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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4829 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 9 of 17 07 July 2012 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Umm...I'm assuming the OP wants to speak German while in Austria.
Not a whole lot of point in crossing the Atlantic in order to speak English, no matter how nice the people! :-) My advice (from the prejudices I've heard expressed by northern Germans) would be to learn to understand whatever variants of the German language you hear spoken around you, but to try to keep your own speech as close to standard German (language and accent) as possible. (Perhaps by regular listening and watching German news broadcasts, etc). Or at least try to be really conscious of the differences, i.e. train your ear as well as you can. Edited by montmorency on 07 July 2012 at 10:02pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 10 of 17 07 July 2012 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | ||
I second that. Like in Southern Germany, people won't necessarily speak dialect in the bigger cities, but their accent (in Vienna called "Wiener Schmäh") will be very characteristic and prominent. Germans and Austrians don't have any problems communicating with each other (except for the occasional Austrian word like "Karfiol" instead of "Blumenkohl" for cauliflower, "Faschiertes" instead of "Gehacktes" for minced meat, or "Schlagobers" instead of "Schlagsahne" for whipped cream), but I don't know how hard the Austrian accent is for foreigners. Some words may change drastically, e.g. "Salat" (salad) will become "Solot", but once one has got the hang of the sound shifts, that shouldn't be a real problem. I for my part can understand English spoken with a Scottish or a Texan accent, so why shouldn't you be able to understand Austrian German? I think it's just a matter of getting exposed and acquainted to it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachgenie Decaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5710 days ago 128 posts - 165 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Flemish, Persian, Swiss-German Studies: English, Belarusian | Message 11 of 17 08 July 2012 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
You may not hear it yourself when you speak, but they will definitely notice your American accent (which is easy to identify) right away. I know dozens of Americans who have lived in Germany for many years, and although some of them speak nearly perfect German, their accent still screams "I'm American." So unless you have some natural gift (like Gregg Cox or Richard Simcott), your accent will be very noticeable. With regard to speaking English 24/7, you could in fact get by with English only. Many German speakers are always eager to practice their English. If you really want to be speaking German, then you will have to be VERY persistent in asking people to switch back to German and to speak clearly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fnord Triglot Groupie Switzerland Joined 5034 days ago 71 posts - 124 votes Speaks: German*, Swiss-German, English Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch | Message 12 of 17 08 July 2012 at 2:11am | IP Logged | ||
Not necessarily. Maybe you would, because you are a Sprachgenie. And maybe the Americans that you know aren't exceptionally good at nailing a domestic accent. But many people aren't quite as familiar with foreign accents and - depending on his accent - many might be unable to tell his mother tongue. Especially, if the typical American interferences aren't prominent in his accent. To get back to the original question, I would liken the dialect situation rather to that of Bavaria than northern Germany. People speaking dialect will appear hard to understand, if not incomprehensible in the beginning. Though this should be a problem in rural areas, if any. In a university / big city environment (the former usually implying the latter) standard German should not only be spoken and understood well. Its use should also be well accepted to/from any non-native speaker, even in social interaction. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tropi Diglot Groupie Austria Joined 5432 days ago 67 posts - 87 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 13 of 17 08 July 2012 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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"Standard German" is hard to define. Spoken German in Austria definitely doesn't sound like the German in North Germany. However it is not that different. There are a few words that are different (Marille vs. Aprikose, Trafik (false friend; has nothing to do with traffic) vs. Kiosk, Austrians hardly use "Mitvergangenheit" but "Vergangenheit" and you will find that most words are not pronounced that way they are written. You will encounter these 3 things even if you are in cities and people are telling you they are already speaking Hochdeutsch to you.
However I don't think it will be hard to you. It's different and you might have get a little bit used to it, but thats it. I also met a few people who learned German as a second language in Germany and then came to Austria. Of course everyone could tell, but they had no problems in understanding people or get understood. Most of them were advanced learners though. Conclusion: It will be different in Austria, but not necessarily harder. And no matter if you learn it in Germany first and go to Austria or vice versa you will be understood. It's German after all. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4669 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 14 of 17 09 July 2012 at 8:33am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know why people think they will not be able to understand a person from Bavaria, BW or Austria. More often than not, it's just a different accent, some different words (like benützen instead of benutzen), and some different grammar (Ich habe gehabt instead of Ich hatte, Ich habe gehen müssen instead of Ich musste gehen and so on)...The situation is not comparable to German-speaking Switzerland at all. Most young people in towns can't speak dialect anymore at all, it's always Hochdeutch with regional flavor. In formal situations, many people can ''code switch'' to Hochdeutch comparable to the one from Hannover (some people use the French R in formal situations while they use the rolled R in informal ones),
Here is an example of Austrian German: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7nJLWyS-2c Edited by Medulin on 09 July 2012 at 8:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5482 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 15 of 17 13 July 2012 at 10:08am | IP Logged | ||
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@Sprachgenie: German is a naturally learned language to me; I spoke with my grandfather when I was
younger. Many liken my German accent to that of a teenager raised by foreign parents in Germany: one can hear an accent, and one would know I'm foreign, but one would not think "I should switch to English." Many of my German friends can't really hear any accent anymore, but I think it's because they're so accustomed to my speech. When people take a guess at where I'm from, they say Danish, mainly because I look stereotypically Danish, and they don't know where else to say I'm from. (I've had people ask me if I'm Dutch or Belgian) To attempt to summarize what I've gathered from this thread: Austria is like Bavaria- a lot of dialect, but Austrian standard is heard a LOT in urban areas and in schools. I'd imagine that many teenagers would also stray towards more standard German. Am I right? Edit: That video in Austrian German, I understood VERY well. Sometimes she'd say something that I'd have to hear again to see what it was, and there were a few words that I couldn't get (perhaps it was just slurring of words). If this is the German that many people use daily, then I'd be in German heaven (different standards of pluricentric languages are fun for me). I'd be afraid it'd rub off on my German (particularly the accent, i.e. saying "eh" instead of the schwa, like in "lesE"- I feel as if that is common in the South, as well as the rolling Rs) , although perhaps that wouldn't be the worst. Edited by ruskivyetr on 13 July 2012 at 10:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fnord Triglot Groupie Switzerland Joined 5034 days ago 71 posts - 124 votes Speaks: German*, Swiss-German, English Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch | Message 16 of 17 13 July 2012 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
The author reads from a book that has clearly been written in Standard German, hence she also speaks Standard German - Austrian Standard German probably, with only a light Austrian accent. I am by no means an expert in Austrian German. In fact, I have hardly ever been to Austria. Still, this is certainly not the German people will use daily. I would rather classify the video as "the sort of Hochdeutsch most Austrians are capable to speak"... in formal announcements, university teaching, with foreigners. This video, on the other hand, is more what "everyday Austrian" should sound like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lunlmfIvnGA I don't know if that's really Wienerisch or something else, it's just the first video I came across while searching on youtube. EDIT: Maybe another, more interesting video. It is from the Austrian version of "Who wants to be a millionaire": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB1q7p_K9ts An interesting thing to note is the short conversation between the Austrian host and and the "Phone a friend" guy used as a lifeline. Armin Assinger, the Austrian host, speaks Austrian German. The person on the phone happens to be Günter Jauch, himself host of the German version of the show. Jauch (on the phone) speaks in his usual German variety that he uses on TV - which sound pretty close to Standard German. Both native speakers can easily understand each other, their varieties are mutually intelligible in this case - yet clearly quite different. I assume that at least some non-native speakers might have a hard time comprehending the Austrian German spoken - though this does not necessarily have to affect you. Edited by fnord on 13 July 2012 at 11:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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