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Germans, I have found, are more prone than most people to make me sit there and laboriously speak my limited German, and when the conversation reaches its capacity in that medium, reveal to me that they speak fluent English.
I wish the ones I'm dealing with did! You would think if you bought a couple million dollars of equipment from someone they would have English speaking techs to commission the junk! They can't even write in understandable English!!!Sheesh...We'll remember next year when we buy again.....
Its our language, we are born and bred into this language so we can use it whichever way we like. They have to speak like that or it is disrespectful, it isn't their language to mess up.
But practically all languages have been forced in to new territory and then years and years later, the people who happen to have lived in that territory become native speakers of the adopted language. So at what point do you get slang rights? Should all people in Latin America be super formal in Spanish until they learn native languages? Because even then that still wouldn't make sense as most people are mixed ancestry - which is also true of most everyone all over the world.
Either way, slang is okay and naturally languages will evolve over time, but when you break all kinds of modern grammar and make up a bunch of words so rapidly you will sound like an idiot, which is why I am amazed at how professional Germans (or the Dutch, Austrians, etc.) sound when they speak English.
Germans, I have found, are more prone than most people to make me sit there and laboriously speak my limited German, and when the conversation reaches its capacity in that medium, reveal to me that they speak fluent English.
LOL - I never let on that I am bilingual.
My family spoke English with SO during the first meeting. We are bilingual to the point US speakers insist we are Aussies. Mother then told him this was his treat and as we speak English he will learn to speak German. Thump! One year later he received his Jaegerbrief (hunting license with some attachments to keep it short) and turned out to be Schuetzenmeister of one of the old shooting clubs.
The Alpine mountain dialect was easy for him. High German is not his passion - too harsh for a Southerner on both sides of the pond.
English will never become the majority language in European countries...
Thatd the difference
You don't know that as much as I don't know that all North Americans will eventually be speaking Norse. Everything you know about the industralized world has happened in barely over 100 years. It's anyone's guess how things will change over time.
Its not like the UK is gonna go over and start taking over Europe.
They do not have much of a choice - English or Latin as first foreign language. For me it was mandatory in 5th grade, French in 7th followed by Spanish or Italian or Russian.
I would say that generally Germans speak English fluently. If we want to get closer, it gets pretty interesting.
- The young generation tends to speak it and write it better (definitely fluently level and accent pretty much non- present)
- The older generation (50+) knows English well for sure but since they are not used to speak it, it might take long time of practice (with tourists? ) to be able to speak it like a native American
- In the south they speak it way better: I lived in Munich for more than 2 years and recently moved up north to Hamburg. Since Munich is pretty conservative (I mean the mentality and the culture in general but its actually the most modern in terms of infrastructure and economics), I thought that in Hamburg they will speak better English but I am deceived! Hamburg is reputed here for being open to the world ("Gateaway to the World") because of its rich merchant history (it was once part of the Hanseatic league and so on) and the big harbor they have here. I even came across some young Germans who wanted to avoid speaking it when they had to.
- In the country side, the knowledge gets a bit more modest.
But generally Germans speak English almost native- level (not even compared to French people) and their accent is not really there (is it because German and English are both Germanic Languages?!).
Last edited by vernon-9; 04-26-2014 at 02:50 PM..
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) to be able to speak it like a native American
