Live data from Hacker News

On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch

europeanreviewofbooks.com

291–300 of 362 posts

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

#291
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you stay and open a restaurant in Berlin, presumably for the long term, wouldn't that make you an immigrant? There is a Syrian bakery in my street and people don't call him an expat.

Its both: Leave Country A for Country B = expat Move to Country B from Country A = immigrant The words mean exactly the same. It's just which perspective you want to highlight. Whether you left a place or moved to a place.

IDK, I would use "immigrant" when someone moves to another country with the intent to stay there, and "expat" when someone moves to another country for work or study (so, longer than just tourism) but while they might choose to stay/immigrate, for now that's just temporary, say, for a year or two.

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

#292
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's for non-EU citizens. There are 360MM non-German EU citizens - some of which are living in Berlin visa-free.

Some? Wouldn't they all be visa free? Yeah, that page is for non-EU-ians, because if you're from the EU, due to freedom of movement, you can live and work in any other EU country, and you don't even need to apply for a "permanent resident permit".

Well, most of these 360MM non-German EU citizens don't live in Berlin or Germany at all, only some of them do.

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

#293
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my ear, to do something “spontaneously” means to do something without having planned it. So to make plans with someone to do something “spontaneously” sounds oxymoronish.

IDK, it sounds OK to me: you make plans for meeting, you'll decide what to do on the spot, "improvising". Meeting is definitly not done spontaneously. Neither is choosing the activity. The choice, however, may be spontaneous.

[deleted]

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

#294
post #272
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For anyone else curious: B1 Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and brie…

I wish I could admit to being able to tell a significant difference between those two lists.

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

#295
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was at the local immigration office only a few weeks ago and German language skills are still very much required for PR. One doesn't need it for the family reunion visa and work permit, but does for PR. There is talk of dropping this requirement, but I'll believe it when I see it.

> 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…

Well, that is how it is in the whole of the EU: you can go and live anywhere you like without speaking the local language.

Sorry!

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

#296
post #68

Why would anyone use "downloaden" when there already is "herunterladen" is beyond me.

Though there is herunterladen as a verb, there is no noun for download(s). “Herunterlad(s)” doesn’t quite cut it. So because the term Download is already used as a noun why noy use downloaden as the verb.

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

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when I went to the US my work visa was explicitly non-immigrant, and calling myself an immigrant at the US embassy when applying for the visa, or while crossing the US border would have resulted in the denial of my visa, or the denial of my entry in the US. At least that's what the attorney drilled into my head... H1B is dual-intent. You are allowed to have an immigrant intent when applying for H1B, so no, nobody w…

They never specified H1B. They were probably on a treaty visa, Like E2 (which i have, it's not just for business owners/investors, employees can get this too) or T2 (The NAFTA equivalent). These visas allow you to live and work in the US for a very long time (extendable indefinitely for 2 years a pop in my case), but they have no dual-intent attached to them. They are a dead-end and if you want to stay in the US you…

H1B is as much of a dead-end as E2/T2 is. There is no way to convert them to a green card. You can do an AOS from any visa.

This is the reason why I would not even consider moving to the US on a non-immigrant visa. It's either green card or I'm happy in the EU.

> It's actually kind of a problem, there's a lot of people on these visas who've lived and worked here for 20+ years with no viable route to permanent residency.

That's because the INA was written in the 50s and has barely changed since, and is unlikely to change because that would require bipartisanship.

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

#298
post #145

Global English is both a blessing and a curse. Never before could so many people communicate across linguistic divides (even if imperfectly). But the price is that never before was the rich collective cultural heritage under such threat. The two facets are deeply related. Like any lingua franca before, global English was invented to facilitate trade (economic exchange). The fact that it is English and not Basque or S…

This is perhaps nitpicking but I wish non-native English speakers would not use the term “Anglo-Saxon” to describe anglophone or (better) English speaking countries. The term refers to the original north Germanic invaders of England and so has tribal (racial) connotations and is typically used in English to distinguish people on that basis. Many/most Americans (e.g. black or Native American) so not consider themselve…

I use the term Anglosphere. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglosphere).

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

#299

I grew up in a bilingual home. I sometimes refer to what I speak and write as Germish. I routinely have to look up "Is that one word or two?" because German runs words together so much more often than English and I capitalize too many things because German capitalizes all nouns and English only capitalizes proper nouns. A friend of mine once described my capitalization choices as "raising my voice," a place between "…

Tell your friend you are emulating 18th century English: > We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Note the founders were already declining to capitalize Truths or Men :)

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

#300
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a new Berliner who immigrated here I can answer some of those: - Berlin has a reputation for its artsy party scene and lax enforcement of drug laws. People come here in their 20s to let themselves loose. - German universities are good quality and free for all (excluding the Semesterpauschale, but for my American or British friends this 300€ is basically nothing in comparison - especially when you count in the publ…

I now what you probably mean when you say "free", that you don't have to pay for it, but in reality, the universities are paid by everyone. Same for health care. I pay 400 euros per month. Of course, then I don't pay much else. But the cost is distributed, they are not "free". Maybe I am sensitive to the word, because in my home country, Argentina, populism has made people believe that everything has to be "free".

That's what the word "free" always means. Goods and services don't spontaneously materialize into existence.
Post reply on HN