Any Germisch or Denglish speakers here?

So I was typing an email to a friend and upon rereading it, had to de-capitalize most of my nouns because they'd been reflexively capitalized.

I'm also finding that some German words and expressions are creeping into my head when I speak English, and I sometimes have to stop and think of what the best English expresion is. This can kill a conversation because I sometimes have to think for quite awhile before I can continue in pure English. Experienced expats can understand me when I get lazy and revert into Germisch, but I get weird looks when I speak to non-German speakers after a few beers.

Anybody auch?

Typically, this sort of thing happens when you are not fluent in a language. For example, I speak some French and Spanish, but am by no means fluent. So when I speak French, I keep polluting it with Spanish terms and vice versa.

Yep, it's happening to me too! Whilst writing a presentation in English I used the word Schield for Shield and Leider for unfortunately.

i totally disagree with you oli2000. i see it as quite the opposite. this happens when you have a grasp of the language because your brain has incorporated the new language. i am fluent in german (obviously not perfect. which expat is?), but i also think in german too and when i mix words it's because the choice sometimes just fits the situation much better, meaning the nuances are understood. obviously i try to speak one language or the other consistently.

There are probably more that I have said that I didn't realise, but these are a few things I know I have said in Germisch:

Genau.
Under the week (this is actually Bavarian, because in High German they say during the week too)
And? (meaning so?)
Can I have the card please? (and I get this one wrong in German too, asking for the Menu.)
your man (instead of husband.)

And probably a dozen more that I haven't realised. I'm not sure my friend realises she sometimes says "Versteht's Du?" at the end of her English comments.

it´s not a question of not being fluent in a language...
It´s just because we are surrounded by the german language which infiltrate our english conversations - your guys are lucky that only some words in german creep into your heads ...I am suffering of german constructions taking the control of my sentences z.B:verb at the end...
But it is everything no problem!

@elfenstar
I do completely agree with you -
that´s actually what i tried to say

die Houda

I have exactly the same problem, and it becomes more of a problem when you are speaking to Englisch speakers that cannot speak Deutsch, as then they get completely confused.

The worst thing is my German is quite bad, but enough to get by, so how comes I remember German words and not English words.

Manchmal I completely forget the English word altogether !

Even though I am nowhere near an english native speaker i get laughed at by my collegues everytime I have to write a report/essay of my job as I use German words with english grammar. It works both ways.
What really messes my head up if there is a third language around like say, a group of Germans, French and English speaking... Especially when drinks are involved.
But ich hoffe ihr enjoyed es trotzdem

I have a basic but hopefully improving grasp of German and often find myself garbling both languages. The most common mistake I make is when using Mit and With. For example, in English I often ask my friends if they want to come MIT me for a coffee. In German I ask mochtest du With me...aargh.

On another note...walking by a window the other day and overheard a couple enjoying some "private time" anyhoo...the gal in this started yelling: oh ja, genau, genau...I guess genau does work in every context

seek help.

Bubbly, you speak better English than most UK nationals (although this is not difficult really).
It is true about the third language though, if I have to speak French or am in a French-language meeting but spend the breaks speaking German then... *ouch*.
If you are tired then it is just the worst.
It does wear off a bit though, during my placement year it was much worse.
Katrina

This is all bull. You only start mixing up languages in your head if you want to. If you can get to the level of thinkning in a foreign lingo, and are surrounded by it 24/7 then of course it will be temporarily more natural.
BUT ONLY IF YOU LET IT. Let it happen in France or Spain, but do not let the German tongue pervert your mind.

I work in an environment full of native English speakers with fluent German... anyone who doesn't speak German wouldn't be able to follow the conversation at all! Phrases like 'if anything falls into to you, let me know' can often be heard (wenn dir irgendwas einfällt - real meaning if you think of anything) WE all know exactly what is meant!

I had a similar situation whilst studying in Russia. A bunch of English students all studying Russian in a small town 'just outside' Moscow - there are certain words that just 'work' better in the other language - or you acquire a 'pet' word for the week.

I don't really have a problem switching between German and English. But then I grew up speaking both from a young age and I've always switched.

