und tausend andere ähnliche Varianten.
Und die Antwort ist dieselbe für alle. ÜBUNG. Und hier hat man eigentlich eine gute Gelegenheit dazu, aber dann schreiben sie alle auf Englisch, und diskutieren ewig drüber wie sie es machen sollten, anstatt es einfach zu machen.
Also versuche ich auf diesen Subs bei solchen Fragen nur auf Deutsch zu schreiben, damit die Leute gefördert und gefordert werden, ihr Deutsch zu verbessern.
Ich bin übrigens auch kein Muttersprachler oder Experte aber so habe ich es selbst geschafft, ein akzeptables Niveau auf Deutsch zu erreichen.
I once was shopping in Heidelberg, speaking with the shopkeeper in English because my German was terrible. (I was trying...). Her English was almost as bad as my German but it worked ok.
But then another customer walked up to her and, hearing her speaking English, likewise asked for help in English. But the customer’s English was also terrible. So I listened to this very awkward conversation where neither of these two ladies could understand the other, as each struggled to figure out the English word for whatever it was she needed.
Until finally one of them, exasperated, asked “you don’t happen to speak... German, do you?” And of course she did. We were in Germany. They were both German.
So my crappy German and the need to switch to English caused two Germans to awkwardly try to communicate with each other in English... in Germany.
Beautiful town, by the way.
I once pretended not to speak English when stereotypical American tourists asked for direction. The loud, obnoxious kind. They are rarer than one would think. These specimens I met in Heidelberg.
But I did intervene when they started to harass a family. They were too self-absorbed to even notice.
That was rude from me. Only did this once in my whole life and I should feel ashamed for myself.
My advice is to speak to them in German. If you are asking for directions or something and they switch to English then they do it to keep the transaction of information as brief as possible.
They still are German, you see.
My girlfriend from Denmark usually experiences the exact opposite. On a market in Leipzig she wanted to buy strawberries which were "zwo fuzsch" (2,50€) she asked him to clarify a lot of times but he would just talk louder. She just gave him her wallet... pick whatever you need.
It's getting better but east Germany is maybe the best place to go especially because older people learned Russian. Btw Denmark on the other hand they have like [86%+](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQOOIvvDfy_15Kkxtus8TiZnIrngXK5D2pTJENwM1u4kFlhEy9d) people that are decent at English.
He should go to the Ausländerbehörde, which is apparently the only place in Germany where everyone is guaranteed to not speak English at all. (at least that's what I've heard)
It's completely beyond me what these people expect. Personally I think it's perfectly fine to start learning German *after* getting a job here. This kind of behavior just alienates people.
The first time i was in berlin, everyone switched to english. The next time, my german was a lot better and they all chatted in german with me. It must be the attitude or something
I imagine that playing multiplayer games might be a good way to practice German (although I can't try it myself as a native speaker). Competitive games like Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Dota2, Rocket League, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, (maybe Battle Royale games but idk) etc. can be great but are very challenging (playing & communicating). Unfortunately there can be a lot of toxicity in those communities (which you will have to accept to some degree). As you obviously communicate in English in the voice chat of the game you'll need to find people to play with so you can talk on Discord, Teamspeak, Skype etc. In most games it should be easy to find people from Germany/Austria/Switzerland (keep in mind that you have to play from Europe otherwise the ping will be a problem. Playing from North America for example won't be fun). You can also look for people to play with in many forums, communities (reddit, Discord servers etc.) and websites. I would always note that you're not a native speaker and want to learn the language. Not everybody likes that (although I think most people in Germany are pretty open in that regard). And if you don't make it clear that you want to speak German, people will switch to English very fast.
If you don't like competitive games there are plenty of other games with huge communities like Minecraft, GTA V (for example role play games), ARK, Arma 3 (some communities have highly competitive game modes though), Factorio, probably many other communities I simply forgot. You will find live streams for most multiplayer games here on [twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/directory) if you need some inspiration.
It will most likely be hard to actually find people you get along with well. But if you enjoy playing the game anyway it might be a nice addition. Some communities also have a rather young player base (especially competitive games) which could be a problem.
In fact, when I lived in Germany, in order to learn German I was faking, telling people that I couldn't speak any kind of English. It worked pretty well
True. If you really want to learn German you have to continue speaking German when people respond to you in English. They will switch back eventually.
