I mean I was planning to visit in the next couple of years anyway I guess…

  • spittingimage@lemmy.world
    103·
    2 months ago

    A better reason to learn it is that anything you say in German sounds like swearing.

    Mein Hovercraft ist voll von Aalen!

      • boyi@lemmy.sdf.org
        9·
        2 months ago

        Yeah. Once I overheard someone chatting behind me while in a train. I knew it was in German because I’ve learnt some long time before. It was the cutest (presumably romantic) conversation I’ve ever even though I didn’t understand much. Before that I’ve always thought French sounded the nicest, but that conversation shattered my belief.

        A while later, I went to Germany to visit friend. While at a museum I read out loud some descriptions on items there. He told me I spoke like in films, even like Hitler. Hearing him talking with family, it was very casual and there was no sudden change of intonation like in movies. I somehow realized stereotype in movies ruined my perspective on the language.

        • trolololol@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 months ago

          I recently started hearing playlists of French punk rock. I can confirm, if you don’t pay attention what they’re saying it sounds… German

          La vache! La vache!

  • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 months ago

    I use catodon.social and it’s got a ton of German speaking people, and while Catodon is very very well designed it doesn’t have a translation option yet.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    39·
    2 months ago

    Nah, "block instance"works just fine. I already took 4 years of Spanish as a kid and didn’t remember that, why add another language to suck at?

    • pumpkinseedoil@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      2 months ago

      Maybe because 4 years aren’t much? It’s nice to be fluent in foreign languages, and known to be good for your brain (delaying / preventing Alzheimer’s for example)

  • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    2 months ago

    I lived in Germany from '83 to '94, but I never did learn to speak much of it since I went to American schools. Apparently most Germans speak decent English now? That would have been nice back in the day!

    • viking@infosec.pub
      6·
      2 months ago

      English is on the curriculum of all schools as a mandatory subject, but learning it in school =/= speaking proficiency. That usually comes with a ton of practice, and not all that many of us are exposed to English on a daily basis, even less so in lower income strata.

      • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        I’ve just read that a lot lately, that most people speak English relatively proficiently there. Back in the 80s and 90s it was somewhat rare. Possibly the internet helped a bit.

        • viking@infosec.pub
          3·
          2 months ago

          The internet helps with reading/writing mostly, and that comes with the benefit of looking things up when needed, which you really can’t do in a normal conversation. But yeah it has most certainly improved. I think it’s now also mandatory as a first foreign language, back when I started high school in 1994 we were still given the option to start with French or Latin instead (with English as a mandatory second language from grade 7 then).

          But don’t quote me on that, I haven’t had anything to do with the German school system after graduation, it’s mostly hearsay.

  • Codex@lemmy.world
    5·
    2 months ago

    I’ve been learning German for a few years (very slowly) now with Duolingo. I see a lot of Spanish posts too (especially on masto) and have been enjoying how the fediverse encourages me to work on my languages.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 months ago

      Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

      • viking@infosec.pub
        2·
        2 months ago

        War die erste Community, die ich blockiert hab. Erst auf .de, jetzt auf .org. So einen Blödsinn muss ich mir echt nicht geben.

  • kn33@lemmy.worldEnglish
    131·
    2 months ago

    I was thinking about it for a while. The posts encouraged me. The prospect of possibly wanting to leave the US in the next year or two depending on things also makes me want to learn a second language.

  • sexy_peach@feddit.orgEnglish
    113·
    2 months ago

    Don’t learn german. As a german I always feel sorry for people who learn this language just for 80 million old people ^^

    • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
      15·
      2 months ago

      As a german I have to say learn whatever language you want, even if nobody speaks it.

          • Senshi@lemmy.world
            4·
            2 months ago

            Most of the classic big financial tech mainframes actually run on COBOL, at least in Europe. Though even those are very slowly being replaced, mostly by Java. Still, freelancers with COBOL specialty do rake in huge sums. It’s not only about the rare tech skills ( COBOL isn’t worse or harder than other languages, it’s just old and thus simple), it’s about having those skills combined with a sufficiently high security clearance.

  • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org
    18·
    2 months ago

    Does anyone know what is the deal with the images (I assume it’s some kind of German meme) of people or characters with instant ramen on their head?