Language Issues Facing German Visitors to U.S.

The other night, I used one of those English language idioms incorrectly. While my wife Jennifer was laughing out loud, I started thinking why I made this innocent little mistake in the first place. And I have to confess that I do make these mistakes fairly often, so I am the last one to blame anybody for not speaking 100% correct English. And, with all the hip-hop and rap these days, maybe it doesn’t even matter if you start your own Engrish.

As an aside, I am sure everybody will agree that English is not necessarily a very logical language. Take “bass” for example. Bass Ale is pronounced totally different than bass player. I could go on and on.

One thing led to another, and soon my wife and I had compiled a sizeable list of common mistakes that Germans make when they come just off the boat. These mistakes have been so common that I am even making wagers at parties. Time and again, the newly-arrived German will fall for one of those mistakes listed below. And that led me to believe that English teachers in Germany do not prepare their students well enough, at least not for life in the New World.

Before I start listing those common mistakes, let me take one more detour. As I have stated before at dinner parties, “large areas of similarity between Germans and Americans make it easy to underestimate the dangers of cultural misunderstandings.” When I relocated to America in 1995, I failed to fully register the tremendous differences of American culture. My immediate contact with Caucasian people in the US made me assume that we shared the same culture and came from the same backgrounds. This topic is treated in an excellent article by William Parks, who discusses the Bumps and Jolts on the Cultural Road.

“I am working together with him”

Well, well, here we have one of those common mistakes. If you think about it, working with him is just fine, there is no need for the redundant together. Yet, Germans subconsciously overset everything word by word (read: translate everything word for word). Thus, this is a true Germanism. Another one along the same lines: I met her on yesterday’s party is a direct translation of the German “Ich habe Sie gestern auf der Party getroffen.”

V and W, as in Winegar and Veek

The beloved V-vs.-W conundrum was recently addressed on a Yahoo discussion board. Kate noted that “the German language has the letters V and W. They are pronounced like English F and V respectively (Vater, Wagon). So why is it that one of the pronunciation mistakes that Germans make when speaking English is to pronounce V like English W and W like English V? (Winegar for Vinegar, or Veek for Week).” I might add Walley for Valley or Voman for Woman……

Present and Future Tense

This is what I announced a couple years ago on my answering machine “Please leave a message after the beep and we call you back!” People say that you can indeed use the present simple tense for future events, but generally only for those events that are scheduled (e.g. my plane leaves at 3.30; the meeting starts at 10.15; my grandmother arrives from New York tomorrow etc.) It certainly doesn’t work in sentence like: “I go to Frankfurt tomorrow and buy a new computer” - a typical mistake of the German speakers, myself included.

The Darn “th“: One Month - Two Months

“Ah, this is one of my all-time favorites,” and I guess it all emanates from Germans getting taught British English in highschool. Here’s why.

Nouns ending in “th” are pluralized in British English in a way that maintains the th-sound (see “The Smiths”). Most Germans have raved about this band in their youth, yet not many can prounounce the name without killing themselves. On the other hand, Americans simply drop the th-sound when pluralizing those pesky nouns. One month becomes “two mon-s”. Yep, no th, which is just fine.

The problem arrises when Germans come to America. They are acutely aware that there is a th, but they simply get so nervous, such that “one month” becomes “two month“. Without the ’s’ required for the plural. And this is exactly the moment where my wife and I feel like yelling “Gotcha !”

Inviting Someone for Lunch vs. Treating Someone to Lunch

As with an earlier example, Germans translate many German idioms literally into English if they are close enough to escape scrutiny. Case in point: If Germans treat their friends to something, they say “Lass mich Dich einladen“, meaning they offer to treat their friends. Once these generous Germans arrive in America, they will offer to invite you for lunch. Which is nice, but it still doesn’t answer the question whether they will also pay for your lunch….