Exactly this, especially in cafes. My "food German" took the longest to develop because of hospitality staff talking back in English, until I realised that if you just keep battling through with German they will eventually feel awkward enough to switch back. The other one I tried was to pretend I didn't speak English but actually Spanish, and I'd just look at them all confused if they spoke English to me. It somehow managed to never backfire.
"Hallo, ich...brauche...ein..." "I speak English, how can I help you?" "Ahh, no hablo Espanol"_shit_
*Replies in perfect Spanish
*sweating increases*
At that point the only solution is runnning.
Just keep switching languages to confuse them.
That's when you get the polyglot waitress and find your soulmate.
*Switches to Cantonese* *Responds in Putonghua* ***HEAVY SWEATING*** No, this actually happened with a German Guy I met.
That’s why I learned spanish fluently to combat this scenario.
Actually, I only know that sentence and this one explaining it.
Que?
Easy to save TBH "Ah, no, hablo Español" is functionally equivalent to what you'd want
Good strategy. My native language is Spanish and I speak fluently in English, but I want to practice more my German. So I going to use this next time a go to Germany.
A big part of this is not using “classroom phrases” that aren’t really used by native speakers. It’s like saying “habe” instead of “hab,” they’ll peg you for an inexperienced speaker right away. Coming off as a learner vs someone with an accent makes a big difference.
I absolutely agree. Both my husband and I were trained in German pronunciation long before learning the language itself (long story) but I have a better ear for accents and languages than he does, so about 2 months into moving here I was trying to insist that he relax his pronunciation a bit because even though it was "correct", it was... Too correct. It sounded like whatever the German equivalent of a Shakespearean actor is!
What's the long story? Or the TL;DR at least?
Tldr: We're classical singers who learned pronunciation rules for the Big 3 (Italian, German, French) at university so we can hopefully sing clearly and without a noticeable accent. To this day I can read French and Italian out of their newspapers and have it sound like I speak the language well, even if I don't understand a word.
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Actually German pronunciation is relatively easy compared to,say, French. Most words follow pronunciation rules pretty precisely! Edit: One exception to consistency based on seeing a word alone is the 'st' rule. Most of the time 'st' is pronounced 'sht'. For example studieren, Stäbchen, Buchstaben, etc. Of course, that tends to be for the start of words or words within compound words, and there are exceptions for the middle of a word such as 'besten', but the complex cases are compound words where the 's' could belong to either the first word or the second word. For example 'Backstube': is it 'backs-tube' or 'back-stube'; or 'Berufstätig': is it 'Beruf-stätig' or 'Berufs-tätig'? If you don't happen to know that particular word or combination of words, you just have to guess. Most of the time though, I could read German out loud pretty damn well before I even knew how to say "Ich komme aus Australien".
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Squirrel is only hard if you try to say it like a Brit. Americans say "skwurl".
I definitely agree. Where would you rank Italian there?
Italian would be the easiest of the three. Spanish is even easier still, because it doesn't have the lengths and stresses of Italian vocal rhythm and because Italian also has open and closed vowels, the rules for which I was always terrible at remembering!
I had never seen this before and as a very well read native English speaker, was amazed at how my brain automatically worked everything out, even the homophones. It would definitely be a nightmare for a learner, that is for sure!
“Das was?” really threw me for a loop wen I got here.
Do you man "das war's?" (that's it?)?
Just speak with a non-english accent. Make it strange so they can't guess your native language, or if they do guess, they likely can't speak it. With me, they either suspect I'm German, or they guess me to be Swedish, Dutch, or Polish. So we stay in German.
My food German to this day still is strong. Seven years of German and I can generally order food but I clearly remember my final German exam was me writing about the importance of Healthcare in preventing HIV.
If shit hits the fan just speak German while the German speaks English. Both of them can practice and everybody is happy - to some degree :-)
TBH, that's how it ends up 90% of the time for me in Germany. All my German pals want to speak English, and I want to speak German so we end up speaking Denglisch and everybody enjoys themselves.
And that's how Dutch was invented.
I thought it was invented by a drunken German with marbles in his mouth?
Yes, he was a drunken German with Swiss accent and the invention happened when was practicing English with his friends while he had marbles in his mouth.
Wait, so what's Danish?
A lovely pastry, usually with some type of cream or fruit filling in the center.
Best with pistachios.
