Why are Germans among the worst speakers of English?
The answer can be summed up with one word: arrogance.
Most (not all) Germans believe that English is a very simple language and have the attitude that there is little or nothing to learning, speaking or writing it - properly. They suffer under the delusion that their language is the hardest one in the world and that Anglophones are utterly incapable of learning it.
I have been speaking German fluently for over 20 years and use it on a daily basis.
Germans have the annoying and insulting habit of speaking to you in English if they think it's your native language. If I had 10 cents for every time I have had Germans suggest that we speak English "because it's easier" I would be rich. More often than not, when they do this it is usually an immediate sign that their English is awful.
Well,
i'm doing an high school exchange year right now (Wisconsin) and the more i hear myself talking, the more i realize that my english pronunciation is just awful. At my Highschool we also got a norwegian student, who speaks english better than most of our junior class students ^^
I think the biggest reason is that we don't need english in our daily lifes AND that people just didn't learn english at school back in the 70s or 80s than we do now.
I think we still do speak better than Spanish, French, Italian or Asian people, but i just know that from my experience.
The other thing is that our language is as different as it can get.
At example, very sometimes sounds like ferre, or simple like simpell, or th like ss.
If you go to Germany and speak to younger people that have an average education, you'll see that they don't speak english that bad (despite the terrible accent ^^)
I kinda have to agree, although there much better than non germanic's at speaking it, there much worse then they should be. For one they don't need english due to there massive population. The second part is that they think because it's easy you don't have to work on their accent. I mean for a german vocab and grammar is a joke. They don't need to work on it so speak english with a strong accent.
Just look at arnold schwarzanegger, his accent is much stronger than most people in hollywood even compared to people like jackie chan.
>>The second part is that they think because it's easy you don't have to work on their accent. I mean for a german vocab and grammar is a joke. They don't need to work on it so speak english with a strong accent.<<
While they tend to retain a strong accent, this is not the main problem with their English. The point is, they DO need to work on their grammar and sentence structure. A huge stumbling block for native German speakers is the much richer tense/aspect system in English. I have met very few, even among those who have lived here for years, who have totally mastered it. And there are lots of other rules governing sentence structure and the correct combination of words, which have to be absorbed, otherwise you will end up sounding stilted and far from native. Which is exactly what tends to happen among German speakers. I guess this is partly because, as pointed out above, they do not believe that any such complexity can possibly exist in English.
The Germans don't need English because it's the biggest native language in Europe. Why would you need English if you speak a language that has the biggest native speakers of Europe? Unless you are going to live outside Germany, Austria, Switzerland... you are not going to need English and in France you don't need English or Spain so English is not that useful inside Europe. (besides the UK)
<<The Germans don't need English because it's the biggest native language in Europe. >>
This is totally wrong. Germans DO need English in order to do business internationally. It is common knowledge among Germans that English is a necessity if you you expect to have any kind of career that will go anywhere in the business world.
The average German simply doesn't care enough to perfect his or her English beyond a very basic functional level.
The Germans don't need English because it's the biggest native language in Europe. >>
This is totally wrong. Germans DO need English in order to do business internationally.
^^^Did you read that the original poster said EUROPE and not the whole world!
In Europe English is not that much important in Germany, Austria, Switzerland= German France = French, Spain=Spanish, Italy=Italian.... alll these countries prefer their own language and English is by far the second choice.
They don't care because maybe they don't want to live in America or Britain.. maybe they are happy being in Europe and speaking European languages?
Perhaps we should ask why British people are the worst speakers of German in the EU. The average German speaks far better English than what a Brit can muster in German. There's no comparison.
German is a major European business language, there's often little need for a German person to know English but most of them do alright. Why can't the English people string a sentence together in Europe's biggest language?
English cant speak german properly because nobody more wants learn this
sh.it.
Almost nobody cant speak german properly.
Only those rich idiots who loves the people that shi.ts chocolate.
^^ It should read almost nobody CAN and not "can't" speak German properly.
^^ Maybe the poster can't speak English either?
<<Perhaps we should ask why British people are the worst speakers of German in the EU. The average German speaks far better English than what a Brit can muster in German. There's no comparison. >>
Prehaps there is no need to learn your pathetic, shitty, ugly little regional language because there are bigger, more powerful, more significant and ultimately more beautiful languages to focus on?
Don't kid yourself, Kraut is little more than a large regional language, Italian has as much acclaim as German does.
Not to mention what is the point in learning the language of the country we've kicked the ass off two times? Pussies!
Because native language of Germans is German.
What's the point of being in the EU if you can't speak any European language? Besides GERMAN (AND NOT ENGLISH) is the biggest Native language in Europe and there is nothing you can do about that!
Besides I don't think Germans want you to speak their language in the first place. Go fix your teeth first and brush your teeth before attempting to speak ANY language first!!
<<Perhaps we should ask why British people are the worst speakers of German in the EU. The average German speaks far better English than what a Brit can muster in German. There's no comparison. >>
Perhaps I can provide a simple straight forward answer: There is far less utility in learning foreign languages for native English speakers than there is in learning English for non-native speakers. Goreign language are more or less a luxury in the English speaking world, but English is necessary for survival in non-English speaking countries. If that were not so we would find far greater numbers of non-native English speakers learning languages other than English which is not the case. So it's not a matter of British and/or Americans being stupid or lazy in regard to foreign languages, but rather they simply do not the pressing need to do so. As a native English speaker I also speak fluent German and Russian, but guess what? If I want to speak to someone from a non-German or Russian speaking country I end up having to speak English which is exactly what most Germans and Russian also end up doing.
I think I made the point clear. It's just a fact of life that foreign languages simply do not the same priority in the English speaking world as elsewhere.
Yes it's true that foreign languages aren't heavily promoted in the UK and there is also the issue of which one do you learn? The choice in Germany will be comparitively simple - English.
However, I wouldn't say that English skills in Germany are "necessary for survival". Germany is a huge country with a strong economy and many millions of Germans have little or no need for English in their everyday lives. I know lots of German people whose English is extremely basic at best and I will speak German with them, even though my German is far from perfect. So to say you can't go far in Germany career-wise without English is nonsense.