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Splitting trains is a quite common thing in Germany (though more long distance) and communicated in the official app. If third party apps don't show that infor
by bcye 9mo ago
Splitting trains is a quite common thing in Germany (though more long distance) and communicated in the official app.
If third party apps don't show that information that's on their part. Usually it's also said after departure inside the train by the conductor, though maybe just on long distance trains.
- pjmlp 9mo agoYes, although quite often they forget not everyone speaks German. I once had a bit of Schadenfrunde while travelling in Netherlands, having the conductor telling us to switch trains in Dutch, and all my German fellow travellers wondering what it was all about.
- bcye 9mo agoWell it's generally a good idea to ask a fellow traveller when you hear an announcement you don't understand. Especially if it doesn't use words you've commonly heard before. And maybe tell them instead of having Schadenfreude?
- pjmlp 9mo agoWhich is what happened next. The point was that even in international trains inside Germany, announcements related to trains problems are only done in German. I speak it fluently, including some variations, however most travellers do not. I also remember there used to be ticket machines in NRW only in German, about 20 years ago.
- raverbashing 9mo agoI wonder what's the level of mutual ineligibility between DE<>NL (probably DE is easier to NL) but it's funny how Germans sometimes seem to play dumb and not understand a thing in NL
- whstl 9mo agoAs a German speaker, spoken Dutch REALLY trips me up because of small pronunciation differences in almost every word. Written Dutch is way closer. The Dutch seem to understand German better, but my Dutch friends credit that more to education and exposure.
- em-bee 9mo agothey have access to german tv and watch it.
- seszett 9mo agoI don't know about the Dutch but apparently the Flemish don't understand German without having learned it at school. I speak both some German and some Dutch (as nth languages, I can understand them fine but speaking is hit and miss) and sometimes I don't notice which is which and answer in the wrong language, to me they're almost the same language with a different accent. I translate the German into some Frenglish mess for my Flemish friends to help them understand and it works great.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 9mo agoYour Dutch friends have it right: In German high schools you don't get Dutch, Polish or Czech as a rule but you do get French and English. But in Dutch schools you do get German.
- em-bee 9mo agodutch is a bit harder to understand. like some german dialects that not every german understands either, like swiss german, luxemburgian or friesian (also spoken in the northern parts of the netherlands), or plattdeutsch. i grew up in austria and in the north of germany so i got an early appreciation for understanding dialects. yet learning dutch took me a few months of staying in the netherlands. on the other hand when i visited luxemburg people were shocked that i could understand them when they spoke amongst each other
- sva_ 9mo agoHow dare they speak their own language in their own country on a regional train
- ruszki 9mo agoThey can. But they should also not be assholes with everybody else. And no not just local trains, I got information in English exactly zero times when there were huge delays on international trains. And it happened 2 times from 3 when I tried to cross Germany by train. And Germans (and Austrians btw) are terrible with this, even compared to others. The German site at my multinational company at the time was the only site on Earth which had to introduce an internal regulation about mandatory English, because they just switched to German all the time even when there were people on the call from different countries. I’m living now in Wien, and they are terrible with this even in friendly environments.
- pimeys 9mo agoYMMV. I worked in three different German startups in Berlin and I almost never heard anybody speaking German in the company, even though more than half of the people were from Germany. Maybe it's different in bigger companies, or outside Berlin?
- seawsurf 9mo agoYou are comparing different environments. Inside a startup or a multinational it will obviously be quite common. But you can't expect low level bureaucrats from a transportation company to start speaking english when it is not required to perform the job.
- pimeys 9mo agoI was answering to this part: > The German site at my multinational company at the time was the only site on Earth which had to introduce an internal regulation about mandatory English, because they just switched to German all the time even when there were people on the call from different countries.
- bondarchuk 9mo agoOr.. english-speaking people forget not everyone speaks english. If you go to another country you have to learn a bit about how things are done there, ask for help, etc.., most people consider this a normal part of traveling.
- pjmlp 9mo agoGreat advice which I assume you follow to the letter.
- bondarchuk 9mo agoidk man, I get it's nice if things are clear for you, but it's misplaced IMO to have this level of entitlement over people speaking their mother tongue in their own country
- pjmlp 9mo agoI hope you get to learn Portuguese well enough that my fellow country folks never force themselves to speak any other language, in case you happen to visit us, if not, oh well. I am fluent in several European languages and dialects, human languages is second nature alongside learning programming languages. As for entitlement, the expectations on international trains crossing borders aren't the same as local trains, which I left out from the comment, it was an ICE after crew change.
- Zak 9mo agoIt seems to me long-distance transportation services should make the most important announcements in the second language most likely to be understood by international travelers. In Europe, that usually means English.
- hopelite 9mo ago[flagged]
- pjmlp 9mo agoI speak fluently 6 languages, and a few dialects of them, how many do you speak?
- mrks_hy 9mo agoDoes it matter to the OP's point how well-spoken you are? Biting down some non-constructive snark here. Yes, English is a good lowest common language, and it is mostly that announcements are in English. But learning enough of the native language that you are at least puzzled enough to ask another passenger seems like a not very high and reasonable bar for travel-speak to pick up.
- hopelite 9mo ago[flagged]
- lmm 9mo ago> Yes, although quite often they forget not everyone speaks German. Do you complain when announcements in your home country are given in exclusively non-German languages?
- OrangeMusic 9mo agoThis is a bad faith argument. English is (like it or not) the international language. If you want tourists to understand what's happening, do announcements in your local language and in English. Making announcements in German in the US makes little sense.
- lmm 9mo agoHow convenient for monoglot English speakers!
- trueismywork 9mo agoIt is still stupid.
- addandsubtract 9mo agoThey still get it wrong quite often. Worst case is when the train arrives in reverse cart order, and the carts are labeled wrong. Bonus points if your reserved seat is in a cart that's missing.
- Bost 9mo agoReserved seat in a missing cart is boring - 95% of the time you'll find an empty seat. Much more fun is a reserved bicycle rack in a cart that's missing. The number of bicycle racks is limited, and they're quite often sold out.
- silversmith 9mo agoAre we really living in a world where you need to have the official app - any app! - to ride a train?
- pirates 9mo agoI suppose it isn’t required technically, you can still purchase tickets at the stations. But oh boy, the “official” app for the Shinkansen in Japan might be the worst piece of garbage I have ever used.
- cyberrock 9mo agoProper push notifications for train line delays are quite nice, and unfortunately half of us own phones that decided to shoot PWAs in the back of the head (there's still no vibrations for iOS PWA notifications?), so here we are.
- Bost 9mo agoSide note: as of now, I have 14 various "travel" apps installed on my phone. Buses, trains, local buses, etc. In every EU country and city there's something else being used.
- vetrom 9mo agoIf you can read a modicum of German wasn't this sort of thing on the timetables in a standard way pretty much forever?