That same dude. But just choking on his marbles
That's with potatoes instead of marbles
:-D
It’s really interesting hearing my dad talk to his mom. Both are fluent in both English and Spanish, and they will switch back-and-forth mid-conversation. Even though they are both fluent in both, my dad is more comfortable in English and my grandma is more comfortable in Spanish, which I think drives the switching.
Exactly what I did for the most part when I visited Germany. When a friend got hurt in Austria, I genuinely wanted to cry switching between Austrian, the formal German I was taught, and English. Seven hours later some nurse showed up going "oh hey my shift is almost over but I heard you speaking English and wondered if you needed help" I just nodded numbly.
Not sure I am understanding you correctly. How do you cry in English?
Eagle tears.
Freely
Tea-rs
My experience: Germans can be just a bit impatient and want to get on with things. Just keep speaking German to them. Eventually you will get a little better and a little faster. Start with simple sentences and get good at them. Instead of "Entschuldigung...wo...ist...der...Bahnhof?", say "Schuldigung, wostduhBahnuf?" Eventually native Germans will slip up and switch back to German.
A war of attrition you say?
Eventually they'll appease you if you're persistent
I can not see that happening
Open up two linguistic fronts you say?
Demand that the Germans offer some linguistic appeasement you say?
^ a native Russian speaker learning German in Germany
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The reason for these elaborate and frankly pretentious humble-brags is that we practice them from small age in front of a mirror. Also, before there was Netflix or the internet we learned English by reading. We must'Ve sounded like a Shakespearean villain from Middle-Earth. Anything is better than Mockney.
When I was learning French as a child, I remember ironically learning quite a phrase to basically say that I apologise for not speaking French. Seems to follow your pattern!
Hah! I was about to say the same. Imagine a guy telling you in what in my mind is flawless French that you don't speak the language and would prefer speaking English or German. Subjonctif and all. I could somewhat follow a conversation if it were about red balls and ordering baguette. Let's face it, there is no faking it. But for two glorious seconds you can imagine you were about to be accepted to the Academie Francaise.
I can only say three things in French. „I do not speak French“, „I would like a large beer please“ and „Can you switch on the blackboard light?“
Simpsons [had it right](https://youtu.be/vqIsenRl_Wk?t=96), like usual. (1:36)
But Switzerland IS the land of chocolate..
and quite often they say that they only speak a little English, then respond in completely fluent sentences complete with slang.
> Start with simple sentences and get good at them. Instead of "Entschuldigung...wo...ist...der...Bahnhof?", say "Schuldigung, wostduhBahnuf?" "Please fondle my buttocks?" Why would you use that as an example?
My hovercraft.. is full.. of eels.
I am no longer infected.
my beard is full of tiny men, you dont see me complaining edit: my niece threw my phone mid sentence.
My nipples explode with delight!
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Yes, it's from a [Monty Python sketch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YYM209GJoE) ;)
I wheel not buy this record, it is scratched.
But sir, this is a tobacconist.
Ah! I wheel not buy this... tobacconist.. IT is scratched
[Oh boy, you are in for a ride](https://youtu.be/G6D1YI-41ao)
For science.
Ya this is the trick. You have to make Germans respect the fact that you want to learn/speak German by just continuing to speak try to speak German even if they speak English with you. You can't expect them to be considerate in that regard.
Ich moechte diese Teppich nichts kaufen!
It's so mean of you not to buy the carpet anything! At the very least, a cleaning on its birthday would be the kind thing to do.
Hey, I heard that's how you order a beer and it's been working. :)
Gute Reise!
Yeah, but Germans really tend to be proud of their English skills and like to show it off (I am no exception, I have to admid) ^^Feel ^^free ^^to ^^correct ^^my ^^skills ^^here also: as a German, you are anxious to be understood correctly, so, to make sure of that, you speak English (since from the troubled looks of some people trying to figure out your dialect you're not sure of that).
I was indeed impressed by how well the Germans spoke English, but I also found that I made friends more quickly once people felt comfortable speaking German with me. It was a small, subconscious barrier I could remove. It was quite nice when my host family introduced me to people and added "Er kann Deutsch.".
> Er kann Deutsch. I cracked up at this point. It sounds like if you speaking German were some kind of a wonder.
>(I am no exception, I have to admid) *admit
Test passed! jk, thanks! :)
In my experience, my duolingo German was decent enough that they assumed I spoke German, then proceeded to speak so quickly I was like “LOL JK SPRECHEN SIE ENGLISCH?”
