In a brief moment of being pathetic, I would like to say before I start, that after having a mate over for just a few days the other week.. It made me realise how BORING living by yourself can be.. ! so, if you ever want to come back mate? :D
Well,
I have decided that I am going to do a post on the reason I am here :
"To improve my language skills and to gain necessary cultural experience by living in the foreign country"
according to my module guide!
I have (luckily) begun to dream in German now... which must be good... I still get people in school saying
"you speak English all the time"
well yes - Im here to teach it - to students and the teachers - so I kinda have to -But the rules are
1) In school - English with the students all the time, unless necessary clarification is needed... (its never necessary)
2) After school, German with the students, unless they speak in English first - then they have decided to have that conversation in English it is therefore their fault if it becomes difficult... they had the chance!
3) Teachers - either or, depending on the situation - if its general chat, German - complaining about other staff or students, English !
4) German all the time to non-school Folk.. don't assume that this shopkeeper can speak English.. go for German every time (excluding the Irish bar!)
I guess that this will mean, that to certain colleges, I only speak English but tough!! Im here to help them too! :D
To my wonderful students who read this... forget number 2 please.. if i know you have caught on to this you will get English 24/7!! :D
Anyway!.. I have been here now long enough I think to have enough experience to deal with it, so here goes.
The Culture
During our second year at Uni, we had a module (MFL111) which I know that all Sunderland students are now sniggering at, that was supposed to prepare us for coming abroad, and dealing with different situations that may arise
some of which were:
- going to a party - etiquette, should I take something and how long should I stay for
- out and about - dark places, new people and whole new surroundings
- what is that? - discovering the differences and how to deal with them.
well.. I paid £3320 for my tuition last year, and did 7 modules. that makes £474.28 per module.
MFL was a waste of £474. (there were some useful aspects, hence, not a waste of 28p)
We are all put together, German, French and Spanish, so it would be tough to do, but this would have been SO much better if they had brought a former Erasmus student from each language to tell us what they found shocking/ hard/ new/ different.
It meant that I was not prepared for some things in Germany, and I have had to adjust myself to certain things.
- Germans are really direct. There is no beating around the bush like in English. They are not rude with it, just to the point!
- Sorry is not said at every slight inconvenience, whether it was you or someone else that caused it
- "danke" (thank you) is not used as often. basically, you only use it when someone has gone really out of their way for you, and not moved their trolley so you can get passed!
- The word 'sofort' (immediately) that stereotype about it - its true.. sofort means sofort!
but there are other things too..
- Shopping - if you want pickled stuff, you are in luck! if you are looking for a 13 min microwavable lasagne for one... tough luck.. but also, in Germany, shopping is done by type of food... meat from the butcher, break from the baker etc etc so you cant just nip to one shop!! also DON'T FORGET YOUR BAGS!! only very few places offer plastic bags, and the cheapest I have seen are 19 cent paper ones
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| I Love tegut... |
- to further that note - shop etiquette.
"Schonen Tag noch" or 'have a nice day' is said really often.. reply "ebenso" or "gleichweis" (likeways, or back atcha!) because that's the thing to do! and not doing it appears really rude.. you can see it on people's faces if someone doesn't say it!
- saying Hello... if you read my post about the German Health system (opens new window) then you will get a good sense of how that works through an emphasised point of view.. but also see the point I make about people saying 'hello' - but its not just at the doctors.. its everywhere! pizza shops.. wherever.. people walk in an announce themselves with a "hallo"
once place I went the other day - the person didn't get a response the 1st time, so cleared their throat and said it again, louder. to get a response!
- Sarcasm... well... when on form, I can be VERY sarcastic.. this should only be done with people who have spent time in the UK.. otherwise, they are likely to take you seriously.. because everyone is direct
I was joking the other day saying that if my students spoke German, then I would throw them out the window.. she then asked me "is that allowed?" -_-
the other major thing.. is this 'du' and 'Sie' thing, Both ways of saying 'you', but one of them is formal...
whoever invented that needs to be strung up! For person who's mother tongue only has one form, this gets confusing.. I didn't use the 'sie' form the other day in a shop (I was very tired, and not feeling 100% -better now though, thanks for the concern) and I was treated like I had just shit in their kettle.. I didn't realise it at the time... but I do now. I realise that it is like me going up to a person in Tescos and saying "you, chips, where, now?" but I didn't at the time realise the gravity of it.. and now - im over using it great!
my last major point for now.. is recycling.
Pfand is amazing..
(watch the format change!...)
basically, a bottle of coke or whatever will have a price show like this
€1,00 + 0,25 Pfand.
you pay a total of €1.25 at the till. BUT when you take it to a recycling place, you get the 0,25 back, to encourage plastic bottle recycling!
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| a machine to collect your 'Pfand' back |
This applies to plastic (and I think glass) bottles...
BUT.. you also have to sort out your rubbish int bins, like the UK..
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| oh dear.. its even coloured to help me! |
sort them wrong and suffer the wrath!! I have obviously been doing it a few weeks now.. and all of a sudden, a very stern notice has appeared on the door to the bins telling us how to do it!
I think its aimed at me!
This is a long one eh?
Now the language..
There will be another blog on both of these topics, im sure, so this one is about the one thing I find most stark
ENGLISH
Centuries ago, English was made.. not the most creative language.. most of it was stolen from other people..
but , now, it appears that the other countries are taking stuff back.
there are so many words that have been derived from English that know about.. most are technology or new advancements.. but they even have phrases that they use..
for example
Ich werde es googlen - im going to Google it
Ich habe es gegoogled - I googled it
Man muss das im Facebook liken - you need to like that on facebook
dass habe ich geliked - I liked it
I mean really - geliked? that is taking an English verb and making it VERY German, grammatically!
other words - geaddet (added) / gestalked ( I mean c'mon!)
but there are loads - some can be found here (new window)
My favourite English word made German is
angepissed - to be pissed off
du siehst ein bisschen angepissed aus - you look pissed off!!
but also phrases...
Germans will actually say
"you don't Say" as a phrase! as a response to something shocking..
someone used it to me (Jerome!) and I was like.. OK English now!!.. He was totally baffled... because Germans use it!!
The video below below is in German and English combined (called Denglisch)
It doesn't matter if you don't understand as an English person... because to be fair, you will see how many English words and phrases there are! some words have been changed to make them conform with german grammar, but when you hear them, you will know which ones?
I will warn you - the song is average, but may get stuck in your head
This is called 'Denglisch' by a band called 'The Wise Guys'... they use no instruments, so everything you hear is done by mouth
So.. ill put another language and culture blog up sometime.. but now yet eh? I think it will be about German TV - that is 2 birds, one stone!
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