Hi. I'm German and the word for small talk is "Schwätzchen"
The word is (almost) extinct and has long been replaced with "small talk".
Sorry but this is nonsense.
Differences between German and British manners
41–50 of 77 posts
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#42Am a Dutch student currently studying in the UK, and many of these differences are true indeed, and possibly even larger between Dutch and English people than between Germans and the English. 'Thanks', and 'please', are used in Dutch only when there is much to thank for (saving someones life, or at least possessions or the like). While in English they are part of almost any question or exchange, no matter how trivial…
Most Dutch people I've met in the US seemed rather cynical. They were all quite likable and I enjoyed spending time with them but the way you interpret "how are you doing" makes me wonder if I was just wrongly interpreting them. It always made me wonder if they were unhappy people.
I'll bet they often wonder what would happen if they give you the literal (and truthful) answer to your greeting "how are you doing?"
I'm sure that would be fun to watch.
(I was born and raised in EU, living in the US currently.)
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#43« The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says. » When will this idea that because Language X doesn't have Y, the idea Y represents is alien to X speakers finally disappear ? Although language does have an influence on one's thinking habit, this idea is a gross misrepresentation of very complex phenomena. There's no word in French for the verb "to need". There's no future tense in Fi…
> There's no future tense in Finnish
Huh, really? How do they express phrases that refer to future events?
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#44« The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says. » When will this idea that because Language X doesn't have Y, the idea Y represents is alien to X speakers finally disappear ? Although language does have an influence on one's thinking habit, this idea is a gross misrepresentation of very complex phenomena. There's no word in French for the verb "to need". There's no future tense in Fi…
> There's no future tense in Finnish Huh, really? How do they express phrases that refer to future events?
In German at least, the future exists, but is rarely used unless it is necessary to disambiguate. For example, you would just say, Ich fahre morgen mit meinem Auto in die Schweiz. Lit. translated: I drive tomorrow with my car in/to Switzerland. More idiomatically translated: I will (or I'm going to) drive in my car to Switzerland tomorrow. I assume it's the same in Finnish, but it might not be because Finnish isn't even a Indo-European language.
N.B: I just finished my first semester of German. Please someone correct me if I am anyway wrong.
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#45« The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says. » When will this idea that because Language X doesn't have Y, the idea Y represents is alien to X speakers finally disappear ? Although language does have an influence on one's thinking habit, this idea is a gross misrepresentation of very complex phenomena. There's no word in French for the verb "to need". There's no future tense in Fi…
> There's no future tense in Finnish Huh, really? How do they express phrases that refer to future events?
Maybe that's why they are Finnish? (I kid!)
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Schwatz, Plausch, Plauderei, Tratsch? And as we're getting very informal here, local dialects take over. Which is one of the reason why "small talk", sounding a bit more high-brow, was so easily adopted.
Dear God, I don't recognise a single one of those. But what about people from areas that might have local slang but don't have a dialect, like Niedersachsen or (bits of) the Rhineland? And what about the university attending classes, who are much more likely to become free-floating German instead of being rooted to anyplace particular?
Germans from beyond the Danube are cold heartless people who don't chat. No, seriously, I'm not really an expert when it comes to dialects, and there doesn't seem to be a proper etymological German dictionary online. And just because they don't appear to have a dialect (which is wrong anyway, it's just that their dialect is now "proper" German) doesn't meant that there aren't slang words. And it seems that a lot of the words for chit-chat area onomatopoeic...
Just saying that there are words for mindless chatter that don't mean gossip per se (i.e gossipy "Klatsch" vs. chatty "Tratsch").
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#47« The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says. » When will this idea that because Language X doesn't have Y, the idea Y represents is alien to X speakers finally disappear ? Although language does have an influence on one's thinking habit, this idea is a gross misrepresentation of very complex phenomena. There's no word in French for the verb "to need". There's no future tense in Fi…
> There's no word in French for the verb "to need"
Un moment, s'il vous plait. J'ai besoin d'un dictionnaire Français. :)
Translates as: One moment please. I need a French dictionary.
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#48Being German, I find it fascinating that so many people on both sides of the Channel are so fascinated with the differences between the Brits and the Germans. Coming from a German perspective, I don't think there is any other country whose manners the German media is so obsessed with. Similar feelings seem to exist in Britain with big Sun front pages about German misbehavings once in a while covering all aspects of l…
Hypothesis: German and British cultures are so similar as to create an 'uncanny valley' situation. British and Italian or Spanish habits are so obviously different that individual differences are quite unremarkable. British and German habits are so similar that any differences are unsettling. Faux pas are much more painful when the situation feels very familiar.
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#49« The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says. » When will this idea that because Language X doesn't have Y, the idea Y represents is alien to X speakers finally disappear ? Although language does have an influence on one's thinking habit, this idea is a gross misrepresentation of very complex phenomena. There's no word in French for the verb "to need". There's no future tense in Fi…
> There's no future tense in Finnish Huh, really? How do they express phrases that refer to future events?
In some situations, the difference lies in the case of the direct object (partitive vs genitive/accusative).
Otherwise, it's a matter of context.