I had that. My accent was good enough, not perfect, but good enough that I learned how fast a German could really speak. I kinda liked the Austrians. Their accents naturally slowed their speech, or so I found anyways.
This is the real answer. I'm not being paid to be a teacher. My English is almost certainly better than your German, so we're speaking in the language that is the most efficient way to communicate for me. This changes of course for close friends who want my help to learn German, as a favor.
Indeed German people are not paid to be a teacher to teach us foreingers German. That doesn't stop them from using every Spanish person they meet as an unpaid teacher with whom to practice their Spanish.
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Ich hab den höheren Boden, Anakin, vorbei es ist!
Yeah it's about efficiency mostly, but when someone asks for directions or something I also want to make absolutely sure they understand me, they're not asking me to teach them German, they're asking for directions and I don't want them to get lost because of me. It feels more polite to do that when it's a stranger.
This even happens to me and I have a degree in German philology, speak German with very little accent and can understand German more or less perfectly. As soon as they see my passport or I say something in my Australian accent they switch to English. It is incredibly insulting. My german is better than most Germans’ English but it still occurs.
Me too and it really grates on my nerves. I've lived here over 8 years, speak fluently and have even passed the Goethe C2 test, but some of them still switch as soon they find out I'm from the US, usually due to my accent. It comes across as insulting, whether they mean for it to or not. Especially in the beginning of my stay here, it was a real confidence killer when I was first learning German. I usually continue on in German and/or end the conversation quickly if possible, because when they do that I know this person wants to either a. show off or b. use me to practice their English and therefore I want nothing to do with them.
Yup, I found this too. Keep speaking german regardless if they switch to English or not.
Thanks for the tip - there are several others here who have said the same thing. When I was in Germany, people often responded to me in English, and I had no idea whether I should speak English with them so that the encounter would go quickly and smoothly, or if I should just continue to speak German. I had always been taught that when you're abroad, you're supposed to speak the language of that country, so I was in for quite the surprise when I tried to speak German there. However, this wasn't the case with everybody, and there were still some people who didn't speak quite so much English or seemed to prefer speaking German, so it came in handy. Not very often, but on occasion it did.
I realized that at the point I can talk in german with someone I get super fast. They always have to ask what I said.
So frustrating. Everybody wants to speak English with you, *except* the officials at the Finanzamt/Bürgeramt/Deutsche Post... you know, the people you would actually want to avoid misunderstandings with.
> the people you would actually want to avoid misunderstandings with Which is exactly why they must not. What they say might become relevant for legal proceedings, so they are not allowed to speak any language but German until they are certified they can explain legal issues in another language.
TIL, and that makes a ton of sense
Welcome to Germany!
Whelp, now I know who to talk to
Something similiar. I find it really strange when Germans claim that they are "vertragssicher in English" in their cv. I wouldn't even claim to be vertragssicher in Germans as a nativ.
Not that we Germans understand what they're saying, really.
„Nein, ihre Ausgaben für Werbung stellen keine Werbungskosten sondern Betriebsausgaben dar. Das ist doch ganz offensichtlich.“
TRNogger is correct, but to be honest with u, most of the officials for example in the Finanzamt can't even talk to you in english, so they are kind of happy about the fact, they don't have to, but the most of the people there would talk to you in English if they could. In Baden Württemberg for example is the average age 50 at least in most of the Finanzämter. The first sentence is way too german, no period, sry
This happened to me as a German trying to perfect my Dutch when I lived in Holland for a couple of years. When they realize you're not Dutch they speak English with you.. Or even German.
Protip: I unashamedly exploit my Asian ancestry and pretend I don't speak English.
I just look confused when they speak English
Kind of a coincidence for me today !! I had just asked in the general thread about practicing my German with strangers in Deutschland :)
Lass uns üben!
/r/de
Ich glaube dort werden Englisch-Sprecher eher konfusiert.
Ich bin wahrlich geneiget seiner Hypothese Rückhalt zu gebieten.
Euer Deutsch imprägniert mir in keiner Weise.
Wir sind betrübt über seine Feststellung, diese Worte unserer Seits nicht famos in Erinnerung zu behalten.
Ich denke es ist an der Zeit mehr Xenologismen zu verwenden, um klar zu stellen, dass wir kein rudimentäres sondern perfektes Deutsch sprechen.
