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Popularity of German in East Europe? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| mfhboy Triglot Newbie Hong Kong Joined 6972 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Mandarin, Cantonese*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 31 29 March 2006 at 1:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Which is the most popular German speaking area among East Europe?
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| !LH@N Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6822 days ago 487 posts - 531 votes  Speaks: German, Turkish*, English Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Spanish | Message 2 of 31 29 March 2006 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't really know the answer, but I would say there are very few Germans living in East Europe after World War II, and because of this I would say German isn't really loved in East Europe.
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| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6891 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 3 of 31 29 March 2006 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've heard German can be of some use in parts of the Czech Republic but I'm not sure how welcome it would be there. Due to historical reasons, German is as resented in Eastern Europe as Russian is in the Baltic states.
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| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6913 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 4 of 31 29 March 2006 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | ||
I do not think it is so badly resented, during socialist times there were much contacts with East Germans, so that certain people learned German for that reason, but I do not know how much people in Central and Eastern Europe currently really know German. At least in Lithuania German is the third foreign language according to importance, however the number of those who speak German is much lower than those who speak Russian and English, although well above the number of those, who could speak French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| easyboy82 Pentaglot Groupie Italy Joined 6831 days ago 72 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Greek | Message 5 of 31 30 March 2006 at 8:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with the last post.
German is not at all resented in Eastern Europe,Russian is but still retains a quite strong position. In the U.E site there are official data about the percentage of people able to speak each foreign language in each of the 25 states and Romania and Bulgaria : they show German is strong in eastern countries followed by Russian (which is obviously prevalent in the Baltic area also because in these three countries live a huge percentage of ethnic russians,from 10 of Lithuania to 40% of Latvia so in the cities is even more widely used than the national languages). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tomasus Pentaglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 7033 days ago 54 posts - 56 votes Speaks: Slovak, Czech*, EnglishC1, German, Russian | Message 6 of 31 30 March 2006 at 11:23am | IP Logged | ||
I don't think there is any problem with German in Czech republic regarding historical reasons. You would find it generally more welcome here than Russian. If anything, you would find it more problematic to find someone willing to talk Russian to you despite the fact that all people had to learn it involuntarily during their school years, until 1989. I think sure many more people speak German in Hungary, than in Czech republic. German was probably second most spread foreing language in Czech r. until 1989, right after Russian, but nowadays, everybody prefers English for their first foreign language, and the other languages are kind of booming too, in comparison to 1950's-80's. Edited by tomasus on 30 March 2006 at 11:26am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 31 30 March 2006 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | ||
Perhaps, but the socialist era occurred after WWII so that's why, as some members have mentioned above, Russian is probably less loved than German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 8 of 31 31 March 2006 at 8:50am | IP Logged | ||
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You can always find someone who's willing to speak German in Eastern Europe. You're more likely to find a German speaker in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia (i.e. neighbours of Germany or Austria).
However, if I were you, I'd try to learn a little bit of the local language before asking "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?". I think that it's better manners. I agree with everyone's comments on Russian. It's a good rule of thumb not to start a conversation or business transaction with Russian. Speaking the local language even in a broken form will get you further than starting a conversation in fluent Russian (unless the other party invites you to speak Russian). The only Eastern European countries where Russian may be handy are that are predominantly Eastern Orthodox (Serbia and Montenegro Bulgaria and Belorussia). In my observation, most Serbs, Bulgarians and Belorussians don't seem to have such animosity for Russians as other people in Eastern Europe. With Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians, the feeling toward Russian is ambiguous. A foreigner using Russian may be ignored or welcomed depending on whom you meet and where you go. The historical resentment in Eastern Europe toward German culture doesn't seem as strong as it was earlier. It's too bad that Soviet domination has sullied the reputation of Russian culture and history for many people in this part of the world. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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