General Discussion

hfojvt

(37,573 posts)

224. nobody seemed to initiate conversations with me

Tue Feb 11, 2014, 03:55 AM

Feb 2014

either I looked like a German or people didn't care to talk to an American.

Although when I got lost in Konstanz and asked for directions to the Bahnhof, this girl started babbling things and then noticed that I looked completely confused and said, in English, "you don't speak German, do you?"

I also didn't think I was THAT lost. I expected it would just be three blocks and a left or something. But really all I needed to find was the Bodensee and I could have found the Bahnhof from there.

So that was nice to find an English speaker, and the guy at the hotel in Burbach also spoke English, but the lady at the first hotel didn't seem to, and at the store or the train station, I really didn't need it. There is no German word for Coke, or English word for Amsterdam or Siegen.

I did find it funny that I saw many American "stop" signs in Germany.

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Over 90% of Germans speak English. What foreign language do you speak? [View all] JDPriestly Feb 2014 OP

My native language is Estonian LiberalEsto Feb 2014 #1

German (I was born and lived there) gopiscrap Feb 2014 #2

Isn't speaking different languages fun? And you sure do! JDPriestly Feb 2014 #71

So do they really speak that much English? hfojvt Feb 2014 #110

Depends. Maybe it's an age thing? historylovr Feb 2014 #153

when I left Germany most of my cousins could speak speak pretty good English gopiscrap Feb 2014 #203

It's still pretty different between east and west Germany. wickerwoman Feb 2014 #172

I agree. They speak English like most Americans speak Spanish. MADem Feb 2014 #188

A lot of Germans speak really good English. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #206

Well, I haven't been to Germany in many years, nearly twenty. MADem Feb 2014 #209

Someone found another source that gave a much lower figure. I was surprised at 90% JDPriestly Feb 2014 #219

I think the whole world knows "a little English!" MADem Feb 2014 #230

Germany is a pretty big country, so German is the default option eridani Feb 2014 #221

nobody seemed to initiate conversations with me hfojvt Feb 2014 #224

That's because the signs are too small to fit "Halten Sie an!" n/t DFW Feb 2014 #234

Spanish nt oldhippie Feb 2014 #3

Also�. Tikki Feb 2014 #55

Hablo espa�ol tambi�n. phylny Feb 2014 #286

French Earth_First Feb 2014 #4

Me too Aerows Feb 2014 #74

French, read it better than speak it, go figure..LOL.. monmouth3 Feb 2014 #5

German alcibiades_mystery Feb 2014 #6

Spanish and Thai. eom DonViejo Feb 2014 #7

Show off! Le Taz Hot Feb 2014 #9

LOL. Sorry 'bout that... DonViejo Feb 2014 #14

You'd think living in California all my life Le Taz Hot Feb 2014 #17

Spanish was the first language that I learned, and I have been living in a mostly Spanish-speaking JDPriestly Feb 2014 #73

I'm a speech-language pathologist working in early intervention. phylny Feb 2014 #287

You are doing well, when my fatigue level goes up I can't even speak. Downwinder Feb 2014 #41

Oh, I have times like that too... DonViejo Feb 2014 #43

My temporary registers disappear. Downwinder Feb 2014 #49

Street and academia. Le Taz Hot Feb 2014 #8

French, Spanish and Italian. CurtEastPoint Feb 2014 #10

Someone who speaks three or more languages is called "multi-lingual" ... Scuba Feb 2014 #11

Good joke. But I am happy to see how many DUers know a foreign language. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #75

I use Google Translatoro itsrobert Feb 2014 #176

Sarcasm. Neoma Feb 2014 #12

A little German FarCenter Feb 2014 #13

Yes. That English is so widely spoken is almost a handicap for Americans trying to learn another JDPriestly Feb 2014 #79

Chinese grammar is actually pretty easy Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2014 #171

I agree on the Chinese grammar being easier, but ..... oldhippie Feb 2014 #252

I would love to learn Italian. I just simply do not have the time. HughBeaumont Feb 2014 #15

Time is the big problem. You could try listening to opera and other Italian music. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #85

Oops, sorry, replied in the wrong place muriel_volestrangler Feb 2014 #134

I think you are right. Manifestor_of_Light Feb 2014 #166

Spanish nt newfie11 Feb 2014 #16

Been trying to teach myself Japanese LostOne4Ever Feb 2014 #18

Wow! Tough language to learn. That is quite amazing. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #86