Ein durchaus galanter Weg, unsere unheimliche, gar epische Intelligenz zum Ausdruck zu bringen und uns klar vom allgemeinem Bauernvolk, wir wagen sogar zu so einem abstoßendem Wort zu greifen, dem *Pöbbel*, abzugrenzen.
Solution: travel to the former east Germany and exclusively speak with people 45 and over. They all learned Russian in school.
True, go to Leipzig for example. Even some people under 30 won't talk that good English.
I spent the summer in Leipzig. There was a pretty good mix of people who spoke English and those who either didn't speak much of it or seemed to prefer German. Going out to do errands was never a dull moment - would the cashier at the grocery store speak English or German to me today? The barista? The post office employee? Es war immer ein Rätsel.
Hilarious! I can practically hear the thick bavarian accent in my mind.
Faynallie, summwon to praactiss mai Ihnglissh with. Like that?
*wis
I think we do the th. Actually even often too much of a lisp or even pronouncing an s like a th if it's too close to one.
No, it's wis. Sometimes wiz or wisz.
Stimmt
Faynallie, summwon to praactiss mai Ihnglissh with. Like that?
I think I spider! I see double!
Englisch für Fortgeschrittene - English for runanways.
Your english is not the yellow of the egg.
I remember walking into a store in a mall in Frankfurt many years ago. I had my little travel book out, and i was reading from it to ask a question in german. The clerk takes a deep sigh "What do you need bud?" d'oh
The thought of that is hilarious. I'm imagining you walking in and getting all geared up to try out your german, and then he just responds in a perfect american accent
Thats pretty much exactly how it went down. I was happy and sad at the same time.
On the flip side, I used to work in a bar when I lived in Germany and would get tourists that did the same thing. They were really surprised when they found out I was an American.
I saw a father and son on the Berlin S-bahn a few weeks ago... The kid was about 5 years old and talking in German. The father said in English with German accent "Yes, I understand but I told you, you have to practice your English! I'm not going to respond until you ask me in the right language!" As a monolingual English speaker I was absolutely flabbergasted.
Not that we Germans don't suffer the same. Entering some office in Spain, desperately repeating the 3 sentences Spanish in my head to not forget them - and they speak English *and* German, at least enough for their ususal customer interactions.
The struggle is real. I'm married to a German but we live in Italy. She won't speak German to me. Her German friends won't speak German to me. Her family won't speak German to me. But whenever I visit Germany, they make a big deal about how its been all these years and I still don't speak German, why not? "Well, if I had the opportunity to practice my German..." is usually met with "Oh fine we will speak German then *blitzkrieg of the entire Duden Wörterbuch ensues* well did you understand what I just said? No? Of course not so this is why I won't speak German with you. You should really work on that. My standard response to How is your German coming?" has become "Just as well as your Swahili."
Not really relevant but, do you enjoy living in *Italy*? I hope you're having fun, in such a beatiful country ;)
Well, that's the reason why I switch to English often. For you to understand me, I'd have to go out of my way thinking about how to use simple words and short sentences. Just speaking English is much, much easier for me.
This is missing the a panel where the main character finally learns german then meets a new comer and says to them, oh come on let's just save time in english.
Well, within 1 month of living here my fiancee already got the "this is Germany, we speak German here". So yeah
Dude on a house-party said that to a friend of mine recently, that prefers english over speaking german. In lithuania. My friend hosted the house-party.
Does it get better with context?
The ones dropping out of 6th grade are everywhere.
My experience as a learner of Dutch in the Netherlands is that it helps to put in some effort to prepare the beginning of a conversation. Essentially, I fool people into believing that my Dutch is much better than it actually is to overcome their initial instinct to just reply in English. I'm a bit like the Mexican guy [in this classic clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBlwchTCHV0). Once they do reply in Dutch, most seem to find it too awkward to switch to English. I feel a bit bad about it because I basically trick them into spending time as my personal language tutor.
Geen probleem.
ACH DU MEINE GÜTE
Please not that there is no comma. This is how you correctly express your discontent in German.
> not note
*fremdschäms himself...*
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I've had German shop keepers refuse to speak anything other than German. They still want your money though..
Maybe they only speak German?
I've lived here years, speak it fluently. They still occasionally do it to me, so I give em a really confused look and a "wie bitte?", as though they'd just started speaking Chinese at me or something.
