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Simplest example: my first time in Munich I was struggling with the subway instructions, they were all in German and this was before Internet on smartphones and
by AdrianB1 5y ago
Simplest example: my first time in Munich I was struggling with the subway instructions, they were all in German and this was before Internet on smartphones and Google translate, so at the entrance of the station I asked several people in English if they speak English and can tell me what ticket to purchase (the different ticket by area concept was completely foreign to me). A couple said yes, I asked the question "what ticket I need from here to X station" and the 2 answers were in the tone of :
- Read the instructions // - But they are in German // - Learn German.
If you go to Albania, where no foreigners speak the language, they will be happy to try to communicate in Italian (some people know it). Go in Romania, they will use whatever language they know (mostly English or German, but Italian, Spanish or French are not rare at all).
Everywhere in the Balkans people will try to communicate, same in Italy, France or Spain, not a problem at all in the Netherlands, Hungary, Czechia or Slovakia, no matter how bad they speak the language they will communicate with you. At the opposite side of the spectrum is Germany.
I travelled for work or vacations in all the countries in Europe except the Scandinavian Peninsula and Russia/Belarus/Ukraine, I never had a communication problem outside Germany. It almost makes me able to draw some conclusions from my personal experiences and the ones of many people that I know, including family and friends working in Germany for the past 30 years and for the 20 years of having work colleagues and one direct manager in Germany.
I am not saying Germans are bad, my best manager ever was a German moved to US, my current manager is a German in Frankfurt and he is a great guy, but the experience with the people on the street is that they don't want to speak English in many cases.
- jhgb 5y agoJust keep practicing German, in time you'll be AdrianB2 or even AdrianC1! ;)
- oaiey 5y agoUnderrated
- quonn 5y agoI have lived in Munich for about 15 years. It is has 28.5% foreigners, making it one of the most diverse cities there. It‘s possible that you asked someone who chose to be a ****. But most people there are helpful. Here is the communal election 2020: https://www.wahlen-muenchen.de/ergebnisse/20200315stadtratswahl/index.html https://www.wahlen-muenchen.de/ergebnisse/20200315stadtratsw... AFD got 3.4%. The conservative party got 25%. 28% combined and lumping them together is already too much. > I travelled for work or vacations in all the countries in Europe […] I never had a communication problem outside Germany Have you been in Spain outside of the touristic centers? How about France? Not everyone there speaks English and if I go there I try to adapt! I have struggled, I sometimes had to resort to another language, I sometimes couldn‘t communicate at all. But I make the effort because I‘m coming to their country whether on a vacation or for work. I don‘t go around complaining.
- oaiey 5y agoWell, considering the fare system in Munich your outsourced a shitty job to them :) Aside of that: it is rude and I polite but not xenophobic. They can rightfully expect that you speak the language of the country you are in.
- quonn 5y agoIt has recently been reformed and is now better. :)
- AdrianB1 5y agoDescribe tourism with the expectation to know local languages.
- oaiey 5y agoHow it was in the past. How it is for many people in the presence (eg same language different country, acquired language country, inner country tourism, zero acquired language tourism). There is a maybe top 10% (made up number) of the world population with a big enough budget and target country language capability to be in that situation. The rest does tourism most likely differently.
- ben_w 5y agoI’ve never had the problems you’re describing. I do know the first impressions are powerful (first impressions are why I don’t care much for Köln), but despite the xenophobic graffiti I’ve seen in Nürnberg and Bad Kissingen, despite the anecdotes I’ve heard from a Pakistani coworker, the closest my experiences get to “your German is no good so I will judge you” have been one rail official giving me a useless answer (and even then it wasn’t bad), and one business (legitimately) deciding I couldn’t manage one of their teams (not xenophobic! I agreed with them!), and I’ve cycled the Rhine from the Netherlands to Switzerland and visited Frankfurt (both of them), Köln, Hannover, Leipzig, Nürnberg, Suhl, Magdeburg, Heidelberg, and live in Berlin, an even despite living in Berlin my German language skills are still embarrassing.