I know LostOne4Ever Feb 2014 #251

I find speaking actually harder than reading and writing Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2014 #93

I hope to be able to speak, read, write, and understand Japanese when Im done LostOne4Ever Feb 2014 #250

If you are trying to learn Kanji, may I suggest this book? Art_from_Ark Feb 2014 #225

Awesome! LostOne4Ever Feb 2014 #249

That's pretty cool Art_from_Ark Feb 2014 #260

French and German... Lost_Count Feb 2014 #19

She is amazing. I think that when children learn a second language when they are fairly JDPriestly Feb 2014 #88

Spanish, some German and Hebrew. hughee99 Feb 2014 #20

Brooklyn Boom Sound 416 Feb 2014 #21

A language unto itself for sure. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #94

I can 'sign" a bit in Brooklynese. Does that count? NFT. TheOther95Percent Feb 2014 #119

Are you kidding Boom Sound 416 Feb 2014 #146

My wife speaks English and Spanish hunter Feb 2014 #22

Me too! JDPriestly Feb 2014 #101

"Monolingualism can be cured" Cairycat Feb 2014 #23

I grew up in Iowa and was never offered a second language liberal N proud Feb 2014 #45

But you know a lot about other things. The hole in my education was science. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #208

Actually, I'm surprised at how many DUers speak another language. I did not realize that. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #207

Very, very true, Cairycat. Surya Gayatri Feb 2014 #243

None. (or one - American English) kentauros Feb 2014 #24

German. LeftyMom Feb 2014 #25

Strine marions ghost Feb 2014 #26

g'day mate! treestar Feb 2014 #95

g'day marions ghost Feb 2014 #105

Struth? HeiressofBickworth Feb 2014 #193

French. nt laundry_queen Feb 2014 #27

southern but not fluently bowens43 Feb 2014 #28

Fluent in Russian, French and German; basic comprehension in reading Spanish, can get by in spoken Brickbat Feb 2014 #29

Russian, French, & Spanish. But I can get by with some Italian as well. JaneyVee Feb 2014 #30

Philly. JoePhilly Feb 2014 #31

That's a hard one, I've heard. nt Common Sense Party Feb 2014 #38

Took me years to master. JoePhilly Feb 2014 #47

Isn't the Brooklynese? Historic NY Feb 2014 #121

Love the video. I wonder whether she also has one for Southern accents. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #210

I believe she does... Historic NY Feb 2014 #213

my mother and her family are from there treestar Feb 2014 #285

The hardest language I ever came in contact with gopiscrap Feb 2014 #204

when I was TDY in Philly Skittles Feb 2014 #227

Catalan, Swedish, Dutch, Russian, German, Schwyzerd��tsch, French, Italian, Spanish DFW Feb 2014 #32

Impressive list treestar Feb 2014 #97

Otherwise known as "Swiss German" DFW Feb 2014 #187

He lives in Europe. Beacool Feb 2014 #254

Catalan impresses me treestar Feb 2014 #255

Actually, they consider it to be their native language. Beacool Feb 2014 #258

Are they highly similar? treestar Feb 2014 #262

I'm not sure. Beacool Feb 2014 #267

It's a mouthful just saying the names of all the languages you speak. Quite an accomplishment. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #103

Occupational hazard DFW Feb 2014 #186

French. nt el_bryanto Feb 2014 #33

This topic would have been better served as a poll... Lost_Count Feb 2014 #34

Actually, I am interested in knowing which foreign languages people speak. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #104

German ... Lost_Count Feb 2014 #137

I hadn't paid my annual membership yet and couldn't start a poll. That was my intention. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #168

Arabic and French. NuclearDem Feb 2014 #35

Espa�ol y/und Deutsch Octafish Feb 2014 #36

Yo tambien y/und ich auch. LibertyLover Feb 2014 #61

Wie geht's, Compay? Octafish Feb 2014 #173

Geht es gut LibertyLover Feb 2014 #261

Feliz tenemos entrenador Caldwell en cargo de los Leones. Octafish Feb 2014 #263

Spanish and a woefully pathetic amount of Portuguese Common Sense Party Feb 2014 #37

Spanish, English (it's sufficiently different from American) nadinbrzezinski Feb 2014 #39

Yes. A lot of Yiddish is like Austrian German. Not all of it by any means, but a lot of it. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #106

