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On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

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Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#231

Post by wink »

ricardobayes wrote: post #200
MandieD wrote: post #11

Observation of Berlin from the weekend I spent there last month: literally the only place I was better off speaking German rather than English was a Turkish cafe. Everywhere else? Too many people understood English far better than they did German, especially anywhere to do with tech. Some of the tech people I talked to were running into being otherwise eligible for a permanent residence permit, but not being able to…

B1 is actually pretty strict, Spain only requires an A2 even for citizenship (after ten years of being a resident). In a parallel universe, imagine needing to learn B1 Turkish as a German to become a turkish resident. Pretty daunting.

The funny thing about that is most people who never did a real language test have no idea what these categories even mean. I only learned languages in high school and I never moved to another country. A coworker of mine once tried to explain it to me, but his German and English was pretty much flawless so that didn't help telling me where he (may have) struggled in the past.

Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#232

Post by fransje26 »

pimeys wrote: post #107
G3rn0ti wrote: post #9

As a native Urberliner I am both flattered and confused by the fact so many young Americans choose to live in my home town. I always wondered what makes it so attractive to you. I mean, winters are miserable, the city is ugly compared to many others in Germany, the people are rather not friendly to each other, the German language is difficult to learn, our history is troublesome, German immigration laws still difficu…

I moved eleven years ago because I loved the party scene. Took me less than a month to find a huge apartment for under seven hundred a month from a nice neighborhood. Now I cannot move out anymore without doubling or tripling my rent. Also chose to study Rust instead of German, and been having so much work afterwards that I still haven't started my German studies. My husband speaks good German so that helps. The weat…

> the internet seems to always be bad and expensive without hope for any better [ .. ] > dealing with local bureaucracy is not a great experience

Living in Germany at more or less the furthest point possible from Berlin, I can still confirm those two points..

Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#233

Post by downut »

avh02 wrote: post #148
b800h wrote: post #13

We have a number of Indian-language radio stations in the UK, which are good to listen to because the music is often great. Part of the fun is spotting the odd anglicism creep in: "that's not cricket!"

i remember something similar in Dubai, while riding in a taxi hearing the driver listening to the commentary on a cricket game: very fast/excitedly: "OUT OF THIS FIELD!!" I think code switching is often a really cool/cute thing but also cringey sometimes.

I always enjoyed listening to Navajo Radio driving across the Res: BASEBALL! Hay bale auction on Sunday!

Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#234

Post by rocketbop »

bolanyo wrote: post #184
friendlyHornet wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is talk of dropping this requirement, but I'll believe it when I see it. I really hope it doesn't get dropped; it is unreasonable to live permanently in a country without speaking the local language There are other types of residencies available if someone is an expat and doesn't plan on staying permanently And it's not like they're asking for a high fluency; with B1, you can barely hold a simple coherent con…

> it is unreasonable to live permanently in a country without speaking the local language But what if there are countries where the 'local language' eventually becomes like Irish in Ireland? Everyone who goes to school in the Republic of Ireland will learn some Irish at school. Almost every Irish person will know some Irish expressions, Irish songs, and be aware of Irish-language culture and literature as well as Eng…

> If two native Irish people were in a hostage situation, held by English speakers who didn't know any Irish, and had to communicate without being understood, most would probably manage to do so.

Perhaps, so long as what they needed to communicate was that either they wanted permission to go to the bathroom, or that they liked something in the room (most likely a girl, cake, or window).

Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#235

Post by defrost »

rocketbop wrote: post #234
bolanyo wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it is unreasonable to live permanently in a country without speaking the local language But what if there are countries where the 'local language' eventually becomes like Irish in Ireland? Everyone who goes to school in the Republic of Ireland will learn some Irish at school. Almost every Irish person will know some Irish expressions, Irish songs, and be aware of Irish-language culture and literature as well as Eng…

> If two native Irish people were in a hostage situation, held by English speakers who didn't know any Irish, and had to communicate without being understood, most would probably manage to do so. Perhaps, so long as what they needed to communicate was that either they wanted permission to go to the bathroom, or that they liked something in the room (most likely a girl, cake, or window).

mar ná beidh ár leithéidí arís ann

Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#236

Post by rocketbop »

AdamN wrote: post #170
friendlyHornet wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is talk of dropping this requirement, but I'll believe it when I see it. I really hope it doesn't get dropped; it is unreasonable to live permanently in a country without speaking the local language There are other types of residencies available if someone is an expat and doesn't plan on staying permanently And it's not like they're asking for a high fluency; with B1, you can barely hold a simple coherent con…

Germany doesn't really have permanent residency - it's more like 'indefinite' residency that is revoked when you leave the country for too long. So basically what you're saying is that after a few years you need B1 to stay. It's not unreasonable but of course will have an impact on the economy and society just like any other large decision. I live in Berlin and am A2, with my North Star being B2 German and am a US Ci…

> Germany doesn't really have permanent residency - it's more like 'indefinite' residency that is revoked when you leave the country for too long.

That's the same as the US green card, and Australian permanent residency, and I assume most others.

Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#237

Post by melvinmelih »

ben_w wrote: post #159
skrebbel wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come to Holland! It's basically Belgium with better frontyards and nicer cops.

I certainly considered the Netherlands… «maar ik kan een beetje maar Nederlands spreken» and I'm not even sure I'm supposed to use "maar" twice in that sentence or not. (Sadly I don't even get to use the wonderful «Ik ben groot», because I'm only tall by non-Dutch standards).

> «maar ik kan een beetje maar Nederlands spreken» and I'm not even sure I'm supposed to use "maar" twice in that sentence or not.

“maar” can both mean “but” or “only” but you have to use it like this: «maar ik kan maar een beetje Nederlands spreken» literally translated as: «but I only can speak a little Dutch». A native speaker would use it twice.

Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#238

Post by wink »

ben_w wrote: post #173
lock-the-spock wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Belgium (saw a police officer with a long barrelled gun at the train station and noped out of even visiting it during an Interrail exploration trip); Sounds like you visited not too long after the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks. I've seen the same in London at times though.

Just before the Brexit referendum vote, so yes.

Same with the security conference in Munich and other days, so not sure that's a perfect reason for Germany per se, but good if you like it :P

Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#239

Post by ghaff »

te_chris wrote: post #220
actionfromafar wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the "joke" was that expats are white, immigrants are not?

Definitely true on the whole, but perhaps identity is not the most productive lens to look through. As a white expat/immigrant to the UK, I think it's more about whether you've committed to never returning. It's a very different mindset I find, between those who've moved and are staying put, vs those with the idea of leaving in the back of their minds. The privilege of the expat is being able to hedge for a very long…

I think that's fair. With respect to Westerners living in Asia there is also definitely a language/culture thing with stereotypical expats mostly hanging out with other expats and going to expat bars, restaurants, etc.

Re: On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

#240

Post by wink »

usrusr wrote: post #161
aix1 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you travel to NRW North Rhine-Westphalia? (Don't live in Germany, took me a while.)

That one. It's the only Bundesland commonly referred to by an acronym and I guess we are lucky that the English toponym still matches. The other three-letter candidate (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) is more commonly just shortened to Mecklenburg which isn't an option for NRW because the non-Westphalia part is the more important by far but "north-Rhine" wouldn't really work as a standalone name. Acronyms for our various Sax…

I'd say you see RLP in written form from time to time, but yeah, not "commonly". Also BaWü isn't an acronym but you're right, compared to other countries we're not really big on abbreviating the states it seems.
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