Fri 22 Mar, 2013 06:39 pm
Why do people come to Germany and complain about discrimination when they speak in English, not in German?
Some idiot fucktards say things like ""The English spoken by the average German is not very good, so when they see a not-English foreigner speaking a better English than them, they get pissed off and envious, since they cannot stand for the fact that a "bloody foreigner"".
It has nothing to do with jealousy or anything like that. Even if a German's English knowledge is bad, he has all the right to be pissed at the guy who pushes him on the stage, as it's normal for a guy to be angry at being pushed on the stage even when he is bad at dancing, singing, or speaking in front of a large audience.
Who cares if your English skills are better than a German's? You're living in Germany. If you said your German skills were better than the native German speakers you meet, I'd have respect for you. But that's not the case. You have never been to France? By the way if you get regularly bitched at for speaking English you might want to stop hollering.
Most Germans given half the chance will gladly help out when they see someone struggling, but at least making an effort to speak the language.
OK, I understand, English is undoubtedly the language of the world -- lingua franca and all that. Nearly all people in the world must at some point communicate in English. It would be idiotic to dispute this. However, why should this mean that every person in every culture is to simply accept it? What if Germans only grudgingly accept it? What if they're proud and fond of their own language - why shouldn't they be, after all?
Germans do have the right to pick and choose what foreign languages they invest in and it may be that English isn't one of them.
@High Resolution,
I couldn't understand your question, because I envy your English speaking ability.
I am only kidding. I do sympathize.
Where do the majority of these "fucktards" hail from?
@High Resolution,
Most Germans do not complain at all and the majority of Germans are very helpful.
But there is something to what you say. In certain circles I have more than once heard
that "The English speak Queen´s English, the Americans can only speak slang and English is a language with very few words."
It is really fun to watch a German correcting a native speaking English professor which I have heard happen.
If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it might be a duck. Similarly, Germans might be morphing into some sort of American/English subset?
Historians might say the catalyst was WWII?
@Foofie,
Foofie wrote:
If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it might be a duck. Similarly, Germans might be morphing into some sort of American/English subset?
Historians might say the catalyst was WWII?
You mean, we'll won't be Anatidae Germanicae anymore?
@Walter Hinteler,
Naw . . . you'll just be Dutchmen.
Quote:Germans do have the right to pick and choose what foreign languages they invest in and it may be that English isn't one of them.
If Germany is to stay up-to-date in the scientific fields, all German researchers must be able to read and understand the English presently available in most of the scientific journals of the western world.
As an American doctoral student in chemistry, I was required to be able to read both German and French, both literary and scientific. I can speak a little German, but no French.
I'm happy today, that my graduate program had this requirement in place.
It has served me well.
@Miller,
Miller wrote:
If Germany is to stay up-to-date in the scientific fields, all German researchers must be able to read and understand the English presently available in most of the scientific journals of the western world.
English is taught from pre-school onwards here. At highschool,you get at least a second language. (Even 50 years ago, I had to learn English, Latin and French - 70 years ago, it was only Latin/Greek and French/English.)
@Walter Hinteler,
At my small Chicago High School, I took 2 years of Latin. The only other foreign language offered was Spanish.
In undergaduate college I took one year of German and at the graduate level I took 1 year of scientifc German.
I taught myself how to read French, a language which I can't speak one word of. I enrolled in a French reading class in Graduate school, but dropped it after one day, finding it a big waste of my time.
@Walter Hinteler,
Walter, you should check out Cmd. Col. Hadfield's pictures. He recently posted some great photos of German cities from space.
Here's one of Hanover.
@Ceili,
I did, Ceili (They are posted by his son, who lives in Germany
)
@Walter Hinteler,
Good. I didn't know he lived there. Does he work there?
@Ceili,
Ceili wrote:
Here's one of Hanover.
This has nothing to do with you, Ceili, but I've always wondered, why (and when) Ha
nnover lost it's second 'n' ...
@Ceili,
Hmm, I guess I spelled that wrong? We have a Hanover in Ontario, it's spelled with one n. My apologies. I didn't realize that.
@Ceili,
His name is Evan Hadfield (27 years old). He lives in Darmstadt, works now voluntarily 16-hours a day as a "social-media-manager" ("internet caretaker" he calls it) for his father. His wife works for a space science/technology company there.
@Walter Hinteler,
I'll bet he's busy. His dad has quite the following.
@Ceili,
It's spelled 'Hanover' in English (Duke of Cambridge, Vice Roy of Hanover ..., House of Hanover ....), but it's really
Hannover.
@Ceili,
25,000 to 30,000 twitter posts per day ....
@Walter Hinteler,
How did the House of Hanover end up in England? Marriage or war?
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