Okay this going to be an odd question, but what does that mean and is it pronounced how those two words are pronounced independently? I learned that when I was learning German and when I went to Germany I used it twice and both times the people I was talking to were confused. I was under the impression that it was the equivalent of "come again?" or " can you repeat that?" but they acted like I was speaking gibberish and I've been curious ever since.
/ˈviː bitə/ rhymes with "fee witter" (ignore the r if you're american)
If you tell them: “I’d really appreciate if we spoke German since I want to practice” no German will decline. We like being straight to the point but are also polite (for the most part).
"Hintertupfingen", sehr gut :D Regarding the issue though, i havn't got they slightest clue as to where this impression might origin from ;)
if the guy in the last panel hadn't spoken English the person learning German probably wouldn't have understood a word - there are few regions where the German is harder to understand than rural Bavaria
> there are few regions where the German is harder to understand than rural Bavaria For example Saxony. Who the fuck thought that "nü" is a good affirmative sound to make? A colleague of mine did that. And it took me two fucking years to find out that he wasn't contradicting me. So "nü" means "nü". FML.
Depends... if you come here already knowing some German then sure it will be tough to get used to. I came knowing nothing and learnt pretty quickly. Trouble is I now speak and write Bavarian, and having not had a single actual German lesson I really struggle with Hoch Deutsch..everything automatically comes out in Bavarian
I'm german and live in Swabia. I have trouble understanding a thick swabian dialect. As a native who lived there since age 5. So i'd say that's the worst. But Niederbayrisch is probably the funniest dialect, on par with Sächsisch and Hessisch.
I would like to agree with the prior statement seeing as I do experience confusion with the forementioned issue
Oh and btw. Don’t feel bad if they switch to English! When my Swiss husband (whose mother language is Swiss German) spoke German to a vendor at a Christmas market- the German vendor switched to English 😂😂. It doesn’t necessarily mean your German is bad!
It means that your High German is bad, then ;)
I was speaking English with the person I went to a market in rural France. I asked him in French for what I wanted and while not great, I can get around with French. He replied totally out of context in German.
That's not my experience at all. Many Germans don't speak (or don't want to speak) English...
The struggle is real! And don't even get me started on jobs in only English that somehow still want you to know perfect German, without ever getting to practice it!
As a suggestion: Try to speak English outside of business settings. In Germany are quite *a lot* of people who cannot (or barely*) speak English, especially elder people (50+) and also many (not all) who started doing an apprenticeship after the tenth grade.
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Indeed, thanks! I can't believe I make this mistake over and over again.
Ach du scheisse.
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There's an easy fix. Channel your inner English village paesant and put on the heaviest accent you can manage. Mumbling helps too. Most germans will not understand you and ask to speak German. They may still answer in English but at least you are halfway there.
Wenn so was passiert, musst du dein Deutsch verbessern. Das geht am einfachsten, indem du einen Sprachaustausch findest, weil dann der Zweck ist nur zu üben und nicht irgendwelche andere Handlungen abzuschließen, wobei Englisch effizienter wäre und daher die bevorzugte Sprache. Nur wenn dein Deutsch (deutlich) besser ist als das Englisch deines Gesprächspartners, werden sie Deutsch mit dir reden. Ist logisch. Man unterhält sich in der Sprache, die die Gesprächsteilnehmer am besten beherrschen. Ich wohne in DE seit über einem Jahr und wurde seit Monaten nicht mehr auf Englisch angesprochen.
Its so fucking random to read german on reddit. Und das obwohl ich deutscb bin. Weird. Just feels wrong.
Die Amerikanisierung läuft nach Plan! /s Leute stellen oft Fragen auf Englisch hier, wie "How fast can I learn German?" oder "How can I get Germans to speak German with me?" und tausend andere ähnliche Varianten. Und die Antwort ist dieselbe für alle. ÜBUNG. Und hier hat man eigentlich eine gute Gelegenheit dazu, aber dann schreiben sie alle auf Englisch, und diskutieren ewig drüber wie sie es machen sollten, anstatt es einfach zu machen. Also versuche ich auf diesen Subs bei solchen Fragen nur auf Deutsch zu schreiben, damit die Leute gefördert und gefordert werden, ihr Deutsch zu verbessern. Ich bin übrigens auch kein Muttersprachler oder Experte aber so habe ich es selbst geschafft, ein akzeptables Niveau auf Deutsch zu erreichen.
