Comments on: Germans think they speak better English than they do

By: josephdietrich

josephdietrich — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 01:01:59 +0000

My favorite from the world of web development: I often used to see job ads seeking “Flashers (m/w)” on the trade websites. These are, selbstverstandlich, people who can create animations with Adobe (Macromedia) Flash.

I don’t see it nearly as much nowadays, but still occasionally …

By: MST

MST — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:48:50 +0000

Your writing is offiensive. Only a racist would insult African Amercans by defining “shooting” as that which “happens on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard once a day;” You are very cozy with the stereotype that all African Americans are violence prone.

I agree, Marjorie. I am African American and I am not involved in any sort of violent activities at all, nor are my family or friends. Why say something like this?

Anyway, I have a German friend and he makes some mistakes (like saying “funny” instead of “happy”) but it doesn’t bother me. I think it’s kind of cute.

By: Terminologia etc. » » Germanismi in inglese e anglicismi in tedesco

Terminologia etc. » » Germanismi in inglese e anglicismi in tedesco — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:32:46 +0000

[…] Una risorsa correlata è Invented English Words, esempi di pseudo-inglese in tedesco, ovvero falsi anglicismi come handy (il telefonino), a cui aggiungerei public viewing e altri esempi descritti in Germans think they speak better English than they do. […]

By: Florian Blaschke

Florian Blaschke — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:21:11 +0000

Especially Germans, of course, because they see the obvious similarity to their own language and therefore are much more prone to the fallacy of believing that in English, when in doubt, things work exactly like in their native language.

By: Florian Blaschke

Florian Blaschke — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:18:47 +0000

Kristine, of course John is overgeneralising! He’s taking the mickey out of everyone here, be it Germans or Americans. Just to give you a hint: This blog is irreverent and just “for the lulz”, as the young people would now say.

Your English is very good indeed as far as I can judge, and the same has been said about mine, even though I’m German too, so you can lighten up! We all know here that there are Germans whose English is excellent, but John has a point: A lot of people overrate their English skills, believing English to be an easy language.

By: Anja

Anja — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:49:27 +0000

This is so typically German (the comment above). I love ALL postings although I’m German. My English isn’t perfect by any means, but I neither have an British accent nor make any of those mistakes listed above. But still… It’s soooo funny to read! Why are you (above) sooo German about it? This is ridiculous!!! I know too many Germans who’ve been living in the States for years and are still making those stupid mistakes! And the best thing: No American would ever laugh at you for it!!

Love the book, the page and the humour…and it always is great to send a link to one of those great postings to my American friends!! Keep up the good work!

By: Kristine

Kristine — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 01:57:04 +0000

Okay, I’m a native German speaker (although I live in the Netherlands now) and I don’t make any of those mistakes you listed here. EVER. Further, I honestly do believe my English is good and I am certain this is not just me deceiving myself. Here’s a thought, how about you stop to overgeneralise?

Or, if we’re just bashing other nation’s language skills, here’s some pointers to America. What’s so difficult about keeping they’re and their apart, or then and than? Also, go with British spelling, ‘American’ is not a language.

By: michel

michel — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:33:16 +0000

the germans have their language”abgef[rea]kt”

deutschermichel should know!

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By: Thunor

Thunor — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 01:24:31 +0000

Seriously the Germans have ruined their language in the last 60 years as much as it has taken a 1000 years for Norman/French to infect English. Actually, probably even worse… at least English pronounces these words with English pronunciation, plurals and so on. That takes me to another point stop using the English plural, stop using -s!!! It’s not a German plural!!! Seriously, you know that a language is pathetic when the only productive plural is the plural of another language and it own plurals are just a massive list of exceptions. Just because the word is of English origin doesn’t mean you have to use its plural in German, it’s German now use a German plural!!! What’s wrong with adding an -e or -en seriously? It’s not like you use English verb conjugations for all the English verbs that are loaned into German. Norwegians for example speak even more English than the Germans and they use their own plural for such words “-er”.
Then there are these annoying compound words that could easily be translated into German but are not: Notebook(s)(computer) Why not Notizbuch(bücher) and Cupcake(s) why not Tassekuchen or something like that. It just seem like common sense. I’m not bashing German either, I myself am of German blood and it pains me to see this happen to the language of my Father and ancestors.

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:17:33 +0000

I’m Australian and I call a BMW a beamer. My favourite German-ism is saying this night instead of last night. It’s a beautiful case of direct translation ‘heute Nacht’. I think these changes in how different people speak a language are fascinating and fun. I know there are bits of my German that are complete crap, though my accent is apparently good (yay!). My Swedish is even worse, I keep getting German caught up in it!