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Where in Germany to learn German? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| crackpot Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6307 days ago 144 posts - 178 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 35 27 April 2009 at 5:47am | IP Logged |
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Where in Germany should one do immersion if one wants to be able to speak the most widely understood variation of German?
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| Paramecium Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 5718 days ago 46 posts - 59 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Russian Studies: Japanese | Message 2 of 35 27 April 2009 at 5:50pm | IP Logged |
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It depends very much on your surrounding. If you will study it at university, you should be able to learn anywhere standard German. If you will do immersion inside a family it would be better to do it in areas where exist no strong dialect. For example Sachsen-Anhalt, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) except the northern parts of it, most parts of Nordrhein Westfahlen, Brandenburg or Berlin. It is said that in the area around Hannover is spoken what comes most near to standard German.
But you shouldn't worry at all. I think nobody will talk with you in a very strong dialect like Plattdeutsch, Schwäbisch or Bayrisch. What you will hear normally of persons who live in such region is a mix of their dialects with standard German. And this is very understandable. In all my life I never met a person in Germany which I couldn't understand. So I think it doesn't matter so much where you will do immersion. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachgenie Decaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5715 days ago 128 posts - 165 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Flemish, Persian, Swiss-German Studies: English, Belarusian | Message 3 of 35 28 April 2009 at 1:53am | IP Logged |
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I disagree with Paramecium. I think that the location you choose to learn German in does matter a lot. Yes, us native German speakers can understand almost all dialects of German. But for a foreigner learning German, the strong regional dialects could be a nightmare. Just think of the difference between how someone in Toronto talks and someone from southern rural Alabama. The dialects of Germany are much stronger than that. If your primary goal is to learn German then don't go to Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, or Saxony. And don't even think of going to Austria or Switzerland (unless you'd rather learn Swiss-German which is a completely different language). I agree that Hannover and surrounding area would be the best place to go. Berlin and Brandenburg do have a dialect but not so bad. For example in Berlin people would say "icka, dete, kicka mal" which would translate to standard German as "ich, das, guck mal". I know Americans who had very much trouble with Berlin and East German accents.
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5772 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 35 28 April 2009 at 6:02am | IP Logged |
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Sprachgenie, what Paramecium said about Standard German is true. Most people who speak a regional dialect automatically switch to -sometimes accented- Standard German when they talk to somebody who doesn't speak their dialect. Of course, there should be places in which people are more proficient in Standard German, and in my experience those are big cities any other place where there's a lot of fluctuation in inhabitants, like university cities or towns that live mainly from tourism. Throughout the last ten years I met exactly to individuals who did not even try to switch to Standard German when speaking to me, both were men over sixty with a head-of-the-family-like attitude. (One spoke a Bavarian, one a Low Alemannic dialect.)
And this topic did come up at least twice already in the short time I've been here, I don't know how many times over the time this forum exists. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachgenie Decaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5715 days ago 128 posts - 165 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Flemish, Persian, Swiss-German Studies: English, Belarusian | Message 5 of 35 28 April 2009 at 12:20pm | IP Logged |
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For that matter, many Germans could even switch to English when speaking with a Canadian. The point is to find Germans who speak high German in all situations so they don't have to constantly switch how they speak just to accomodate one person.
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| Pyx Diglot Senior Member China Joined 5741 days ago 670 posts - 892 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 35 28 April 2009 at 5:09pm | IP Logged |
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Come over to beautiful Hessia, of course! :D
(It's mainly propaganda, with a little grain of truth) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6665 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 7 of 35 28 April 2009 at 5:12pm | IP Logged |
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When I was studying German, I heard that northern German tends to be more "standard" than southern German.
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| Sprachgenie Decaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5715 days ago 128 posts - 165 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Flemish, Persian, Swiss-German Studies: English, Belarusian | Message 8 of 35 28 April 2009 at 6:07pm | IP Logged |
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In general northern German is closer to standard, but there are parts of North Germany which have dialects so strong that they are not at all understandable for other Germans. Some even consider them to be different languages. Nordfriesisch for example.
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