Yiddish is medieval German, I was told. Manifestor_of_Light Feb 2014 #164

spanish and I just started arabic lessons. nt arely staircase Feb 2014 #40

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yes it is very hard but I am determined to do it. arely staircase Feb 2014 #256

I can get by in French and Spanish. I can read Italian. Warpy Feb 2014 #42

English as first language Half-Century Man Feb 2014 #44

It is my goal to learn 1,000 common words of the top 10 languages. TheMathieu Feb 2014 #46

French, studied in high school and college elleng Feb 2014 #48

Sadly,... 3catwoman3 Feb 2014 #50

Dutch. BlueCaliDem Feb 2014 #51

I think of Dutch as a mixture of German and English. Bound to be some Spanish influence too. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #111

I totally agree. Lots of German, French, Norwegian, and English influences BlueCaliDem Feb 2014 #169

That's impressive! I have a good friend that is fluent in Swedish, German, French and Spanish, but adirondacker Feb 2014 #183

Thanks, adirondacker. Your friend isn't too shabby, either! BlueCaliDem Feb 2014 #268

My ancestors were from Friesland and I think also Gelderland. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #198

Friesland! Holland's rebel province. I have family there to this day. BlueCaliDem Feb 2014 #265

Niet te geloven! DFW Feb 2014 #236

Ik? Een uitzondering? Blijkbaar niet! BlueCaliDem Feb 2014 #264

Jij hebt gelijk. DFW Feb 2014 #277

Does Morse Code count? oldhippie Feb 2014 #52

It should. If you were vacationing in the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War, it was MADem Feb 2014 #190

Of course. This is just for fun. I did not expect so many DUers to know so many languages. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #200

Plop yourself down in the middle of the United States, look at a 500 mile radius and count languages Bok_Tukalo Feb 2014 #53

The middle of the United States. MineralMan Feb 2014 #56

I should have been clearer Bok_Tukalo Feb 2014 #83

Yup. You should have. MineralMan Feb 2014 #127

I guess its up to the person Travis_0004 Feb 2014 #160

I did not realize that Minnesota was so diverse. I thought it was unique to California. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #202

In the Dallas area Spanish, Ashanti and Arabic are useful DFW Feb 2014 #238

In the Twin Cities: Spanish, Somali, Hmong, and Vietnamese Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2014 #253

Russian, French, Spanish MineralMan Feb 2014 #54

Spanish. Iggo Feb 2014 #57

I am pretty good with French sarisataka Feb 2014 #58

Tagalog - from the Peace Corps in the Philippines. n/t pampango Feb 2014 #59

You don't have to answer if you don't want to (obviously) but is pampango a Tagalog word? JDPriestly Feb 2014 #218

Kind of. Slightly altered, it's the name of the province (Pampanga) that my wife is from. pampango Feb 2014 #235

Boontling. Comrade Grumpy Feb 2014 #60

I just spewed my horn of zeese Brother Buzz Feb 2014 #62

Careful. You might get burned. Comrade Grumpy Feb 2014 #126

espanol KamaAina Feb 2014 #63

French and a smattering of Spanish. Tracer Feb 2014 #64

Actually two, but badly Trailrider1951 Feb 2014 #65

My native tongue is Okie madokie Feb 2014 #66

French and German. Studied Latin and Anglo-Saxon. Husband fluent in Hindi. anneboleyn Feb 2014 #67

try to learn un poco de espanol... dionysus Feb 2014 #68

Son. bravenak Feb 2014 #157

None. MO_Moderate Feb 2014 #69

Comparing apples to oranges. FSogol Feb 2014 #70

Jumping to conclusions. Quantess Feb 2014 #78

Sneering? Really? Despite the intent of the OP, Americans are frequently looked down upon for FSogol Feb 2014 #84

My first point went totally over your head. You and I have a different way of interpreting things. Quantess Feb 2014 #96

Not addressing a point doesn't mean it went over my head. Plus, you brought up sneering, not me. FSogol Feb 2014 #141

Defending as lack of knowledge is a rather accurate example of the sub-literate... LanternWaste Feb 2014 #132

One can state the reason for a lack of knowledge without supporting that lack of knowledge. FSogol Feb 2014 #138

The poster does that sorta thing endlessly Inkfreak Feb 2014 #158

My theory: Somebody took their parents praise too seriously. FSogol Feb 2014 #159

French and German. I understand but don't speak Spanish. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #113

