German Language

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Revision as of 20:25, 2 February 2006

German (Deustch, pronounced doitch) is the second largest of the Germanic languages, after English, and belongs to the three most learned languages in the world. It is spoken by more than 130 million people in 38 countries—mainly Germany, Austria and Switzerland—and thus belongs to the top ten most spoken languages in the world.

When planning to move to a German-speaking country, for a temporary or an extended stay, the need to have a basic understanding of the language differs from city to city and the purpose of your stay. In large cities, such as Berlin or Frankfurt, most people speak or at least understand English. This can be sharply contrasted to smaller cities such as Saarbruecken where English is rarely spoken and seldom understood outside of academic circles, not even in the visa office (Auslaenderbehoerde). In such situations working knowledge of basic German is absolutely necessary for tasks as small as asking for directions.

While most routine tasks, such as shopping or travelling by bus, can be managed without any exchange of words, a simple question from the cashier or bus driver can leave you completely stumped and unable to communicate or even understand the question.

Even in German Universities with English Programmes, it is not uncommon for all administrative tasks to be carried out in German only, since the English programmes form only a tiny minority and are a rarity in German Universities. In Saarland University, for example, new students are dependent on official help to register for the semester, getting membership for the cafeteria and for other administrative processes. Non-university documents such as the contract for your apartment, bank account, telephone line etc. are of course completely in German.

In view of this it is highly recommended to have a working knowledge of the language before arriving at the destination. Working knowledge goes further then memorising typical questions. Although a good idea in principle, the utility of such a technique is severly limited, since the person responding generally does not restrict himself to the handful of vocabulary you are familiar with. According to the experience of one student, his flawlessly constructed question asking for directions to the loo was met by a barrage of alien words fired out at full speed.

If you don't speak any German

If you find yourself in a German-speaking locality with little or no knowledge of the language, the following recommendations, which are based on people's experiences, may be helpful to you:

• Many times it's best not to beat around the bush and ask out flatly if the other person can speak English. Many people who can make themselves understood hesitate to switch to English to avoid making a fool of themselves (the very reason you might want to avoid switching to German).

• An even better idea may be to simply start off in Englisch pretending you fully expect the other person to understand. This works well to jumpstart many who otherwise would have declined to speak in English when asked (especially shop attendants).

• If you do ask the other person, asking "Do you speak English?" is known to be more successful than asking the same thing as "Sprechen Sie Englisch?". After all, how would you respond to a person who asks you in Urdu "Kya aap farsi boltay hain? Mujhe urdu nahi ati." If you know enough to ask that, you might be expected to know enough to stumble on a bit farther.

Learning German

The German language has a complicated grammar and is not an easy language to pick up. However, don't let that demotivate you, since there are a lot of excellent resources that can take you step by step through the process, often free of cost.

Resources on the Web

German Language at About.com]

Miscellaneous Information

If you want ask something in any office then first of all you must say "Guten Tag" (Good day) generally, in morning time "Guten Morgen" (Good morning), in evening time "Guten Abend" (Good evening). But if you want ask something from out of office then always start your dialogue with "Entschuldigen Sie bitte" (Excuse me). Prounciation of "Sie" is "Zee" in English.

• Remember you pronounce german word as it is written, for example the sound of "u" is always "oo" (as book) and sound of "ss", "ß", "sch", "st" and "sp" are "s" (as soap), "s" (as silence), "sh" (as sheep), "sht" and "shp" respectively, otherwise sound of "s" is "z" in English and sound of "z" is "s" in English.

Travel Information

If you go to railway station (Bahnhof or HauptBahnhof (main railway station)), then either buy your ticket from a machine (if you find) or find a room "Reise-zentrum" (travel center) and say the following question to the person/lady "Entschuldigung Sie bitte, Ich möchte reise nach XXX" (Excuse me, I want to travel to XXX (your target station, for example Frankfurt hauptbahnhof)). Then you say "Jetzt" (prounce it as Yetst in English) if you want to travel now, or tell him time such as "Acht Uhr" (8'o clock morning) for example, or "Vierzehn Uhr" (14'o clock) (pronounce it "Feyersehn Ooar", in German the sound of "V" is same as "F" in English). You need to learn countings in German. He/She will tell you the price of ticket and then you pay the cost to her/him. That's done.

Shopping Information

If you go to stores like Aldi, Lidl or Plus then you don't need to ask the total amount of your shopping at "Kasse" (cashpoint), since each "Kasse" has a machine that shows you the total amount of your shopping. Otherwise if go to "Flow market" (open market) then you need two senteces "Ich möchte XXX" (I need XXX (name of desired thing in German)) and "Was kostet das?" (What's price of this?).

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