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Who do you speak German with?
"As a German national, born and bred in Germany, I speak German. I don't speak it much here in Britain, but I do read German books (novels and poetry) as well as English ones - if the original is written in German, then I'll read it in German. My brother lives in Britain, too, so when I go and visit him or vice versa, we speak some German. However, since his wife doesn't speak German, we tend to have most conversations in English." Stefanie"I use German at home and at work. I speak it to my son at home, at work mainly on the telephone when dealing with German companies. I am also writing in German, i.e. placing orders, writing letters, communicating by email, translating technical text from German into English and vice versa.
We are a mixed office, half of us are German and the other half English. So we speak both languages every day." Gisela"I am not German but i am learning at school and i think it is very interesting and it is fairly easy to learn." Aiden "I speak German only to some friends on the phone as I don't know anybody German here. I speak Swiss-German on the phone too, to my friends in Switzerland. Swiss-German is not really a language, but a group of dialects. They are not officially written, although people use it for texting as it is shorter than German. The Swiss-German dialect I speak is from the Aargau district, but I understand the other dialects also." MoniqueAbout German:
"There is quite a large community of Germans living in London. Although some live in the wealthier boroughs (such as Richmond), there is quite a decent community in Stoke Newington (Hackney). You can hear German being spoken in health food shops, in parks and between some children in the schoolyard. We organize traditional German celebrations such as lantern walking on St. Martin's day, German carnival for children, but also picnics in parks and casual get-togethers. It's quite a multi-cultural group, since many families are of a mixed cultural and linguistic background, but it's good to show the children that their "other" language is also spoken by other people, including children." ChristianHow you feel about speaking German:
"Speaking more than one language is a good thing in my view because it widens one's horizon. Then again, I love language, so I suppose I would say that!I am trying to learn Old English/Anglo Saxon at the moment, and at a first glance I think that speaking German may help me getting my head round the grammar, and it certainly helps with understanding words. Mind you, I have only just started, so I'll have to wait and see..." Stefanie |
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Elsewhere on BBCi
Elsewhere on the web
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What do you think about your local accent?
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95% of people in Northern Ireland think of themselves as having a moderately strong accent, compared to only 63% of people in the east of England.
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German in the British Isles by Viv Edwards
As the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, German was widely spoken throughout large areas of Central and Eastern Europe until the mid nineteenth century. Its influence continues. German is an official language of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, and a regional or local official language in Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Poland. There are also German-speaking communities in France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Kazakhstan and other republics of former USSR. Today German is spoken by 120 million people worldwide and has the largest number of native speakers of any language in the European Union, where it is also the third most taught foreign language. It is the second most common language of the Internet.There are three main groups of German dialects: Low German spoken in the flat areas to the north; Central German; and the High German of the mountainous south and Austria. Of these High German is most often used in writing and the media and is understood throughout the German-speaking area.German speakers have been present in the UK for hundreds of years, religious refugees arriving from the sixteenth century and economic migrants from the seventeenth century. Today the largest numbers of German speakers are found in London, particularly in some north western and southern boroughs and in Richmond, the location of a German medium school.The Goethe-Institut, the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany, promotes knowledge of the German language abroad and fosters international cultural cooperation. The three branches in the UK are in London, Manchester and Glasgow.
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