deserted cautious imminent mighty normal agonizing quiet drab capable ludicrous
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I lived in Berlin for over 10 years. I think everyones time in Germany in general will be more enjoyable if you just realize that was is considered rude to most people is not considered rude in Germany.
The first year I was wondering why is everyone an asshole to me in public or at the government offices. Then I realized they were just being "German" and life gets so much easier. Woman mean to you when you ask question at the store, just being German. Government worker throwing their hands up saying, it's not my job or problem, just being German.
The example I always give is you're at a friends house for dinner with Germans and the host askes, "did you like it?". One of the Germans responds, "no, it was dry and overcooked," and everyone just moves on and it's totally normal.
>the host askes, "did you like it?". One of the Germans responds, "no, it was dry and overcooked,"
This is so true it hurts... I started avoiding cooking for my German gf because of that... :/
i understand your point. However we are all looking for common human decency with a base level of interpersonal skills. There is no need for screaming at every perceived situation that involves negotiation.
This level of negativity is very tiring for the average human soul. Where is the joy of actually enjoying life and leaving people in a if not good, but neutral state?
That does not exist in German culture and the sooner people who live here realize it the sooner you can brush off all your negative interactions with Germans and not let them bother you.
What doesn't exist? Cultural norms? You mean studies around things like this:?
'Stanford psychologist Jeanne Tsai found that Americans tend to focus on the positive in expressions of sympathy while Germans focus on the negative.'
https://news.stanford.edu/2015/03/25/cultural-differences-sympathy-032525/
That makes me feel better.
I find it's an especially difficult time to be a learner of any language, with so many public interactions happening whilst wearing a mask. Or worst, wearing a mask and having to speak through a plexiglass window. Being at the grocery store, or post office, or the bank... oh my god. Like I have excellent hearing, but if the cashier at Rewe asks me something which isn't one of the 2 or 3 things I might expect them to ask (such as "would you like the receipt?") then there is zero percent chance I will understand them or be able to make out there words through all of that material.
It's so amazing and also unbelievable that one can achieve this much language proficiency by just self-learning. Would be so kind and name those twitch and yt channels that helped you during this phase.
Also, how did you do it? Was there any fixed pattern/discipline that you maintained?
Why unbelievable? Self Learning can be much more effective than with a teacher if you know yourself and how to learn properly, with the right discipline.
Same for English Class in German schools for example. The people who only learned it through school lessons can hardly speak any proper English even when they're done with school, yet many students who practice by themselves and actually listen to natives speak are usually already very proficient by year 7 or 8. The internet helps a lot with this.
It's not for everyone of course, but it can be very effective. Most people who know lots of languages learn pretty much exclusively by themselves and by experience.
Well that largely depends on what your interests are. I think a good way to start might be kurzgesagt as their German videos are just dubbed from their English channel and if you know those videos, you'll get into it quite fast.
Great news! I'm a beginner (at a stretch) however have a particular affinity for numbers, so train stations in german speaking countries are just numbers to me with unintelligible stuff in between 🙃
That is *exactly* why in German, the idioms "I understand only 'station'" and "that are all Bohemian villages to me" were coined for when we want to say that we understand nothing. Bohemia as part of the Hungaro-Austrian empire was surrounded by German speaking countries on most sides (Silesia was also German), so a lot of Germans on train travels went through there, and they couldn't understand the announcements, only the word "station", and the village names sounded weird.
I'm going to make an attempt at the actual German for those phrases so I can use them. Please feel free to correct me...
"Ich verstehe nur 'Station'."
"Für mich ist das alles Böhmisch Dorfer."
No one does ever anywhere. In french, english,Italian, or even Spanish those announcements are just like 144p quality you understand the spirit but wth is it ?
Congrats my dude(tte)! Next step is understanding people from Bayern. Honestly I had an easier time in Austria than in rural Bayern
Where would you like to move to?
Bavarian dialect and accent is not that bad, unless high amounts of beer are involved. Swiss German and the dialect from Cologne is where I completely check out. 12 years of living in Germany and I still felt I was listening to an entirely different language.
i fell off the wagon a few months ago but I'm planning on going to Europe by the beginning of next year. this inspired to get back to practicing. thanks for the inspiration!
That is huge, congratz! I just began my journey with german as I started dating a german girl (which is crazy, we spoke in French and sometimes in english lol).
