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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

How German has completely fuddled up my English (and how I’ve dealt with it)

Those of you who’ve lived in Germany for a few years can surely relate - once you’ve picked up the local language and it encompasses your daily life, you slowly start to notice signs that your English is deteriorating.

How German has completely fuddled up my English (and how I’ve dealt with it)
(I can't believe I just said "We meet us next week" out loud!) Photo: Deposit Photos/Melpomene

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The process of somewhat losing grasp of your mother tongue or another familiar language due to a new language is a strange phenomenon. If you've gone through this, you’re not alone.

Those of you who have similarly based yourself in Germany over the past few years may know what I’m talking about when I say: the struggle is real when it comes to hanging on to your native language.

When I relocated here in 2012, I was as eager as ever when it came to learning German. Eventually when I could speak the language more or less fluently, it was a fulfilling feeling and I patted myself on the back for it.

Little did I know at this point though that soon afterward, the signs showing I couldn’t quite speak English properly anymore would creep up on me.

I had finally come to be able to chat with people at social gatherings as well as communicate with the authorities and doctors – but all of this came with a price.

Now and then, when chatting with family and friends back home, without even realizing it (complete with a big smile on my face) I’d start the conversation by saying “Naaaa?” This is despite the fact I was aware this term of endearment is virtually unknown to anyone who doesn’t speak German. Doh!

Similarly I’d find myself casually adding an “or?” at the end of sentences even while speaking English. This is likely because I had become so used to tacking on the German “oder?” at the end of sentences and my brain couldn’t adjust quickly enough.

Even nowadays I use German words (sometimes unwittingly) while speaking in my native tongue whenever the English word escapes me. The other day for instance when a colleague’s tire went flat I told him that his Schlauch was likely punctured or had a hole in it.

But these examples which show how German has messed up my English aren’t that bad in comparison with the times I really started to fear for the state of my first language.

From 2012 to 2015, my entire working life was devoted to teaching native German speakers and advising them on the English language. 

It was during this three-year period that I had the feeling my vocabulary was shrinking. I also felt like my ability to speak as eloquently as other English speakers was heading downhill.

Whether or not this was true, I’ll never know. What I know now though is that being surrounded by mainly native German speakers on a daily basis in some way or another affected my English.

This became especially evident when, ironically, I started to repeat the same mistakes I called my students out on. For instance, from time to time I myself would say uncommon or strange phrases like “in the near from” and “in former times” simply because my students said them so often and they were ingrained in my head.

SEE ALSO: 10 mistakes English teachers in Germany are sick of hearing

“It’s inevitable that your English will be affected to some extent if you aren’t surrounded by the language on a day to day basis,” Ciaran Fleck, director of English studies at a Munich language school says.

Fleck adds that “odd German constructions” come out sometimes when he’s speaking English because his brain isn’t fast enough when it comes to switching between both German and English – the two languages he uses each day.

The Munich-based Irish national says he’s met English speakers who have been living in Germany for decades who legitimately “cannot go one sentence in their native tongue without Denglishing it.”

While I’ve never gotten to this point, after living in Deutschland for about five years, I wonder whether the “Anglophones” Fleck is referring to could have found ways to keep their native language up to speed. This is particularly interesting for me to consider since there's a chance I'll end up staying in Germany for the long haul.

READ ALSO: The moment you know you're in Germany for the long haul

When I stopped teaching in late 2015 and moved to Wales to begin a Masters programme, I noticed I gradually stopped using the strange phrases I’d picked up from my students. This led me to believe that one way of keeping hold of your English is to visit or spend some time in countries where it's widely spoken.

What’s also seemed to help me stay sharp in my mother tongue is reading. I found the more of the English language I consumed, the easier it was for me to remember words. Sooner or later I wasn't just retaining my English vocabulary, but also expanding it.

Dussmann book store in Berlin has a large assortment of English language books. Photo: DPA

Making an effort to surround yourself and chat with native speakers may also be helpful to avoid getting to the point of unconsciously mashing up German and English in the same sentence.

This brings to mind something a friend of mine who’s a writer mentioned when we met for coffee the other day. She said despite the fact that she lives in Berlin (one of the only cities in Germany where you can get by without much German), she feels somehow at a disadvantage compared to writers in, say, New York City, since writers there are completely immersed in native-level English.

She added that although most days she's surrounded by the English language, it’s not necessarily mother tongue level; in an indirect sort of way this negatively affects her work.

