Spotlight – September 2019

65

Illustration: Mick Marston

CULTURE 9/2019 Spotlight

T

he linguistic and

cultural misunder-

standings between

German and Eng-

lish are an endless

source of amuse-

ment. After almost

20 years in Germany, I have come across

plenty. Join me now as I explore another

four everyday topics that have created op-

portunities for confusion and embarrass-

ment for English speakers in Germany.

Hello?

A German friend of mine once told me off

for answering the phone with “Hello?”

“Why can’t you answer the phone with

your name, like any normal person?” he

demanded. “How am I supposed to know

who’s on the other end?”

“Well, you called me. So, you must be

expecting to talk to me. That’s how.”

He wasn’t convinced.

As a child, I was taught to answer the

phone with the name of the place where I

lived, followed by the phone number. But

as phone numbers increased from three

figures to six, everyone got lazy and it

became acceptable to answer the phone

with an inquisitive “Hello?” Here, in Ger-

many, I still haven’t got into the habit of

answering the phone with my surname.

In Scotland, it was my exotic-sounding

first name that caused problems. “Like the

drachma? The Greek currency?” people

would ask. “Like the aftershave Drakkar

Noir?” one joker asked. A lot of people

asked how Dagmar was spelled. I knew

they only wanted to be able to visualize

how it was written, but I felt bad for them

while I was spelling it because it seemed

so obvious. I’m relieved I don’t have to

explain my first name in Germany, but

it’s my surname that can cause confusion

here and I’m often asked to spell it.

“T A Y L O R,” I’ll say, as clearly as I can.

“Ach, Thai-lorr!” the person on the other

end will often say. It’s strange to hear my

name being mispronounced, especially

when it sounds as if the other person is

correcting my pronunciation.

“Taylor,” I’ll then quietly repeat.

When it comes to spelling over the

telephone, most Germans use the spell-

ing alphabet to avoid misunderstandings;

Anton, Berta, Cäsar and so on. It seems like

second nature to them and it never fails to

impress me. “Do they learn it in school?”

I wonder. Every time I hear someone use

it, I realize that this gap in my education is

still there and that it’s unlikely to go away.

Although it’s a bit strange to spell your

own name using other names, I’m well

aware of the usefulness of the spelling

alphabet. I know that “T” can sound like

“D”, or “A” like “H”, so I try to use the spell-

ing alphabet, too. But because I’ve never

learned it off by heart, I have to wing it:

“T wie... äh... Tomate...,” I’ll begin. Once,

I nearly died of embarrassment when

I heard myself continuing with, “A wie...

Adolf”. I couldn’t think of the right name

and was therefore unable to correct my-

self. For the rest of the conversation, all

I could think of was the British sitcom

character Basil Fawlty shouting, “Don’t

mention the war!” in that unforgettable

episode of Fawlty Towers.

It’s not just the way Germans spell

things; the way they recite numbers is

also hard for non-native speakers. In Ger-

man, when saying two-digit numbers,

you begin with the second figure. For

example, 42 is zweiundvierzig and not vier-

zigzwei, which would be like “forty-two”

in English. When someone tells me their

phone number, two-digit numbers at a

time, I immediately feel slightly panic-

stricken. I know it’s impossible for me to

write down a number that’s being dictat-

ed to me in this way. “Fünfundvierzigsieben-

undsechzigvierunddreißig,” the person on the

other end of the phone will tell me cheer-

fully. My heart sinks. All I’ve managed to

write down is the number 5, and they’ve

already finished.

Scotland’s not in England

When I’m speaking German to people

I don’t know, they probably notice after

just a few sentences that I have an accent,

and yet it generally takes a while for them

to ask me about it. Rather than ask me,

“Where are you from?” they often hazard

a guess. Sometimes, they ask if I’m Amer-

ican, but usually they ask if I’m from Eng-

land. (If someone who knows me sees

this, they start grinning at this point,

because they know this happens to me a

lot.) “Nein, aus Schottland,” I say patiently.

I know that in Germany, “England” is

used to refer to Great Britain. It did take

me quite a while to figure out why peo-

ple kept saying I was from England when

they knew I was from Scotland, but I fi-

nally got it. I suppose it’s similar to saying

by heart [baI (hA:t]

, auswendig

cheerfully [(tSIEf&li]

, fröhlich

currency [(kVrEnsi]

, Währung

demand [di(mA:nd]

, hier: wissen wollen

embarrassment

[Im(bÄrEsmEnt]

, Verlegenheit, Pein-

lichkeit

figure [(fIgE]

, Zahl, Ziffer

figure out [)fIgEr (aUt]

ifml.

, herausfinden,

verstehen

grin [grIn]

, grinsen

hazard a guess

[)hÄzEd E (ges]

, es mit Raten probieren

inquisitive [In(kwIzEtIv]

, neugierig, fragend

off: tell sb. ~ [Qf] ifml.

, jmdn. rüffeln

panic-stricken

[(pÄnIk )strIkEn]

, panisch

rather than [(rA:DE DÄn]

, anstatt

recite [ri(saIt]

, aufzählen

relieved [ri(li:vd]

, erleichtert

source [sO:s]

, Quelle

suppose [sE(pEUz]

, annehmen, vermuten

supposed: be ~ to do sth.

[sE(pEUzt]

, etw. tun sollen

wing sth. [wIN] ifml.

, etw. improvisieren