comment by Giröulski Alt-153 and Alt-160 forever (U14971)
posted 18 minutes ago
Niedersachsen. I'll probably mostly move around the Bremen/Hamburg/Hannover area. Living in Hannover.

Baked beans? Seriously? I always thought they were ubiquitous.

I'm packing the Yorkshire golds and Worcester sauce. Marmite I never have anyway but I guess a jar won't hurt in case I ever crave it.
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Hannover is about 2 hours motorway away from my hometown.

If you need to learn German you are at the right place. No accent there.

German have a complete different style of culture than English people.

comment by Giröulski Alt-153 and Alt-160 forever (U14971)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Gunnerthru (U6675)
posted 25 seconds ago
The Germans seem to have a poor range of beer.

eh?
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Make no mistake. In terms of German beer, you guys are amazing. The wheat beers in particular are stunning.

The issue is that you don't seem to have much foreign stuff. I like my English ale as much as any other drink and it'll be a shame to lose it.
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Yeah that's true....but you can get English beers here....just not in bars or restaurants.

Hamburg is my favourite city in Germany. Beautiful city.

My girlfriend is pretty strict on my pronunciation. Hochdeutsch für mich! I still can't do your "r"'s, but at least I'm starting to get the "ch" sound down. The sounds come from a completely different part of the mouth to English.

How so? I noticed that you're more organised, and a little less liberal. You don't have the same instinctive resistance to rules, from what I've seen.

What do you qualify as English beers? I'm something of a snob. We don't do much good lager. I stumbled across a beer festival back in May (down the road from the gay pride event, which I also stumbled upon. I can now say I've eaten a German bratwurst at a gay pride event) and they were selling Punk IPA by Brewdog. I bought that mostly to disgust my company, who aren't used to that kind of thing.

comment by Giröulski Alt-153 and Alt-160 forever (U14971)
posted 4 minutes ago
My girlfriend is pretty strict on my pronunciation. Hochdeutsch für mich! I still can't do your "r"'s, but at least I'm starting to get the "ch" sound down. The sounds come from a completely different part of the mouth to English.

How so? I noticed that you're more organised, and a little less liberal. You don't have the same instinctive resistance to rules, from what I've seen.
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Less liberal? We are the most liberal people in Europe I think. Just the way we do business for example is different.

What do you do in Germany and for how long do you been there?

Is your girlfriend German btw?

comment by Giröulski Alt-153 and Alt-160 forever (U14971)
posted 3 minutes ago
What do you qualify as English beers? I'm something of a snob. We don't do much good lager. I stumbled across a beer festival back in May (down the road from the gay pride event, which I also stumbled upon. I can now say I've eaten a German bratwurst at a gay pride event) and they were selling Punk IPA by Brewdog. I bought that mostly to disgust my company, who aren't used to that kind of thing.


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Rostbratwurst and Pommes means sausage and french fries is called "Manta Platte" Lecker. Taste good.

Less liberal in its strict sense. You're pretty left wing. For comparison, believing in gun control is not liberal.

How do you do business there then?

I plan to work anything for a year, before doing a master's in International Law the year after. It's partly my gap year, partly getting to be part of another country and partly learning another language. Master's courses are cheaper there too.

She is. Half French, but been in Germany since she was 6.

Sacrilege!

comment by Gunnerthru (U6675)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Giröulski Alt-153 and Alt-160 forever (U14971)
posted 3 minutes ago
What do you qualify as English beers? I'm something of a snob. We don't do much good lager. I stumbled across a beer festival back in May (down the road from the gay pride event, which I also stumbled upon. I can now say I've eaten a German bratwurst at a gay pride event) and they were selling Punk IPA by Brewdog. I bought that mostly to disgust my company, who aren't used to that kind of thing.


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Rostbratwurst and Pommes means sausage and french fries is called "Manta Platte" Lecker. Taste good.
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Pommes, nicht Kartoffeln? You're borrowing from the French there...oh wait, I see why.

I'll have to keep that in mind. I'm excited to try the Turkish food there, as it'll probably be as good as our Indian food is.

