You know you're turning German when...

[Handy Smurf 0]

@Jimbo: schwartzfahren? Nein d:-)nke!

[Wundebar 7]

...when you start diluting every type of drink imaginable with 'natürliches mineralwasser mit kohlensäure'.

[GreenTea 89]

...when you spell "tip" with two "p"s. The German obsession with doubling the final consonant in words like "Tipp" and "Stopp" and a few others that elude me for now, drives me up the wall. I may be wrong, but I think it's only in recent years they've started doing it. Is it prescribed by the new "Rechtschreibung" or what?

 

Anyway "tipp" in itself is bad enough, but Jeremy, I'm sad to say, has in another thread just committed the ultimate sacrilege:

 

 

Pas thanks for bringing a taste of civilisation out to Germany in the form of PG Tipps.

Besmirching the name of our nation's sacred tea - Jeremy, how could you?! :o

[Quasimodem 8]

Has "suck the marrow out of the Schweine-Knochen" been mentioned yet?

 

Q

[MollyB 7]

Yeah Quas I think that was listed right after "put gelbe Saecke on bed before sex."

[antred 1]

 

...when you spell "tip" with two "p"s. The German obsession with doubling the final consonant in words like "Tipp" and "Stopp" and a few others that elude me for now, drives me up the wall. I may be wrong, but I think it's only in recent years they've started doing it. Is it prescribed by the new "Rechtschreibung" or what?

 

Anyway "tipp" in itself is bad enough, but Jeremy, I'm sad to say, has in another thread just committed the ultimate sacrilege:

Besmirching the name of our nation's sacred tea - Jeremy, how could you?!

Don't quote me on that but I think it's always been that way. Why this is done ... beats me. :huh:

[SallyD 1]

You are turning German if you catch yoruself doing the folllowing:

 

Being deathly scared of a draft in a room with closed windows...if someone dares open a window even in the dead of summer they say "es zieht" and promptly ask you to close the window or close it themselves.

 

Getting mysterous illnesses like a "Hoerstrurz" (sudden deafness) or "Kreislaufzusammenbruch" (circulatory collapse)

 

Perpetually complaining about everything (weather being the favorite topic...too hot, too cold, too rainy, too dry, too much snow, too little snow...etc)

 

Always giving some sort of bland and neutral answer when asked how they are when you greet them, or going to the other extreme and giving TMI...I did not want to know about your digestive problems. "Fine thanks" would have been more than enough...but what am I saying...they are never "fine" or doing well...normally they say "geht so" or "I can't complain" ...

 

Well these are just my two cents to this whole living in Germany thing.

[antred 1]

I know that apparently it's standard operating procedure in the states, but I find the whole concept of asking about someone's well-being if you don't really want to hear an honest answer a bit silly. :)

[SallyD 1]

It is just a way of being pollite...and it is not only standard procedure in the US but also elsewhere...England and well other places around the world. It is just a way of being pollite and friendly. As an ESL teacher I have had to answer this question many times and I must say that asking this question alone makes you a German. It's not the honesty or lack thereof in the wuestion that is important but more how it makes the other person feel when they hear it, especially if the asker uses a friendly tone and maybe even a smile when he or she asks. That is something that many find hard to understand, but a couple of my students who were in the US on holiday finally got what it meant once they were there, and returned to Germany and came back to class actually commenting on how people, total strangers, were so pleasant in the US...opening doors, asking how they were, and just being genrally nice to them. These were the ones that actually said that the honesty or lack thereof was not the central point, but that it was more how it made them feel, and that they generally felt nice after being received and treated like that by total and nameless strangers on the street or in an establishment. Then these same students commented on Germans being rude. Go figure!!

[antred 1]

Hey, I've spent a year in the U.S. myself and I basically made the same experience as your students. Loved the people there and generally found them to be super friendly. And although I do get the point of the how-you-doin ritual and play along when talking to Americans, Brits, etc. (hell, I ask the question myself when initiating a conversation ), I reckon the German in me still can't quite wrap his head around the reason why someone would ask a question that they don't want an answer to.

[BattalionBoy 17]

You know you are turning German when you are involved in a traffic accident that results in microscopic scratch on your bumper/fender and you call the police for an accident report and you keep your vehicle in place while it holds up the morning rush hour.

[Hutcho 2,227]

 

Hey, I've spent a year in the U.S. myself and I basically made the same experience as your students.

When you start to "make" things like this guy above, you're turning into a German.

 

Anyone want to make some sport with me this afternoon?

[osmachar 324]

 

...

 

Perpetually complaining about everything (weather being the favorite topic...too hot, too cold, too rainy, too dry, too much snow, too little snow...etc)

 

...

Not weather - supermarkets! (exlamation mark )

[Mariposa 1,281]

No that would be the expats only, Germans don't really complain about the grocery stores al that much. ;)

[osmachar 324]

True! ;-)

[antred 1]

 

When you start to "make" things like this guy above, you're turning into a German.

 

Anyone want to make some sport with me this afternoon?

Oh goody, the grammar police has caught on to me again. Right, "I've basically experienced the same thing as your students". That better? :P

[HEM 11,160]

 

...when you start diluting every type of drink imaginable with 'natürliches mineralwasser mit kohlensäure'.

This is true - when I first got here I used to drink Apfelsaft neat but now it has to be diluted at least 50-50...

[Hutcho 2,227]

 

Oh goody, the grammar police has caught on to me again. Right, "I've basically experienced the same thing as your students". That better?

All you needed to do was replace "made" with "had"..

[tor 17,105]

when you think it's completely normal that banks and other businesses close for lunch!

[Boots 1,930]

... when your dog is wearing a neckerchief