German is the 5th language I’ve ever studied and based on where I live now, it’s probably my 3rd most proficient. To put that in context, after many hours of study and many failures, I’m able to work my way through the hardware store and the grocery store without switching to English. I felt a great sense of pride when a German counterpart felt it was easier to persist in German rather than accommodating me in English.
Yet as I reflect on it, I think that after hundreds if not thousands of hours listening to the Radio and trying to read German news on my lunch Pause, my success is not that I’ve learned the German Wort for everything, I think it’s that I’ve finally learned which words are shared with other languages, which are almost the same, and which cognates are falsch.
For example, Drehmomentschlüssel is the only word for a torque wrench. If you go to the Mechanik or the auto parts store, there is no substitute for one. There is simply no chance they’ll know what you mean if you try to make it up with Druckschluessel or something. On the other hand, if you know that your Zahnriemen (drive belt) is kaputt, they’re likely happy to discuss an alternative, and while nobody can help you with tools and diagnostic equipment, they’ll definitely have some Instrumente and some Elektrikmaschinen on the shelves for sale.
I started this post off talking about being a polyglot, and I did so because I wanted to highlight how readily this Konzept translates to the languages German has influenced over the years. As an example, Germany has, by my reckoning, 500 or so different educational institutions one might attend. There’s Gymnasien, Hochschulen, Kindergärten, Volkshochschulen, and so forth. But did you know that the German word for University is exactly the same in Hebrew? And if you speak Russian, and need a pharmacy, just ask for the same thing you would in Moscow. Germans will know what you mean. I wouldn’t carry that forward to English as an apothecary though. You might find yourself somewhere fair off from where you want to be.
I’m hoping to play more with this idea of German culture spreading via German language and its impacts on history. For example, I’ve recently learned you can hear spoken German in Namibia of all places, so I’m curious to see where my research leads me.
Zach - Married to another American, Living in Baden-Württemberg
Comments