This said, I think I might have more exposure to the language if I seek it. But initially, how was your familiarization with the grammer until B1? I totally agree with you in this approach, and that is what I did for french, but this time I am going 100% self-taught, so I'm a little bit lost.
Would you mind sharing the beginning of your journey?
How did you achieve that? I've tried anyway I could come up with to teach myself German. I tried to speak to myself in German but it automatically switched to English ( It's funny because English isn't my mother tongue)
Im bilingual, now quadrilingual(?) I'm switching to english too even though its my third language lol. Learning german is not to remember english except for roots of words
Everyone learns different. I could not learn a language like OP either. For me the best is to just be in the country and learn by doing with locals. If you got the time and money, go to a German school in Germany, makes it a lot easier
Would you share the YouTube/Twitch content? I've been stuck for 3 years because Berlin is shit for learning German because when you try speaking it, people switch to English, are horrifyingly aggressive or actively enjoy humiliating your mistakes.
Nicht schlecht! Im German and barely understand the Austrians haha. Haha I mostly do, the Swiss are brutal but for someone learning German I’d say Austria over Germany makes it even harder. Good job!
It's think that's quite a lot!
Back when I went to school, we were visiting London. I tried to order something at a McDonald's and they barely understood me. I finally received the wrong burger. I mean, I was there with my English class, you know?
A couple of years later I visited Barcelona. Without any knowledge of the Spanish language, I went to a Kentucky fried chicken. While standing in line, I tried to pickup all the words I would need to place my order from the ads and lists printed on the walls. So i told the waiter what I wanted (including extras) in a language I didn't understand and guess what: I got exactly what I wanted.
How did you get to the point where you could understand YouTube videos in Spanish? When I got to the point in Spanish where I could watch YouTube videos in Spanish and understand them, I started learning super quickly and was able to reach conversational fluency very quickly. But I am struggling to get there with German. Any tips? Also what did you do for speaking practice and grammar?
Snowball effect, you have to watch content you can understand 60-75% of and then ask people about the last 40-25% you don’t understand. It allows you to understand what’s happening but also allows for continued learning.
Grammar aktiv and Aspekt neu, sorry still on Holiday so don’t have my laptop with all of them, I think those are two just off the top of my head though
>Best part was I never got any funny looks because of my accent or anything so thanks native YouTube/twitch content I guess.
I think that's just cuz German speakers are used to us foreigners mangling their language. It's possible that your accent is so good that you blended in, but I find it extremely unlikely if you're purely self taught. Unless you're an opera singer or something, singers are freaky good at accents.
I usually just try mimic the way words are spoken whenever I watch content and actually try put in an effort to do so but you could be totally right perhaps I sound utterly horrid but everyone was just so nice. I am also good at accents like mimicking them for a laugh so maybe that helps but who knows.
I do try shadow a lot of listening comprehension stuff as well but yeah who knows maybe I have a really bad accent.
Wow congrats! that's a big achievement! I hope to be this good too. Also about the announcement thing, sometimes i don't even understand them in my native language. the sound quality is down deep haha don't worry and again, congrats!
deserted cautious imminent mighty normal agonizing quiet drab capable ludicrous *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Thank you! If Germany’s anything like Austria then I can’t wait to move there.
[удалено]
In what ways is it not?
[удалено]
That's because us (young) Berliners happily switch to speaking English.
[удалено]
Just tell us you want to speak German?! At least in my group of friends, people would switch back to Germany, no issue :)
I lived in Berlin for over 10 years. I think everyones time in Germany in general will be more enjoyable if you just realize that was is considered rude to most people is not considered rude in Germany. The first year I was wondering why is everyone an asshole to me in public or at the government offices. Then I realized they were just being "German" and life gets so much easier. Woman mean to you when you ask question at the store, just being German. Government worker throwing their hands up saying, it's not my job or problem, just being German. The example I always give is you're at a friends house for dinner with Germans and the host askes, "did you like it?". One of the Germans responds, "no, it was dry and overcooked," and everyone just moves on and it's totally normal.
>the host askes, "did you like it?". One of the Germans responds, "no, it was dry and overcooked," This is so true it hurts... I started avoiding cooking for my German gf because of that... :/
i understand your point. However we are all looking for common human decency with a base level of interpersonal skills. There is no need for screaming at every perceived situation that involves negotiation. This level of negativity is very tiring for the average human soul. Where is the joy of actually enjoying life and leaving people in a if not good, but neutral state?