I could empathize with how this could possibly be detrimental to her writing and personal development. Her situation does share similarities with what I'd experienced while teaching.

After I had a few moments to let what she said sink in, I told her she has something many of those writers in the Big Apple don’t have.

Her experience of living as a foreigner in a country where the local language isn’t her own gives her a unique perspective which can only make her writing stand out that much more. Her counterparts in NYC on the other hand don't have this perspective and never will.

SEE ALSO: Why some foreigners live in Germany without mastering the language

Having lived now in Berlin for almost a year, I’ve seen for myself what I’d been hearing about the capital ever since I moved to Germany: people from all across the globe really do flock here. The common language for the majority of them is English, whether or not that's native level.

Personally though, I don't feel like my surroundings have influenced my first language in any way since I moved to Berlin. My year in the UK (which involved studying, writing and communicating completely in English) did wonders to get my mother tongue back in check and it's been smooth sailing since then.

Besides, Fleck doesn’t see being surrounded by non-native English speakers as necessarily a bad thing. “Adapting your English to those speakers will make you a competent communicator in an international environment,” he says.

This stands in stark contrast to a native English speaker who can’t grade their language appropriately, he adds.

With this in mind, I actually don't mind that German managed to fuddle up my English. And in future if I ever get to the point I was at a few years ago, I won't mind either. 

All it would mean is that I'd be challenged to communicate even more competently and I'd learn even more about the languages and cultures of those around me – neither of which is all that bad.

Member comments

  1. Cheer up! If you speak English with Germans who speak English well, your English will probably improve! 🙂

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GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY

German word of the day: Grenze

From national borders to personal limitations, this German word is a great one to add to your active vocabulary.

German word of the day: Grenze

Why do I need to know Grenze?

Because Grenze is one of those nifty words that has multiple uses beyond its most literal meaning, and which can also be used in verb form.

As with many German nouns, it also functions well as a compound noun (i.e. paired with other nouns to create a new word) so learning this word could add several new words to your vocabulary at once. 

What does it mean? 

Die Grenze (pronounced like this) can be best translated as border in English, but can also mean limit or boundary, depending on the context.

When you hear the word in a geographical sense, it’s usually used to discuss national borders, such as Germany’s borders with nine other countries.

Of course, borders don’t have to be national: a Stadtgrenze would refer to the city limits, while Bundeslandgrenzen are the borders between Germany’s federal states. Want to know where the border crossing is? In that case, you’ll need to locate the Grenzübergang (also a feminine noun). 

An Abgrenzung, meanwhile, is any kind of demarcation. 

In the list of useful compound nouns that can be made using Grenze, one particularly interesting one is Phantomgrenze. This word is used to describe borders that don’t physically exist but that take the form of cultural, political or economic divides – a prime example being the East/West divide that still exists in Germany more than three decades after reunification.

READ ALSO: How does Germany’s ‘phantom border’ still divide the country?

Less literally, you can use Grenzen to discuss physical or emotional limitations, or to talk about being pushed to the limit (an die Grenzen gestoßen sein). In a similar sense, there may be political boundaries (politische Grenzen), or scientific ones (wissenschaftliche Grenzen) that haven’t yet been crossed. 

You may have recently learned to set boundaries in your personal life, which can be described in German as “Grenzen setzen”. In that case, you may also want people to respect those boundaries (Grenzen respektieren). 

In fact, almost any well-known English phrase that refers to limits, borders or boundaries can usually be translated using Grenzen. For example, “Meine Leidenschaft kennt keine Grenzen” means “My passion knows no bounds.” 

Of course, this being German, there are countless other ways you can adapt Grenze not just into compound nouns but also into verbs or adjectives. 

Grenzen, of course, means “to border” while angrenzen means “to border on” and begrenzen means “to limit”. Speaking of which, if you’re hoping to snap up a discounted deal, you may well be warned: “Das Angebot ist stark begrenzt.” That tells you that the offer is limited, so you’d better hurry while stocks last!

Where does it come from?

Interestingly enough, the word Grenze has Slavic roots and stems from the Polish word granica, which also means border.

Geography buffs may well observe that Germany shares a fairly long border with Poland (along with eight other countries), so the etymology of the German word seems incredibly fitting. 

READ ALSO: Five German words that come from Polish

Use it like this: 

Es ist wichtig, die Grenzen anderer Menschen zu respektieren.

It’s important to respect other people’s boundaries. 

Wie viele Länder grenzen an Deutschland? 

How many countries border Germany?

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