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"Switch to English" only in West Germany? | ||
Tags: Convincing native speakers | Germany | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4622 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 9 of 27 19 July 2012 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I went on a guided bicycle tour in Berlin a few years ago. It was across a mixture of
former West and former East Berlin, and the guide was showing us the "edgy" parts of the city, or at least places with that reputation. He was a youngish student, and a very nice guy. I asked if he might be able to add a few words in English at the end of each description of our stops. He smiled and very politely said he wouldn't be able to, implying that his English wasn't up to it. I don't know if that really was the case, but anyway, I didn't hear him speak English at all. He did promise to speak a bit slower and clearer than normal for my sake (I seemed to be the only non-native speaker), and he did so at first. But as time went on, he was warming to his subject(s), and speeded up, and also seemed to lapse into, not quite dialect, but into quite a strong accent, presumably Berlinerish. It was great fun though, and I'd love to do it again. The next day, I hired a bike and did my own version of the tour, but going a bit further afield. Not so satisfying linguistically, being on my own, but a great way to see a city. I highly recommend doing both these things. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5660 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 10 of 27 19 July 2012 at 10:57pm | IP Logged | ||
You explained it very well. That is excellent and very practical advice that lots of people can use. Thanks. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4327 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 11 of 27 20 July 2012 at 12:45am | IP Logged | ||
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My wife has had the experience that speaking German to staff in Berlin, and being asked if they could switch to English, since they don't speak German (usually Americans living in the City).
I didn't have the switching problem when I lived in Magdeburg, but then the older people had learnt Russian rather than English at school. I usually start a conversation saying, in German, that my German is not great, which I apologise for, and of course if they prefer we could switch to English. They never switch to English and are always very happy that I am making the effort to speak German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4416 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 12 of 27 09 August 2012 at 3:01am | IP Logged | ||
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I have heard this argument before, that people in Germany automatically switch to English when confronted with less-than-perfect German. Mind you, this claim is often made by people whose German ought to far better than it actually is.....a learning avoidance strategy perhaps?
The ideas that Germans all speak great English and are desperate to practise English don't sit too well together either. Why would you be anxious to practise a language that you already spoke very well? Personally, I've spent a fair amount of time in the former East Germany and I can confirm that if you speak a confident level of German then this fabled instant switch to English will almost never happen. I'm just back from a month in that part of the world and only one person requested that I speak English with him. I hesitated at a bakery stall over the name of some items, which prompted the line "Do you speak English?". But I ploughed on in German and he was happy to accept this. As mentioned earlier in the thread, the key is to be able to speak with a measure of confidence and to have your pronunciation at least approximately right. If you are clearly struggling with the language then an offer to continue in English will almost certainly be intended as a friendly request that would enable better communication, rather than withering contempt for you pitiful level of German. That said, there are many people in the former GDR who speak very little English due to the fact that Russian was the principal foreign language taught in schools until the early 90s. Most people over the age of 35 will be delighted to hear you speak German. I haven't been in the West quite so much. The level of English is much higher there but the fact that well-educated people tend to speak good English, doesn't imply that the whole population does. There are plenty of German people who did poorly at school or who have forgotten much of what they learned. There are people who think visitors to Germany should speak German. Like in many other countries, most people aren't actually into languages and are happy to hear their own language spoken to a reasonable standard. Of course there are Germans who do indeed enjoy speaking English, some of whom have addressed me from the outset in English upon realising I am British and being unsure of my level of German. This doesn't bother me in any way. In the UK, I have started conversations with German people in German. If your German is limited and someone suggests speaking English, explaining that you have come to Germany to improve your German usually does the trick. Most people respect this. Years ago, I arrived at a small Austrian hotel and attempted to check-in in German. I was lower intermediate level back then and the owner said it would be better to do the business transaction in English. But the next morning at breakfast he was happy to make smalltalk in German. You can never define a nation's people by an attitude towards languages. You will meet all types in all lands. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5013 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 13 of 27 09 August 2012 at 7:58am | IP Logged | ||
Sounds like my kind of plan ;-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| onurdolar Diglot Groupie TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4446 days ago 98 posts - 147 votes Speaks: Turkish*, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 14 of 27 17 August 2012 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Well everyone auto-switching to English seems to be an exaggeration; I did have a lot of people staring at me for minutes while i try to put sentences together ( and not making much sense at all) in west Germany. Only time people seemed to switch to English is that they already know i can speak English ( better then German ) at uni etc.
And i understand totally when people get impatient when one approaches to them with their amazing A1-A2 German and talk nonsense ( well people think they do make sense but it usually does not work, most people consider their language in TL lot higher then it actually is just because they can respond to automated questions in language teaching programmes) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4462 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 15 of 27 26 October 2012 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Go to Bavaria, people there don't switch from German to English.
They switch from a Bavarian dialect to Bavarian Hochdeutsch. ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nonneb Pentaglot Groupie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4545 days ago 80 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, Hungarian, French | Message 16 of 27 26 October 2012 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I only have much experience with the Ruhrgebiet and Köln/Bonn area, but I almost never had anyone want to
switch to English with me there, and I was no higher than A2 when I got there. I had a monolingual English friend visit while I was living in the area, and it didn't seem like many people were capable of switching to English outside of the touristy part of Cologne. When I got bogged down speaking, they were more likely to just get really frustrated than switch to English. I've only been in Berlin for a few days, but English seemed to be a pretty commonly spoken language there and the majority of people willing to at least try to speak it with you (I was travelling with non-german speaking friends). The whole myth of Germans all speaking good English and switching to English at the slightest mistake just doesn't seem to be true at all, but I could see how it might be the case in Berlin. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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