For me Hamburg is Germany's vibiest city. Always something going on, whether it be music, arts or whatever really. Outside the hustle and bustle there are some lovely parks too. One I particularly like is down by the harbour area. You can sit there on a warm summers eve just watching the boats come in... then go back out again... accompanied by beer. Always with beer

The people up there are a good bunch. At least I've always found them to be. Kinda Scandinavian in a way.

It's basically a great part of the world. Pretty sure you're gonna have a blast there. Probably won't miss the UK one little bit.

comment by Lexington Sanchez 125.2 (U8879)
posted 48 seconds ago
For me Hamburg is Germany's vibiest city. Always something going on, whether it be music, arts or whatever really. Outside the hustle and bustle there are some lovely parks too. One I particularly like is down by the harbour area. You can sit there on a warm summers eve just watching the boats come in... then go back out again... accompanied by beer. Always with beer

The people up there are a good bunch. At least I've always found them to be. Kinda Scandinavian in a way.

It's basically a great part of the world. Pretty sure you're gonna have a blast there. Probably won't miss the UK one little bit.
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Sounds like a dream. Maybe I'll end up there, then, once I have my career on track.

Your girlfriend should strictly talk German with you. That is the best way to learn it quickly. Our grammar is strange though.

"Pommes, nicht Kartoffeln? You're borrowing from the French there..."

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I particularly love the way German adverts are usually half English. So weird

comment by Gunnerthru (U6675)
posted 2 minutes ago
Your girlfriend should strictly talk German with you. That is the best way to learn it quickly. Our grammar is strange though.
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Once I get a bit more of a base in the language. I'm about a month and a half off asking for her to do that, I think.

It's difficult. Genitive, Accusative, Dative and Nominative. I still need to get my head around those, though apparently half of Germany doesn't know how to use the genitive case.

Once my vocab is up, I'll start asking her to do that. The trouble is that she's perfectly fluent in English. She sounds like a normal native, though with a smaller active vocabulary than you'd expect given her intelligence and how many words she knows passively. But in terms of fluency, you wouldn't know you weren't talking to somebody who was English. Very easy to just talk in that language.

It's difficult. Genitive, Accusative, Dative and Nominative. I still need to get my head around those, though apparently half of Germany doesn't know how to use the genitive case.

___________

Haha....the "Genetiv"....yeah it's difficult. The most important word is "es" in German. Why? Its the neutrum. Its difficult to get the head around that the girl is not female in German. It's neutrum "das Mädchen". Sure one day you will understand it.

Trouble you'll find when trying to learn German through talking to the natives, is everyone will want to speak to you in English.

Wouldn't worry too much about nailing the grammar, especially straight away. A friend of my missus' is in his late 30s now and has lived there most of his life. She said he doesn't always get his Die, Das and Der right.

That's because of the diminuitive "chen", which is usually neutral. Just like "lein". Genders don't bother me so much, it's merely memorisation and learning patterns/exceptions.

comment by Lexington Sanchez 125.2 (U8879)
posted 56 seconds ago
Trouble you'll find when trying to learn German through talking to the natives, is everyone will want to speak to you in English.

Wouldn't worry too much about nailing the grammar, especially straight away. A friend of my missus' is in his late 30s now and has lived there most of his life. She said he doesn't always get his Die, Das and Der right.
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I've thought about that. There's going to be a lot of me begging to speak to people in German. The university educated ones will just switch their conversations between each other into English, to not be rude. I sat in a German university in May watching Germans studying English and talking about Näzis, which was an odd experience. Earlier in that day I watched one German girl become to embarrassed to say the word "breast".

I've only just learned the alt codes for the special characters, too.

Do you have a twitter account, Giröulski? If you have a question you can ask me there anytime if you like. I wont be here much on JA when the season begins.

I have a personal one, with my real name attached. What's your handle?

@fartooeasy is mine.

Followed

Why won't you be on here much when the actual football is on?

comment by Giröulski Alt-153 and Alt-160 forever (U14971)
posted 29 seconds ago
Followed

Why won't you be on here much when the actual football is on?
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Too many tools on here. A bit bored of all these senseless discussions recently. I wont rule out coming back now and then but not as frequent as usual.

By the way you will love the choice of bread for breakfest in Germany. You can chose between all kind of bread in the morning. Never boring. You will love it.