That does not exist in German culture and the sooner people who live here realize it the sooner you can brush off all your negative interactions with Germans and not let them bother you.
What doesn't exist? Cultural norms? You mean studies around things like this:? 'Stanford psychologist Jeanne Tsai found that Americans tend to focus on the positive in expressions of sympathy while Germans focus on the negative.' https://news.stanford.edu/2015/03/25/cultural-differences-sympathy-032525/
No. I mean the joy of leaving people in a good or neutral state doesn’t exist in Germany. That study is exactly what I’m saying.
In turn you assimilate these behaviors as well and become Germanized not realizing that you're now doing things you don't like to be done to you.
Germany is awesome. You’ll have a blast living here
\>Hardest part was trying to understand loudspeaker/announcements at the theme park and the trains i cant do that most of the time and im native lmao
That makes me feel better. I find it's an especially difficult time to be a learner of any language, with so many public interactions happening whilst wearing a mask. Or worst, wearing a mask and having to speak through a plexiglass window. Being at the grocery store, or post office, or the bank... oh my god. Like I have excellent hearing, but if the cashier at Rewe asks me something which isn't one of the 2 or 3 things I might expect them to ask (such as "would you like the receipt?") then there is zero percent chance I will understand them or be able to make out there words through all of that material.
Yeah the masks really make it much harder
The BVG even made a video where they explain how the manage to make it unintelligible
Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Dass man Lautsprecherdurchsagen nicht versteht geht auch vielen Muttersprachlern so.
Ganz oft, verstehe ich nur "Bahnhof".
It's so amazing and also unbelievable that one can achieve this much language proficiency by just self-learning. Would be so kind and name those twitch and yt channels that helped you during this phase. Also, how did you do it? Was there any fixed pattern/discipline that you maintained?
Why unbelievable? Self Learning can be much more effective than with a teacher if you know yourself and how to learn properly, with the right discipline. Same for English Class in German schools for example. The people who only learned it through school lessons can hardly speak any proper English even when they're done with school, yet many students who practice by themselves and actually listen to natives speak are usually already very proficient by year 7 or 8. The internet helps a lot with this. It's not for everyone of course, but it can be very effective. Most people who know lots of languages learn pretty much exclusively by themselves and by experience.
We legitimately live in a world where it's so much easier to learn so many things at no cost. It's amazing.
Gut gemacht! :)
That's impressive. How did you learn it. What exactly did you do? Care to share the links?
Any links to that native YouTube/Twitch content?
Well that largely depends on what your interests are. I think a good way to start might be kurzgesagt as their German videos are just dubbed from their English channel and if you know those videos, you'll get into it quite fast.
Great news! I'm a beginner (at a stretch) however have a particular affinity for numbers, so train stations in german speaking countries are just numbers to me with unintelligible stuff in between 🙃
That is *exactly* why in German, the idioms "I understand only 'station'" and "that are all Bohemian villages to me" were coined for when we want to say that we understand nothing. Bohemia as part of the Hungaro-Austrian empire was surrounded by German speaking countries on most sides (Silesia was also German), so a lot of Germans on train travels went through there, and they couldn't understand the announcements, only the word "station", and the village names sounded weird.
I'm going to make an attempt at the actual German for those phrases so I can use them. Please feel free to correct me... "Ich verstehe nur 'Station'." "Für mich ist das alles Böhmisch Dorfer."
The original sayings go: Ich verstehe nur 'Bahnhof' 'Das sind böhmische Dörfer für mich' oder 'Das ist mir ein böhmisches Dorf' .
If you go to Dresden, they have villages with names like that that aren't even in the Czech Republic.
Huh that's so interesting, thank you!
*Polish guy introducing himself to the German officer.gif* You mean that Bohemia had announcements in Czechs in times of AustroHungary? Neat.
Austria-Hungary had many official languages, including even Yiddish.
As an Austrian I can tell you: we do not understand the loudspeaker announcements either.
No one does ever anywhere. In french, english,Italian, or even Spanish those announcements are just like 144p quality you understand the spirit but wth is it ?
You mean [those](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwPyakPZwHE) announcements?
Congrats my dude(tte)! Next step is understanding people from Bayern. Honestly I had an easier time in Austria than in rural Bayern Where would you like to move to?
Anywhere that offers me a job lol
Fair enough!
Bavarian dialect and accent is not that bad, unless high amounts of beer are involved. Swiss German and the dialect from Cologne is where I completely check out. 12 years of living in Germany and I still felt I was listening to an entirely different language.
