"Germans really don't do small talk, those little phrases so familiar to the British about the weather or a person's general well-being, but which she describes as "empty verbiage"."
Differences between German and British manners
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Re: Differences between German and British manners
#2For 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...
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#3Being 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 life (see "two world wars, one world cup" for example).
I also like how they used the lack of a German word for smalltalk in the article. Whenever I explain differences between German behavior and Anglo-American behavior to Americans/Brits I tell them the German language has no words for smalltalk, jaywalking, and date rape to set the tone for my explanation. :)
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#4> "In a lift or a doctor's waiting room, talk about the weather in German? I don't think so," she says.
What a ridiculous article. Of course Germans have inane conversations about the weather and other trivialities. You know what the German word for "small talk" is? It's "small talk".
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#5For 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...
I always wondered why Britain was so keen to keep the efforts at Bletchley Park so secret after the war had been won - it turns out we were selling encryption machines very similar to Enigma to lots of countries and organizations and we didn't want anyone to know that we could break the codes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer#Influence_and...
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#6"The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says. It is so alien that in the German translation of A Bear called Paddington - Paddington unser kleiner Baer - it was omitted."
Klatsch? Gerede? I'm pretty sure Heidegger's Gerede comes pretty close to what we call "small talk".
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#7"The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says. It is so alien that in the German translation of A Bear called Paddington - Paddington unser kleiner Baer - it was omitted." Klatsch? Gerede? I'm pretty sure Heidegger's Gerede comes pretty close to what we call "small talk".
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Re: Differences between German and British manners
#8"The German language doesn't even have an expression for "small talk", she says. It is so alien that in the German translation of A Bear called Paddington - Paddington unser kleiner Baer - it was omitted." Klatsch? Gerede? I'm pretty sure Heidegger's Gerede comes pretty close to what we call "small talk".
Native speaker of German here.
"Klatsch" is not "small talk", it's "gossip".
"Gerede" is a word that I've only heard in debates to suggest that something is not to be taken seriously, i.e. it has serious negative connotations. Perhaps it used to mean "small talk" in the past when Germans did such things, and then changed to have the negative meaning when small talk fell out of favour? Of course, the German word "Smalltalk" also tends to be used negatively ;)
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#9Sounds pretty similar to articles I've read comparing American speech with Russian.
Re: Differences between German and British manners
#10> "In a lift or a doctor's waiting room, talk about the weather in German? I don't think so," she says. What a ridiculous article. Of course Germans have inane conversations about the weather and other trivialities. You know what the German word for "small talk" is? It's "small talk".
You're right, but what does it say about Germans when they have to borrow the word "small talk"?