{"id":6728,"date":"2015-11-13T11:53:33","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T11:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=6728"},"modified":"2017-11-22T14:45:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T14:45:51","slug":"why-germans-are-rude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/why-germans-are-rude\/","title":{"rendered":"Why ‘Germans Are Rude’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I recently read an article called \u201cHow To Say \u2018This Is Crap\u2019 In Different Cultures\u201d.<\/a> It highlights the differences in how the British talk compared to other European nationalities \u2013 Germans included.<\/p>\n

The article states that the Germans, Dutch and other nationalities are more direct than the British. While the British use what the article calls \u2018downgraders\u2019 to soften their criticism (for example, by saying \u2018That\u2019s an interesting idea, but could you, perhaps, think about tweaking this part slightly?\u2019), Germans and other, more \u2018direct\u2019 nationalities use what it calls ‘upgraders\u2019. These \u2018upgraders\u2019 are words that put emphasis on a criticism \u2013 words such as strongly, absolutely <\/em>or totally. <\/em>I\u2019ve linked to the article so you can read the whole thing yourselves, and I suggest you do, as it\u2019s quite interesting and makes some valid points. There is an amusing story in there about a German who almost got fired by his English boss for misinterpreting his instruction to \u2018think about\u2019 changing something at work \u2013 by telling him to \u2018think about\u2019 changing it, his boss actually meant \u2018change it or else\u2019. But the German employee took this to mean he could actually think about it and then choose either option, so he considered it, and decided against the change. Needless to say, his boss wasn\u2019t impressed!<\/p>\n

Many times I have had English people tell me that they think Germans are either rude<\/strong> or cold<\/strong>. Before reading this article, I never realised the extent to which this was down to language differences. As someone who has grown up with both, I agree that there is a difference in the way the Germans and the Brits deliver criticism and opinions. And I can now see how this is down to language use, too.<\/p>\n

\"Disagreement\"<\/a>

Foto: mikecogh on flickr.com under CC BY-SA 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

Ordinary German, never mind the language used in delivering criticism and opinions, is often more direct than British English. Here are some ordinary German sentences with their English translations (thanks to The German-Speaking World<\/a>\u00a0 for these excellent examples):<\/p>\n

Gibst du mir die Kassette?<\/strong> \u2013 Would you give me the cassette tape (please)?<\/p>\n

Ich bekomme den Steak<\/strong>. \u2013 I\u2019ll have the steak (please).<\/p>\n

Sagen Sie uns bitte sofort Bescheid, wenn…<\/strong> \u2013 Please let us know as soon as possible if…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now here they are again with their more literal translations.<\/p>\n

Gibst du mir die Kassette? – (Will you) Give me the cassette tape?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ich bekomme den Steak. \u2013 I\u2019m having\/getting the steak.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sagen Sie uns bitte sofort Bescheid, wenn… \u2013 Please tell us immediately if…<\/strong><\/p>\n

These literal translations hopefully reveal the directness of the German language a little better. As you can see above, in German the \u2018please\u2019 is implied, though it is not always said. That is why, when a German speaker \u2018translates\u2019 these sentences into English, they may not always come across as overly polite to an English person. While the British often use the phrase \u2018let us know as soon as possible\u2019, for instance, the Germans are more likely to say \u2018tell us immediately\u2019. It might sound blunt in English, but rest assured, it sounds quite polite in German.<\/p>\n

There is far more to say on this topic, but I’ll leave that for a follow-up post. What do you think so far? Do you find German more direct than English? Does that make it sound rude to you? Leave your thoughts in a comment!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Getting to the point – German upgraders<\/u><\/h3>\n

For a direct approach in German, add in words like:<\/p>\n

absolut (absolutely\/totally): Das ist absolut falsch (That is absolutely wrong)<\/p>\n

komplett (completely): Das ist komplett falsch (That is completely wrong)<\/p>\n

sicherlich (surely): Das ist sicherlich falsch (That is surely wrong)<\/p>\n

wirklich (really): Das is wirklich falsch (That is really wrong)<\/p>\n

sofort – Immediately<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Softening the blow \u2013 German downgraders<\/u><\/h3>\n

For a gentler approach in German, use phrases like:<\/p>\n

K\u00f6nnten Sie bitte\u2026 – Could you please…<\/p>\n

Es ist eine gute Idee, aber\u2026 – It\u2019s a good idea, but…<\/p>\n

Machen wir es vielleicht so? \u2013 Maybe we can do it this way?<\/p>\n

Ja, doch, aber… \u2013 Yes, that\u2019s true, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! I recently read an article called \u201cHow To Say \u2018This Is Crap\u2019 In Different Cultures\u201d. It highlights the differences in how the British talk compared to other European nationalities \u2013 Germans included. The article states that the Germans, Dutch and other nationalities are more direct than the British. While the British use what…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":7425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[375970,376066,95131,376067,376023,3422],"class_list":["post-6728","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","tag-german-and-english","tag-german-culture","tag-german-language","tag-germans-are-rude","tag-language","tag-stereotypes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6728"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9304,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6728\/revisions\/9304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}