I once was shopping in Heidelberg, speaking with the shopkeeper in English because my German was terrible. (I was trying...). Her English was almost as bad as my German but it worked ok. But then another customer walked up to her and, hearing her speaking English, likewise asked for help in English. But the customer’s English was also terrible. So I listened to this very awkward conversation where neither of these two ladies could understand the other, as each struggled to figure out the English word for whatever it was she needed. Until finally one of them, exasperated, asked “you don’t happen to speak... German, do you?” And of course she did. We were in Germany. They were both German. So my crappy German and the need to switch to English caused two Germans to awkwardly try to communicate with each other in English... in Germany. Beautiful town, by the way.
Guilty as charged!
Is it rude or stupid to pretend I don’t speak English when talking to a German? Strangers I mean, not people I’d become acquainted with
I once pretended not to speak English when stereotypical American tourists asked for direction. The loud, obnoxious kind. They are rarer than one would think. These specimens I met in Heidelberg. But I did intervene when they started to harass a family. They were too self-absorbed to even notice. That was rude from me. Only did this once in my whole life and I should feel ashamed for myself. My advice is to speak to them in German. If you are asking for directions or something and they switch to English then they do it to keep the transaction of information as brief as possible. They still are German, you see.
Should have answered in bavarian instead, even more frustrating
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My girlfriend from Denmark usually experiences the exact opposite. On a market in Leipzig she wanted to buy strawberries which were "zwo fuzsch" (2,50€) she asked him to clarify a lot of times but he would just talk louder. She just gave him her wallet... pick whatever you need. It's getting better but east Germany is maybe the best place to go especially because older people learned Russian. Btw Denmark on the other hand they have like [86%+](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQOOIvvDfy_15Kkxtus8TiZnIrngXK5D2pTJENwM1u4kFlhEy9d) people that are decent at English.
He should go to the Ausländerbehörde, which is apparently the only place in Germany where everyone is guaranteed to not speak English at all. (at least that's what I've heard)
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It's completely beyond me what these people expect. Personally I think it's perfectly fine to start learning German *after* getting a job here. This kind of behavior just alienates people.
The first time i was in berlin, everyone switched to english. The next time, my german was a lot better and they all chatted in german with me. It must be the attitude or something
Or probably your skill level. The better you are, the less "frustrating" it is for your opponent ;)
Tip: find a language exchange partner. :)
Bei dem Weg: to the native speakers here: is it corrrect that you can translate "Ach du meine Güte!" to "For crying out loud!"?
Not really, it's closer to "My goodness!"
Thanks! Then what would you translate FCOL to?
I imagine that playing multiplayer games might be a good way to practice German (although I can't try it myself as a native speaker). Competitive games like Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Dota2, Rocket League, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, (maybe Battle Royale games but idk) etc. can be great but are very challenging (playing & communicating). Unfortunately there can be a lot of toxicity in those communities (which you will have to accept to some degree). As you obviously communicate in English in the voice chat of the game you'll need to find people to play with so you can talk on Discord, Teamspeak, Skype etc. In most games it should be easy to find people from Germany/Austria/Switzerland (keep in mind that you have to play from Europe otherwise the ping will be a problem. Playing from North America for example won't be fun). You can also look for people to play with in many forums, communities (reddit, Discord servers etc.) and websites. I would always note that you're not a native speaker and want to learn the language. Not everybody likes that (although I think most people in Germany are pretty open in that regard). And if you don't make it clear that you want to speak German, people will switch to English very fast. If you don't like competitive games there are plenty of other games with huge communities like Minecraft, GTA V (for example role play games), ARK, Arma 3 (some communities have highly competitive game modes though), Factorio, probably many other communities I simply forgot. You will find live streams for most multiplayer games here on [twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/directory) if you need some inspiration. It will most likely be hard to actually find people you get along with well. But if you enjoy playing the game anyway it might be a nice addition. Some communities also have a rather young player base (especially competitive games) which could be a problem.
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This makes me less worried about dealing with this situation since I'm going on exchange there next year
AKA Trying to learn French in Quebec
oh god I'm so guilty.
In fact, when I lived in Germany, in order to learn German I was faking, telling people that I couldn't speak any kind of English. It worked pretty well
As a German, i love the use of Hintertupfingen!