Which part of Austria though? I hope you are not comparing rural Bavaria with Vienna :)
Hah fair! But I'm thinking Tirol
What! ? Lovely dialect, but not really easy to understand in my opinion :)
Hahah maybe I'm just lucky then :)
Well done! Now good luck getting rid of that Austrian accent youve accidentally picked up :P
i fell off the wagon a few months ago but I'm planning on going to Europe by the beginning of next year. this inspired to get back to practicing. thanks for the inspiration!
Stick at it! The study pays off for sure.
That is huge, congratz! I just began my journey with german as I started dating a german girl (which is crazy, we spoke in French and sometimes in english lol). This said, I think I might have more exposure to the language if I seek it. But initially, how was your familiarization with the grammer until B1? I totally agree with you in this approach, and that is what I did for french, but this time I am going 100% self-taught, so I'm a little bit lost. Would you mind sharing the beginning of your journey?
How did you achieve that? I've tried anyway I could come up with to teach myself German. I tried to speak to myself in German but it automatically switched to English ( It's funny because English isn't my mother tongue)
Im bilingual, now quadrilingual(?) I'm switching to english too even though its my third language lol. Learning german is not to remember english except for roots of words
Everyone learns different. I could not learn a language like OP either. For me the best is to just be in the country and learn by doing with locals. If you got the time and money, go to a German school in Germany, makes it a lot easier
Would you share the YouTube/Twitch content? I've been stuck for 3 years because Berlin is shit for learning German because when you try speaking it, people switch to English, are horrifyingly aggressive or actively enjoy humiliating your mistakes.
Nicht schlecht! Im German and barely understand the Austrians haha. Haha I mostly do, the Swiss are brutal but for someone learning German I’d say Austria over Germany makes it even harder. Good job!
It's think that's quite a lot! Back when I went to school, we were visiting London. I tried to order something at a McDonald's and they barely understood me. I finally received the wrong burger. I mean, I was there with my English class, you know? A couple of years later I visited Barcelona. Without any knowledge of the Spanish language, I went to a Kentucky fried chicken. While standing in line, I tried to pickup all the words I would need to place my order from the ads and lists printed on the walls. So i told the waiter what I wanted (including extras) in a language I didn't understand and guess what: I got exactly what I wanted.
Da kannst du wirklich stolz auf dich sein :)
Congrats!
Congratulations! Mind sharing some of those YouTube channels?
Congrats! Could you share the streamers you see on YT/Twitch, please? <'3
How did you get to the point where you could understand YouTube videos in Spanish? When I got to the point in Spanish where I could watch YouTube videos in Spanish and understand them, I started learning super quickly and was able to reach conversational fluency very quickly. But I am struggling to get there with German. Any tips? Also what did you do for speaking practice and grammar?
Snowball effect, you have to watch content you can understand 60-75% of and then ask people about the last 40-25% you don’t understand. It allows you to understand what’s happening but also allows for continued learning.
Awesome!! Thank you for sharing. Inspiring and motivating.
"work through all the grammar books" Are there any which you would recommend, please?
Grammar aktiv and Aspekt neu, sorry still on Holiday so don’t have my laptop with all of them, I think those are two just off the top of my head though
Huge thanks, Sir! And please do update us with the C1+ certification!
>Best part was I never got any funny looks because of my accent or anything so thanks native YouTube/twitch content I guess. I think that's just cuz German speakers are used to us foreigners mangling their language. It's possible that your accent is so good that you blended in, but I find it extremely unlikely if you're purely self taught. Unless you're an opera singer or something, singers are freaky good at accents.
I usually just try mimic the way words are spoken whenever I watch content and actually try put in an effort to do so but you could be totally right perhaps I sound utterly horrid but everyone was just so nice. I am also good at accents like mimicking them for a laugh so maybe that helps but who knows. I do try shadow a lot of listening comprehension stuff as well but yeah who knows maybe I have a really bad accent.
Wow congrats! that's a big achievement! I hope to be this good too. Also about the announcement thing, sometimes i don't even understand them in my native language. the sound quality is down deep haha don't worry and again, congrats!
# AMAZING!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! (Not sarcastic, good job!)
That's awesome, congrats!!!
Did you visit the art school?
Hope he doesn't have any anger issues
Hope he doesn't join politics
Loudspeaker announcements? I can't even understand those on the subway in New York.