As you may see from the response, there is nothing sneering about it. A lot of DUers JDPriestly Feb 2014 #216

French and one sentence in hungarian. nt arthritisR_US Feb 2014 #72

Hungarian is so interesting and so few people speak it. What I find fascinating is JDPriestly Feb 2014 #114

I didn't know that, thanks! :) arthritisR_US Feb 2014 #125

Hungarian is very distantly related to Finnish, Estonian, Sami, and Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2014 #178

Aha! I have Hungarian relatives and never knew this. Thanks. I knew of the Uralic-Altaic JDPriestly Feb 2014 #192

Hungarian is European in geography only. DFW Feb 2014 #275

French shenmue Feb 2014 #76

I understand Slovak and speak it like a three year old. My Grandparents always spoke to me in their livetohike Feb 2014 #77

My grandmother was from a small village by the name of Richvald. adirondacker Feb 2014 #205

I would love to go over and hike around there, too. My Dad was born in Michalovce and came to the US livetohike Feb 2014 #270

Profanity...in several languages. Tierra_y_Libertad Feb 2014 #80

Uckfay Ouyay (I speak it in Pig Latin) Jeff In Milwaukee Feb 2014 #82

Hey! I never could master it. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #115

As a teen laundry_queen Feb 2014 #223

Hilarious. Was your teacher a native English speaker? JDPriestly Feb 2014 #226

I'm not sure what his first language was laundry_queen Feb 2014 #229

I like to learn the ETYMOLOGY of profanity. kentauros Feb 2014 #149

Well. That was thorough. Didn't miss a detail. Interesting. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #194

Hablo espanol. bravenak Feb 2014 #81

FORTRAN. n/t malthaussen Feb 2014 #87

No BASIC? nadinbrzezinski Feb 2014 #107

Not fluently.:) I learned FORTRAN before BASIC. n/t malthaussen Feb 2014 #112

I used to know a little COBOL. kentauros Feb 2014 #150

German KansDem Feb 2014 #89

Then we were neighbors. Almost. I was in Austria at that time. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #195

I was amazed to learn Switzerland has four national lanugues... KansDem Feb 2014 #289

Also verstaasch du schwyzer Mundart? n/t DFW Feb 2014 #274

Nicht zu viel KansDem Feb 2014 #288

Switzerland is a little weird that way DFW Feb 2014 #291

Portug., Spanish, Danish, French, Italian flor de jasmim Feb 2014 #90

As someone pointed out above, you are muiti-lingual, very multi-lingual. Great. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #196

French...spent four years over there in college and thereafter BeyondGeography Feb 2014 #91

Yes. Being in love seems to improve one's retention for new words and a new language. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #197

Professional competence in Japanese, conversational knowledge of Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2014 #92

Japan does dub a lot of imported films that are shown on TV Art_from_Ark Feb 2014 #228

A little German. My kids are fluent in Spanish, though. cyberswede Feb 2014 #98

That's great for your children. It is such an advantage for children to be bilingual. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #116

I agree... cyberswede Feb 2014 #120

I never mastered the genders in German. I learned German by living in the countries. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #123

The genders for nouns... 3catwoman3 Feb 2014 #129

Yes. In Austrian you can kind of hide the fact that you are not using the correct genders by JDPriestly Feb 2014 #217

Can do Spanish treestar Feb 2014 #99

I confes. I had to look up Kiswahili. I'm impressed that you know that language. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #118

I'm really learning, should not say I know it treestar Feb 2014 #148

Kiswahili? DFW Feb 2014 #272

Habari gani? treestar Feb 2014 #280

Just fine, thanks! DFW Feb 2014 #284

Spanish. I use it daily with my employees nt riderinthestorm Feb 2014 #100

I speak a language from the Germanic language group The Second Stone Feb 2014 #102

French Autumn Colors Feb 2014 #108

If you learned that much French, you will be speaking Spanish in no time. JDPriestly Feb 2014 #122

Spanish. savalez Feb 2014 #109

I'm from the south. My second language is English. nt rrneck Feb 2014 #117

lol - how true 840high Feb 2014 #130

Spanish and passable in the other Romance languages. lpbk2713 Feb 2014 #124

Norwegian nt cinnabonbon Feb 2014 #128

+1 jeg ogs� n/r FreeState Feb 2014 #177

... cinnabonbon Feb 2014 #232

Jeg ogs� snakker litt norsk Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2014 #179