Occasionally I'll make a mistake (in German more than English) or forget a word in one language, but that seems to even happen to people who only speak one language.

thats a wee bit strong isn't it?

germish or denglisch as it's also refered to, is a normal thing and really quite amusing for the ininiciated, ie your mum. four years ago mein was terrible and i couldn't speak english properly anymore. took me four days to remember the word squirrel! (ok i could have used a dictionary).
It comes from habit and usage, "lohnsteuerkarte" will allways be that, wether your speaking german or english and thats the thin edge of the wedge.

if your worried about it (puts doctors hat on) start reading more, as this not only counters the slow creep of those wonderful expressive quick words such as "genau", "stimmt" or mein lieblingswort "suppi", but also stops your language from "freezing" (in my case 1993) and being stuck in a cultural coma. of course with the rise of the internet and satalite television has reduced this problem significantly, but still mild outbreaks will allways accour.

Good point Gideon. U-bahn is always U-bahn, never subway or underground or metro. I hear people speaking all sorts of languages and they say it too.

"Yadda yadday gobbledee-gook, yadda U-bahn gobble gobble."

I often call it, "the um train thing". That works for s-bahn as well so saves me valuable thinking time.

true showem true,

but what about the expat habit of saying "polizei" instead of police, is that due to its linguistic hardness? ie more fitting a description of gun tooting fascists (that was ironic, i know there human too)

My problem, is that my German friends often want to speak English with me, so I then say certain German words and the English word so that I am sure they understand me, then German words become part of my English language !

Hmm, I always say police when speaking English, regardless of where the cops are from. Betcha you hear "Polizei" more from Brits than anyone else.

Keydeck, yeah, save those few braincells that you have left for more important things.

@ don_riina
You already shocked me with some political opinions you have or some statments you made but " the perversion coming from the german language" is the best stuff you wrote -I mean you´re not forced to remain in germany.

I think that oli2000 and elfenstar are both correct. You can mix languages at various levels of mastery; often for different reasons depending on the level of mastery.

When I'm in France I use my 10 words of French (the other 10 I know would get me slapped ) and then extrapolate my also-very-weak Spanish into French and start gesticulating wildly. So I'm dong what oli2000 is suggesting; only not with German.

One thing that many of my friends and I have consciously resisted (with quite some effort) is referring to cell phones as "handys." Strange how some language overlaps creep in naturally and some things are resisted with much kicking and screaming...

Denglish joke (read it out loud):
Q: what comes between fear and sex?
A: fünf

Not even a tiny wee bit strong. I have actually mellowed in my attitude to the Germans over the years.

Police are just police. Any Brit calling them the Polizie is more likely using it as a derogatory term than absorbing the local vernacular.

The U-Bahn is called the train. So is the S-bahn. I might call the U-bahn the metro sometimes though.


Yes, I am afraid that I am.

I've been thinking about this topic lately, so thought I would revive it.

My problem seems to come from the fact that most of my friends are German, and we almost always speak English together. And by default, I end up speaking a pretty basic level of English most of the time. So after 5 years of this, I seem to have 'lost' (or misplaced) a lot of the... um, what the word... nuances! (Or is it? ) Then to compound the problem, my 5 year old is bilingual, but heavily favors German and liberally sprinkles German into his English conversations, and I think I pick that up by osmosis.

The real kicker is that my German blows. So I am not fluent in either language (or so it seems at times...)

The other annoying related habit is the native English speakers I do end up spending time with are mostly Irish and British, so I pick up distinctively non-American phrases from them as well, further bastardizing my American English. Not that I think American English is better, but I can imagine there are not many things more annoying than hearing an American speaking in British or Irish-isms. But I digress...

Thoughts on the causes of Germish?

Pfand
Hausmeister
Kippen (a Fenster)

are the words I like the best in my Denglisch.

Denglish or Germish?

Gerglish is much better

fest halten. It is so much easier than "hang on tightly" and I also use Wait until its "fest". And struggled when dad was visiting and we were fixing the bikes. Is it "fest", was so much easier than "Is it done up tightly"

Surely it's Deutslish init?

In English it's "hold tight!", preferably with a geezery Laaaaahndaaaaaan accent. Innit.