I mean I was planning to visit in the next couple of years anyway I guess…

  • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
    344·
    2 months ago

    nie.

    please be advised that speaking german properly is super fucking hard compared to learning many other languages, and you don’t need german in germany for the most part.

    when I’m in germany I speak my shitty, broken german and they respond to me in english

    • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
      24·
      2 months ago

      That’s when you double down and tell them in German that you don’t speak English. That’ll confuse 'em.

    • hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 months ago

      My favorite phrase to use in all foreign countries is “Please forgive me, I am American.” It gets a laugh out of almost everyone even when terribly butchered in any language and most people will then attempt English for you.

      Except Parisians, who do not care. I think they would prefer I point and grunt to trying either English or my awful French.

    • sparkle@lemm.eeCymraeg
      4·
      2 months ago

      Compared to other languages… If those other languages are Romantic, North Germanic, Dutch, Afrikaans, or Frisian. A majority of other languages are typically considered more difficult for people who only speak English.

      That being said, I found Russian way easier than German at first, but that quickly stops being the case… German shares a lot of semantic/syntactic similarities with English so you can reasonably assume that a lot of German constructions will easily translate to English, for Russian though it’s more unfamiliar and you have to put more effort into thinking Russian-y. The main thing that made German way harder at first is German declensions… ugh… Russian has a complex declension system but it’s extremely regular, while German declensions are pretty irregular and the declension of articles is especially bad because their forms overlap a lot. Adjective declension is similarly bad. German word order also fucked with me a lot but it’s decently rigid so you get it quickly.

  • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org
    14·
    2 months ago

    Does anyone know what is the deal with the images (I assume it’s some kind of German meme) of people or characters with instant ramen on their head?

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    11·
    2 months ago

    Number of German-language posts? I’m somehow not seeing those. I am however a native speaker of German already, so no need anymore to learn it.

      • viking@infosec.pub
        2·
        2 months ago

        War die erste Community, die ich blockiert hab. Erst auf .de, jetzt auf .org. So einen Blödsinn muss ich mir echt nicht geben.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 months ago

      Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

  • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
    9·
    2 months ago

    I’d be interested in learning, because German is the biggest contributor to modern English along with French. Of course the split happened long, long ago, but still…

    It would have to be a couple years though, after I (knock on wood) am done getting to about B2/C1 on French.

    • Bob@feddit.nl
      2·
      2 months ago

      German is the biggest contributor to modern English

      Common misconception. English and German are West Germanic languages with a common ancestor, whose ancestor in turn is common among Norwegian, Gothic, Saxon, etc etc. The only influence German has now is the odd loanword, like Weltschmerz and Schadenfreude. English loaned a lot of words from French a thousand years ago because Norman was the substrate language in England a thousand years ago and is still a sort of prestige language. Dutch is much the same but you never hear anyone say that.

      • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
        1·
        2 months ago

        The only influence German has now is the odd loanword, like Weltschmerz and Schadenfreude.

        Hahahahaha! XD

        Good luck, bro. (you’re gonna NEED it)

  • kn33@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    2 months ago

    I was thinking about it for a while. The posts encouraged me. The prospect of possibly wanting to leave the US in the next year or two depending on things also makes me want to learn a second language.

  • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    91·
    2 months ago

    I was learning it (super slowly, thanks ADHD) anyway, but it was when I finally read a 3-sentence long post and could read 90% of it without really thinking about it that I felt I was progressing at all

    So of course I haven’t practiced in weeks now, fuuck

  • spittingimage@lemmy.world
    92·
    2 months ago

    A better reason to learn it is that anything you say in German sounds like swearing.

    Mein Hovercraft ist voll von Aalen!

      • boyi@lemmy.sdf.org
        6·
        2 months ago

        Yeah. Once I overheard someone chatting behind me while in a train. I knew it was in German because I’ve learnt some long time before. It was the cutest (presumably romantic) conversation I’ve ever even though I didn’t understand much. Before that I’ve always thought French sounded the nicest, but that conversation shattered my belief.

        A while later, I went to Germany to visit friend. While at a museum I read out loud some descriptions on items there. He told me I spoke like in films, even like Hitler. Hearing him talking with family, it was very casual and there was no sudden change of intonation like in movies. I somehow realized stereotype in movies ruined my perspective on the language.

        • trolololol@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 months ago

          I recently started hearing playlists of French punk rock. I can confirm, if you don’t pay attention what they’re saying it sounds… German

          La vache! La vache!

  • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
    7·
    2 months ago

    I find it hard to imagine learning a language that I don’t foresee myself using at least once a week IRL

    I’ve tried learning French and German but honestly I very rarely encounter speakers of those languages and can count on one hand the number that didn’t also speak English.

    I’ve been learning Spanish though for nearly a year to great success.

    • PlexSheep@infosec.pub
      4·
      2 months ago

      Du muss nicht unbedingt sprechen um eine Sprache zu benutzen. Du kannst auch z.b. Medien anschauen auf der Sprache, oder lesen. Das letzte Mal, dass ich jemanden zum Englisch sprechen hatte war auf einer Hochzeit, ist also auch eigentlich sehr selten.

      • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
        2·
        2 months ago

        Por supuesto que si, tienes razón. Pero si solamente quieres aprender un idioma, cualquier idioma, generalmente es mejor si tienes un uso práctico.

        Pero si tienes ganas de aprender un idioma particular, por favor aprendes de todos modos si tienes un usó o no.

    • wildwhitehorses@aussie.zoneOP
      1·
      2 months ago

      This is why I struggle with the languages I want to learn. No use for them in the fay to day though I am sure I could find more German speakers than Scottish Gaelic

    • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
      1·
      2 months ago

      Now get this. I live in Montreal and three years in I can still barely understand français québécois, despite being immersed in it.

      Latin languages seem to be my nemesis.