Expatica's resident German teacher Renate Grasstat wonders why Germans are so uptight about the future.

If you have been in Germany recently, you will have been surrounded by Ostereiern (Easter-eggs), Osterhasen (Easter-hares), Osterhennen (Easter-hens), Osterküken (small Easter-chicks) and Osternestern (Easter- nests), made of chocolate, almond paste, fudge or jelly.

Why eggs for Easter? It makes some sense, considering the egg is a symbol for the circle of life, as it is not only the case in the Christian, but also in the Jewish tradition. Another, more secular theory says that in Catholic regions people used to have plenty of eggs after the period of abstinence in the weeks before Easter and had to find a motivating story for using them up - which is, at least for children, the "Easter-hare" painting the eggs in many different colours and hiding them for children to search for on Easter Sunday. But why hares?

One - probably not very Christian - interpretation associates hares and rabbits with speedy reproduction, so that we end up with the "circle of life" thing again. But this is only one of various possible explanations, including etymological ones, and nobody really knows.

Cranky traditions

If you have been living in Germany for a while, you know that this is not the only somewhat cranky tradition we have. Take for instance birthdays.

Why does the future make Germans so anxious?

Recently I was sitting together with Peter, Gemma and John, three English teachers living in Berlin, exchanging some gossip. At the end of the evening Peter invited us for his birthday party on the 12th of March. His birthday was on the 14th, but by then he would already be on the plane to Canada, he said. So the party was to be on the 12th.

No way! You can start celebrating your birthday the day before – which means that everybody is forced to stay till midnight when they are finally allowed to congratulate and you'll be finally allowed to unwrap your presents. But two days or even more before the actual date – incredible!

Very superstitious

Peter, Gemma and John were shouting at me unanimously. How strange we Germans were so superstitious! Not at all, I said, it is just  - a tradition! All three of them looked at me pitifully.

To be honest, I had never thought about that. I had always considered this unwritten law as a kind of social rule. You just didn't do it. But of course they were right: What was the reason for that if not the fear that something terrible might happen if you were celebrating too early?

I felt terribly ashamed. So it had been revealed that I was superstitious, childishly superstitious. Maybe it was sympathy that made John tell the story of how he celebrated his birthday "too early" with his English and German colleagues in Munich three years ago, although seriously warned not to by the Germans.

Misfortune

On his way home in the early dawn his former boss fell from his bicycle and broke his leg. I couldn't really make out if John considered this to be a real misfortune, but he admitted that home in Britain he just would have thought this accident had been due to alcohol. Surrounded by Germans he wasn't really sure anymore if this couldn't have been caused by evil fate instead.

But why are we so anxious about the future? Is it not part of the German character to think about the future, save money in bank accounts, be overanxiously concerned about what could happen?

Perhaps this is exactly the same thing: Don't act as if the future was already here – something might perhaps happen before it becomes real. Think about it, but never touch it, not even with words.

Disturbing

It is one of the most disturbing features of the German language, that we do not use the future tense as it is used in English or in many other languages. I am very often asked by beginners, in a kind of despair, how to express the future: "We haven't had that form yet!"

Celebrate early? No chance

Well, the form is just the present tense. In most of the cases we just use the present to talk about tonight, tomorrow, next week or even next year. Maybe we simply don't  believe in the future?

But the German language has a form for the future tense, some of you might want to argue. We use the verb "werden" (not "wollen" – beware of false friends!) plus the infinitive.

But in fact we use this not too often, and if we do, it usually has some kind of additional information in it, like for instance reassuring, calculating, arguing. "Ich werde fahren" means: I know that you doubt it but I certainly will!

Funnily enough, using the future tense can also mean that I assume something I do not really know. So forget about the future.

Will I go to Peter's birthday party – to get back to our discussion about superstitions and birthdays? Sorry, I said, I can't tell you now for sure. Wir werden sehen.

To read more about Renate Graßtat you can click on Education - Language Instruction under Expatica's business directory.

Do you have questions about the German language? Write to Renate Graßtat and she may use your question in a future column.

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Renate is currently offering new classes on "Survival German", Business Language, Understanding the Media, German Literature and Exam Preparation 2006. Visit www.learn-german.de or call +49 (0)30 615 26 35 for more information.

19 April 2006

Copyright Expatica 2006

Subject: Ask our German teacher, learning German, German language, German teacher in Berlin, German instruction, German lessons, future tense in German, German future forms