Gamle folk blir s� glade n�r cinnabonbon Feb 2014 #231

Hei! Jeg visste ikke at du snakket norsk. KitSileya Feb 2014 #247

Joda, m� jo kunne det. ;) cinnabonbon Feb 2014 #248

Det er ganske komplisert. KitSileya Feb 2014 #269

Jeg er ikke norsk, men DFW Feb 2014 #273

Kitchen Spanish trust me that's a language. As well as italian Arcanetrance Feb 2014 #131

Latin Blue_In_AK Feb 2014 #133

Actual figure from au EU 2006 survey is 56% muriel_volestrangler Feb 2014 #135

German grasswire Feb 2014 #136

most of the world speaks english spanone Feb 2014 #139

Sorry ... lpbk2713 Feb 2014 #143

And even in countries where most people speak English as a second language Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2014 #180

English and Bad English MrScorpio Feb 2014 #140

German and French. closeupready Feb 2014 #142

Hablo espa�ol. Chan790 Feb 2014 #144

Well they did lose the war. dilby Feb 2014 #145

Some Japanese, a lil Hebrew sakabatou Feb 2014 #147

over 95% of Americans speak English. We win!! Pretzel_Warrior Feb 2014 #151

C, C++, Java, Python, C#..... jeff47 Feb 2014 #152

German and Japanese spinbaby Feb 2014 #154

Fluent Spanish. Passable French and Italian. Barely intelligible Mandarin. Xithras Feb 2014 #155

a little german MFM008 Feb 2014 #156

German RichGirl Feb 2014 #161

German. kestrel91316 Feb 2014 #162

Spanish .use almost daily... grew up understanding a little german, slovak, italian xiamiam Feb 2014 #163

I took 4 years of Spanish in school. Doremus Feb 2014 #165

Low ACTFL B1 Italian Drahthaardogs Feb 2014 #167

Norwegian linguists used to come to America and study the language of the second Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2014 #181

German. n/t kiranon Feb 2014 #170

Russian AnnieBW Feb 2014 #174

Thai grahamhgreen Feb 2014 #175

I speak double dutch :) PumpkinAle Feb 2014 #182

I speak to people in India, China, Brazil, Argentina, Viet Nam, Mexico, etc Skittles Feb 2014 #184

Euskera and Afrikaans Wolf Frankula Feb 2014 #185

Zuec Euskera aitxutendosue? DFW Feb 2014 #271

Apur Txiki Bat Wolf Frankula Feb 2014 #282

Impressive. Navarra never had a huge Basque population to begin with DFW Feb 2014 #283

American. Drunken Irishman Feb 2014 #189

Perl mindwalker_i Feb 2014 #191

I speak Murcan, Spanish and Portuguese demosincebirth Feb 2014 #199

I speak at different levels. Behind the Aegis Feb 2014 #201

Spanish. Agschmid Feb 2014 #211

French in high school but I wish I would have taken German neverforget Feb 2014 #214

French, Spanish and German burrowowl Feb 2014 #215

Lousy schoolbook German eridani Feb 2014 #220

Noticed during the Fukushima coverage from Japan that they broadcast English words below their news jtuck004 Feb 2014 #222

By the way, the 90% statistic is VERY misleading DFW Feb 2014 #233

See #135 for a Eurobarometer report muriel_volestrangler Feb 2014 #239

I live in Germany, believe me, I know better than any statistic DFW Feb 2014 #241

That's why the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2014 #257

Spanish and learning French. Nt a la izquierda Feb 2014 #237

Southern. nt Are_grits_groceries Feb 2014 #240

I tried learning Spanish, but I guess I'm to dumb. My dad spoke 5 languages B Calm Feb 2014 #242

Ich kann nur ein bisschen Deutsch UncleMuscles Feb 2014 #244

Norwegian, French, Italian, learning Japanese KitSileya Feb 2014 #245

What foreign language do you speak? MMcGuire Feb 2014 #246

Fluently, Spanish. Beacool Feb 2014 #259

French and Spanish aint_no_life_nowhere Feb 2014 #266

None, I'm an idiot get the red out Feb 2014 #276

Nothing that counts even as conversational... MrMickeysMom Feb 2014 #278

What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Demobrat Feb 2014 #279

Spanish, to an extent. WatermelonRat Feb 2014 #281

Texan Major Nikon Feb 2014 #290