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Differences between German and British manners

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Re: Differences between German and British manners

#61

Post by Typhon »

Vivtek wrote: post #57
Typhon wrote: post #14

« 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…

Strictly speaking, there's no future tense in English, either; somehow, we manage to conceptualize the future despite this grammatical lacuna. Hungarian has no word for "to have". No, really! The equivalent circumlocution for "he has X" is more or less "there is X for him". Languages are weirder than most people give them credit for.

There is a future tense in English, through the use of auxiliary verbs. Just because it's not formed by affixing a morpheme doesn't mean it cannot be thought of as a future tense.

The question is : does it behave like one ?

« Hungarian has no word for "to have" »

Just like Finnish and, curiously enough, Russian.

On the other hand, Russian has several movement verbs that don't exist in English nor in French ("to swim" will be either "плавать" or "плыть", for instance)

Re: Differences between German and British manners

#62

Post by stcredzero »

killedbydeath wrote: post #20
stcredzero wrote: post #2

For their part, the British have what House calls the "etiquette of simulation". The British feign an interest in someone... From a German perspective, this is uncomfortably close to deceit. IMO, this is one of the reasons the Germans lost the war. The English speakers are by nature sneakier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1_(flying_bomb)#Deception http://www.suite101.com/content/allied-misdirection-fooled-g...

Why do people forget about the Soviet Union when talking about "the war"?

I said it's one of the reasons.

Re: Differences between German and British manners

#63

Post by stcredzero »

barry-cotter wrote: post #31

I used to think smalltalk was annoying and useless. I was most of the way out of that attitude by the time I lived in Germany, and was thoroughly rid of it by the time I left. Growing a new social circle in Germany is a complete bitch in large part because people really are less superficial and more direct. The "etiquette of simulation" makes everything so much easier . I'm not saying it's all that easy to get to kno…

And dating, oh god, dating.

I miss Germany.

Why, are German women like: "Yes, all required attributes check out. How far is your apartment?"

Re: Differences between German and British manners

#64

Post by ugh »

Can we please kill that stupid “X has no word for Y!” snowclone? Please? (Or at least get people to do some basic research before they say something stupid like that.)

As some light googling will reveal (or thinking for a few seconds, if you are, like me, a native German speaker), German does indeed have a word for small talk. There is „Plausch” (that’s the noun) and “plaudern” (and the verb). I suspect that there are also a few other words in regional dialects. („Schwätzchen”, maybe.) There is also „Tratsch“ but that’s more along the lines of gossip and usually between two people who know each other.

I do suspect that small talk is rarer in Germany but I would like to see a quantitative study confirming that, not (what seems like) idle speculation from a Professor who doesn’t even know that her own language has a word for small talk.

Re: Differences between German and British manners

#65

Post by stcredzero »

wybo wrote: post #13

Am 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…

'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.

The Vietnamese have a similar attitude. The "Thank You" on your electric bill? The Vietnamese attitude is WTF?

Re: Differences between German and British manners

#66

Post by stcredzero »

jdminhbg wrote: post #60
killedbydeath wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people forget about the Soviet Union when talking about "the war"?

His post didn't mention the US or Italy either. I'm not sure what on earth that has to do with a discussion about British and German etiquette.

His post didn't mention the US...

Last I checked, English is the language spoken in the US.

Re: Differences between German and British manners

#67

Post by Typhon »

ugh wrote: post #64

Can we please kill that stupid “X has no word for Y!” snowclone? Please? (Or at least get people to do some basic research before they say something stupid like that.) As some light googling will reveal (or thinking for a few seconds, if you are, like me, a native German speaker), German does indeed have a word for small talk. There is „Plausch” (that’s the noun) and “plaudern” (and the verb). I suspect that there ar…

On one hand, I want to say you should read the thread before posting, on the other hand, if someone reaches the same conclusions independently from the rest, it decreases the likelihood that we're all insane.

Re: Differences between German and British manners

#68

Post by ugh »

Typhon wrote: post #67
ugh wrote: post #64

Can we please kill that stupid “X has no word for Y!” snowclone? Please? (Or at least get people to do some basic research before they say something stupid like that.) As some light googling will reveal (or thinking for a few seconds, if you are, like me, a native German speaker), German does indeed have a word for small talk. There is „Plausch” (that’s the noun) and “plaudern” (and the verb). I suspect that there ar…

On one hand, I want to say you should read the thread before posting, on the other hand, if someone reaches the same conclusions independently from the rest, it decreases the likelihood that we're all insane.

I did read the thread but only after my comment was already written. I feel kinda bad about posting but I didn’t want to throw the comment away. (I searched the thread for “small talk” before I started writing and didn’t find anything because everybody who decided to write about German and small talk seems to have decided to write “smalltalk”.)

Re: Differences between German and British manners

#70

Post by tricolon »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #43
Typhon wrote: post #14

« 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?

With a telic object [1] or through context (i.e. "tomorrow").

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telicity#Telicity_as_an_aspect

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