|
 |
Speaking German to natives | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5986 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 25 of 42 11 August 2011 at 10:23am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
|
I've heard it said about many different people that they will switch to English really fast, but I've generally found it to not be true.
When I meet Swedes, it's quite easy to get them to speak Swedish. When I meet people from the Netherlands and Flemish parts of Belgium, it's quite easy to get them to speak Dutch to me. The same is true for Germans. It helps if you can show that you've put some work into it. You'll need to be able to say more than two sentences right away, to show that you're serious. If you just start off with "Guten Tag" and then wait, they might just think you're being friendly. Once you say a couple more sentences, however, they'll know you mean it and they'll continue in the language. It also helps to have an understandable accent. Putting effort into your accent is just another way to show them that you're serious about learning their language. Find out what the typical accent mistakes are for people from your country, and work on eliminating those mistakes from your speech. My feeling is that the most common reason for people to switch back to English is that they genuinely want to help you. If your accent sucks, and you don't say much, or you stumble a bit too much, then they'll try to switch to English to make it easier for you. Showing them that you're determined, and that you've put some effort into their language will keep them going. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 26 of 42 11 August 2011 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Nope, it isn't. Winning the paralympics is awesome. Seeing people who overcome such an obstacle become very successful nontheless - it makes me feel much more 'nationalistic pride' to see them coming from my country, my society than seeing gifted people compete against other gifted people and win. Our movie dubbing industry on the other hand is plain sad.
I wonder, are you generally good at picking up body language? I will have to test that idea, but it might just be that I find it more difficult to talk to people in German when their body language is far from a native speaker's. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5320 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 27 of 42 11 August 2011 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I totally agree. A more adequate sports reference would be the NBA World Championships, which is US-only and should therefore drop the World from its title.
I totally agree. It seems that the dubbing industry is dominated by a handful of studios with a limited number of voice actors. I found it really annoying to hear the same voice actors all the time and stopped watching dubbed movies and tv shows altogether. Also there are countless examples of sloppy translations. Here's one well-known mistranslation. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| LebensForm Senior Member Austria Joined 5050 days ago 212 posts - 264 votes Studies: German | Message 28 of 42 11 August 2011 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Oh, please elaborate on this for me :) I know that there are cultural differences than that of Germany and the US, for one better transportation, but please do tell about the body language. Is it true, that people in Germany are uhmm, not really sure how to explain it... more matter-a-fact, not sure if that is what I mean or not, like prefer a firm hand-shake, rather than a hug, eye contact is important, manners are also important, things like that. Which are all good in my opinion, Americans seem to lack on some of these. And yes, I need to keep working on my accent. I know I will always have an American accent, somewhat, grr this really does irritate me too lol, not so much for the reason it's not completely German, or because I was born in Germany but speak German with an American accent (a bit resentful, not going to lie about this one) but I think it's more about the attitude Americans generally have. Maybe if the attitude of superiority, or entitlment wasn't so obvious, maybe then, I wouldn't feel so ashamed of having an American accent when I speak German :( Any suggestions on how to improve one's German accent? Maybe mistakes you've heard from native English speakers? I am dead serious in trying to perfect (as much as possible) my German accent :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5986 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 29 of 42 12 August 2011 at 7:57am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
The first thing is to investigate all the basic German sounds. English speakers tend to have trouble with the two types of "ch" sound (as in Bach and ich), and also the way to pronounce written Rs. The American R sound never happens in German, so you'll have to learn to say the back-of-the-throat kind of R. Also, when an R is written at the end of a syllable, you don't say it as an R, it's more like an extra vowel. For example, the word "mir" said by an American typically has a strong American R on the end, but Germans will say it like "me-uh". Or "verstehen"...Americans would typically mess up the "r" and the "s". Here the R is at the end of a syllable, so it's said like "uh". The S is in front of a T at the start of a syllable, so it's said like our "sh". So "verstehen" should sound sorta like "fe-uh-shtey-en". It's hard to spell it out, but hopefully you get the idea of what I'm saying - R is said differently at the start or at the end of a syllable, and so is ST. I think the best way to grasp all of this intuitively is to do lots of listening. Find some German audiobooks and their corresponding texts in German, and spend a lot of time listening and reading. If you listen carefully, you'll be able to catch on to the patterns naturally. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| LebensForm Senior Member Austria Joined 5050 days ago 212 posts - 264 votes Studies: German | Message 30 of 42 12 August 2011 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
|
Thank you!! Ya, I knew about the ST sound in German, that it is pronounced like there is an H in it, like you described, also with SP sounds too, right? Like in the word, spät, it would be said like shpeht, lol not exactly sure how to write out the ä sound... anyway, yeah, it's the R sound I am trying to perfect, I understand the mir, example, but what gets me is when the R is after words like drei, or Frau, so basicalls after a consonant. I understand the R is gutteral, and therefore back of the throat, but when I say words like those above, it's like I put too much emphasis on the R sound, and then it doesn't come out natrual. it's forced. Would it be safe to say, the R sound I am describing could be similar to that ch sound in say, the word ich, but more back of the throat? I am not even sure how to begin to explain what I am saying lol. So correct me if I am wrong, please. This may sound strange, but it seems like the only time I can actually do the sound correct, is when my throat is wet, that may have sounded bad, but it's true, if I have just drank water, I can pronounce those words better? Does this even make sense?
So when the R is at the end of the word, like in mir, you say it like you described? Is this always the case? Or does it have to do with the vowel it follows? Thank you so much for your help!! Edited by LebensForm on 12 August 2011 at 4:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| fnord Triglot Groupie Switzerland Joined 5033 days ago 71 posts - 124 votes Speaks: German*, Swiss-German, English Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch | Message 31 of 42 12 August 2011 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
The German "r" sound is usually one of the most difficult ones for English/American speakers. I also find it to be the most revealing one. Not unlike in many other indo-european languages. The different realizations of "r" are among the last ones young children learn in acquiring speech. Similarly, I still struggle with the English "th" in some words, especially consonant clusters. I have a tendency to overemphasize it as well. But I guess that's still better than wrongly realizing it as "z" or "s". Generally, I think overemphasizing "correct" (more or less) pronunciation is better than substituting with a wrong one - it will get better with practice. So once you get it about right and know what it should/shouldn't sound like, I wouldn't worry about it too much. By the way: the phonetic realization of the "r" in German can vary quite a bit - depending on region, dialect and accent. When I say "drei" or "Frau" aloud to myself, I can voice the "r" quite variably: from a really minimal realization that might be barely perceptible to quite "strong" and emphasized. But I really cannot which one feels more right or wrong. Though I should disclose that my own native German has been in flux over the last three or four years...
I think so. At least I cannot think of any counterexamples right now. For example, "Wasser" sounds quite as if it was spelled with two "a" ("Wassa"), with the second "a" a bit "weaker and fading", if this description makes sense... Edited by fnord on 13 August 2011 at 12:42am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| LebensForm Senior Member Austria Joined 5050 days ago 212 posts - 264 votes Studies: German | Message 32 of 42 13 August 2011 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
|
Yeah, that description actually did make sense. This question may sound silly, so I apologize lol, but when the R is voiced like in the words I suggested, does your tongue go to the back of the throat then, or does it just remain as is, meaning, you don't move your tongue. But when I try these sounds, it just sounds like I'm garggeling water or something, is this even close? Even pronouncing drei is a bit easier than Frau or frei, and whatnot. For me, it's almost like 2 sylibles, lol sounds sooo unnatrual :( But ya, with time, it will come, I'm just so impatient, I at least want to sound somewhat convincing...
1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
