Saturday 4 July 2009
Saturday 4 July 2009
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Guest editor Dave Baxter experiences culture shock of a linguistic kindCulture shock is a strange phenomenon which many are vulnerable to and living abroad for the first time in my life, I have certainly been at risk. Germany varies wildly from my native country, England, in various respects. The people are different and so is the culture. People here are more abrasive but can also be more cheerful. Living here is much cheaper, at least for now. The food, the hair styles and the systems of law are also very different to those at home. What has really “culture shocked” me, however, is the language. I find it much too English.
My first shock was seven months ago, at a time when I had lived in Germany for just a few weeks. My flatmate, a native speaker, one day left me a note with the message ?Sorry, hab deine Milch geoeffnet!?, explaining the necessity to use my milk at the time. Socially, and in terms of practicality, this was not a problem but the linguistics bothered me somewhat. The word “sorry,” for me, was unexpected in my new land; it has an English origin, and there are original German phrases conveying the same meaning. Why was it used? Ten years of learning German scribbling new vocabulary, grammar tests, speaking and writing exercises had failed to prepare me for “Denglisch” or “Neudeutsch.”
These terms describe 
the strange composite of English and Deutsch, though English seems to have greater influence out of the two. A few German-orientated phrases, such as “Zeitgeist” and “keeping Stumm” have developed in English, yet the foreign phrases placed casually into use by Germans are multiple. “Sorry” can be accompanied in conversation by fellow Anglicisms such as “last but not least,” “strange,”? “ladies and gentlemen” and even “touchscreen.” More Germanised examples are “chatten,” “flirten” and “downloaden.”
Yeah I see your point but you can find this in almost every foreign culture. The Koreans and Japanese say handpone, which is their slang for mobile taken from English Hand and Phone. Or the German Handy, also an English word. We also do this in English, oh how many foreign words we use: especially French, German and Spanish. Languages change themselves words that had negative meanings later become trendy words for positive things: bad, wicked. A language is made by the people who use it. It will never be static.
You hit the bell with those comments on the ever changing German language. I have lived here in Germany for about twelve years now and the language has been changing fast. I have sometimes used genuine "old german" words such as Fernsehen or Fernsprecher (Tv and Telephone), and German friends have not understood the old words. I first learnt a little German back in the 60,s, and at that time ever town seemed to have a different dialect, now all that difference has gone, except perhaps for some places like Bayern. Having said that, back in the 60,s, When I went to villages in Devon or Dorset (England), one could not understand a single word, now they all speak a form of BBC english. So is it the world is ever evolving. Greetings to all, Brian
Look, language evolves, and there is nothing you can do about it. Sorry is a natural adoption, because "es tut mir leid" and "verzeihung" dont mean the same thing. I have often used the former and been asked "Was tut dir leid?"
Komisch doesnt mean strange in the same sense as we think of it - its more like strange/funny.
Lastly, we use a lot of German phrases in our speech, like "auf Wiedersehen", Zeitgeist, Realpolitik, Kindergarten, and many others, so why should they not be able to do the same. German is still German, English is still English, but they always were, and will be, related languages, and changing things
I agree that languages evolve but German has adopted English phrases and words with ever increasing rapidity over the last ten-to-fifteen years. My reasons for the phenomena are a) that it is fashionable and 'cool' to be able to add that little English verb in a Marketing slogan or TV ad. Worst culprits being 'relaxen', 'shoppen' 'standing ovations (I mean how bad is that??)' and b) the explosion of the use of the internet and computers where a knowledge of English (however small) goes a long long way.
One deplorable addition is the adoption, especially with the young, of the Anglo-Saxon word 'f**k, possible originating with the popularity of the Smokie song 'Alice' and their re-recording. At least they haven't discovered the 'c' word but I fear it is only a matter of time.
So I agree wholeheartedly with Dave B. OCL mid-70's ??
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