(Untitled)

[nightrose83]

Hi all,

Had a scenario/some questions about Germany that I'd like some details on.

Comments

[shadowvalkyrie]

the general consensus is, 'If the person is currently 40ish (as of the year 2002) and under, kept up with their English, and lived in a city with Anerican military bases/tourism, most people wouldn't have trouble understading him/her. The percent goes down the older the person in question gets, or if they haven't kept up with their English.' I wanted to make sure that was accurate before relying on it. Better safe than sorry.

Seems accurate enough to me. It really comes down to individual talent and practice, since anyone who went to school in Western Germany would have had English in school for a few years, and if the environment is conducive to it (like with the military base in close proximity) they'd probably have retained quite a bit.

What mistakes might she make with her English that a native English speaker might pick up on? While the languages share some similar traits, the sentence structure is different from my understanding.I think pronunciation might be the most immediately noticeable trait. But again, that depends on

[sollersuk]

There's a story of a German tourist in an English cafe whose service was... not very good. Finally he stood up and called out, "I am here since half an hour. When will I become a sausage?"

[sashatwen]

Also, Britain's close enough that many Germans vacation there or do student exchanges, even class trips. It comes down to personal interest and practice, true, but I was pretty much fluent by the time I was 15 and the longest time I had spent in England was three weeks.

Which reminds me - one feature noone has mentioned yet is that Germans tend to be taught British English at school. At least I was, and I retain some B.E. expressions and grammar up to this day.

[akashasheiress]

As a Scandinavian currently living in London I can vouch for missing more variety in bread.