English – German… just pick your language
Tonight I saw an article about Bondskanselier (prime minister) Merkel, of Germany, talking to the USA Congress; in which she is thanking the USA with their help making the 2 German countries back to one….
She is also talking about World War 2 – about the regrets etc. etc…. Well – just watch the little clip I will put on the bottom of the page…..
This little talk kept me wondering… and also made me search – because I remembered seeing something similar lately; a German talking German while international cameras are rolling….
And yep – found it; an article of Atlantic Review – in which you can see Guido Westerwelle, new German Minister of Foreign Affairs, giving a BBC reporter some hard time; because Guido (darf ich Sie Duzen..?) is refusing to talk English to the reporter… because “they are in Germany and in Germany you talk German”….
I really thought that Mr.Guido Westerwelle was acting very weird…. to me it seems like he is not capable of having a conversation in English…..
And then; Prime Minister Merkel is talking German in an English speaking country…..
For my job; I did (and still do) have a lot of contact with Germans – and I garantuee you => it is almost impossible to have German people talk English….!
And yep; I am talking about BIG BIG international companies…..!! I have no idea if we are talking about a lack of education or a lack of decency.
So – Merkel and Westerwelle are giving some good examples uh..??
But I really hope that Mr.Guido Westerwelle is telling his Prime-Minister to use a bit more decency; she should have done her speech in her nice German English…. as she was in an English speaking country.
What do you think…??
Merkel in front of US Congress
Guido Westerwelle refusing to talk English
=== non related comment ===
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As an expat I believe that when you are in other people’s countries, then it’s only polite to try and speak in their language.
Of course, if you are visiting etc, then you probably won’t be able to, but why should people expect Germans, or any other people, to speak English when they’re in their country and it’s not their native language?
Doing so is simply arrogant. I expect anyone in the US, UK or other English speaking place would object if asked to speak something else in their home country.
I also think that it is polite to try to speak the language of the country you are visiting…
But I don’t think it is reasonable to believe or think that a BBC reporter is able to speak German while visiting a political (international) meeting… And I do think it is very rude the way the Minister of Foreign Affairs is acting…. – gives a good (??) example of how he thinks the Foreign Affairs should be handled.
On the other hand I can imagine why the Prime Minister is doing the speech in German; our (Dutch) Prince did visit Mexico last week and he did a speech in (Mexican) Spanish… and he made a mistake with the language and did use a “dirty sentence”….
So; probably it was way safer for the German prime-minister to do the speech in her own language.
But I really do think it is weird that; when I call (from Holland) a big German company => they just do expect to have the conversation in German…
Why not in Dutch..?? Well; I can imagine they didn’t learn Dutch at school… but why do they expect me to speak German..?? Why not THE international language English..??