We had an English colleague in Germany who actually gave up learning German because it was too easy to speak English with everybody (although I am sure that the Double Past Perfect had some influence, too)...
Very funny. We ran into the same in Japan. Just about everyone spoke much better English than our horrible attempts at Japanese. It was handy to be able to understand the announcements on the trains. Just don't ask me to actually form a sentence.
The Dutch are even worse than Germans, as a country with historic roots in trade most of them are usually tri-lingual. Remarkable people by the way, and good to work with we'd say from own experience.
Ah yes, very accurate....my poor attempts at the German language almost always resulted in the person I was trying to communicate with to start talking English....
Apologies on behalf of our fellow countrymen. ;-) We try to be helpful when switching to English, but we understand it must feel rude to the person who makes an effort to speak the native language.
Thank you, Bob. Imagine… we were forced to learn it in school from Junior High on (no choice, it was either English or French, and two years later another language was added), and these days German kids even start out as early as in kindergarten. The business language is still English (although it might become Cantonese or Mandarin one day the way it's going), and education starts early...
I had been told this by a German friend. She laughed about it and said exactly that- Germans are proud of their English!
ReplyDeleteWe had an English colleague in Germany who actually gave up learning German because it was too easy to speak English with everybody (although I am sure that the Double Past Perfect had some influence, too)...
DeleteVery funny. We ran into the same in Japan. Just about everyone spoke much better English than our horrible attempts at Japanese. It was handy to be able to understand the announcements on the trains. Just don't ask me to actually form a sentence.
ReplyDeleteQuite impressive that you can actually speak some Japanese! The only Japanese we know is Domo Arigato (Mr. Roboto)...
Deletefunny comic (and indeed true).
ReplyDeleteYeah, those darn Germans.
DeleteI thought I might learn Dutch while working here, but as your comic shows, there's no point - everyone speaks English here.
ReplyDeleteThe Dutch are even worse than Germans, as a country with historic roots in trade most of them are usually tri-lingual. Remarkable people by the way, and good to work with we'd say from own experience.
DeleteLooking for a place where you can find plenty of people who can't speak English? Come to Quebec (outside of Montreal)!
ReplyDeleteProblem is they don't speak French either! :-)
DeleteAh yes, very accurate....my poor attempts at the German language almost always resulted in the person I was trying to communicate with to start talking English....
ReplyDeleteApologies on behalf of our fellow countrymen. ;-) We try to be helpful when switching to English, but we understand it must feel rude to the person who makes an effort to speak the native language.
DeleteThank you, Bob. Imagine… we were forced to learn it in school from Junior High on (no choice, it was either English or French, and two years later another language was added), and these days German kids even start out as early as in kindergarten. The business language is still English (although it might become Cantonese or Mandarin one day the way it's going), and education starts early...
ReplyDeleteWhat's the problem? Ich frage auf Deutsch and You answer me in english. Both of us are happy :-)
ReplyDeleteSo habe ich es in Dänemark gemacht (ich auf Dänisch, die auf Deutsch zurück). Wir hatten VIEL Spaß mit dieser Lösung ;-)