“I speak Spanish to God…

…Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.” (Charles V)

In the seven years I spent living in London, there were a couple of occasions where I caught myself being overcome with joy at hearing someone in the Underground speaking German. I come from a village of 1,200 souls in the Allgäu in southern Germany, raised by my German father and English mother. I moved to London to see the big wide world and to experience as many new lifestyles and outlooks on life as possible. And yet contact with other native German speakers made me really happy somehow. Perhaps it was just because my countrymen and -women reminded me of home; but for some unknown reason I would always assume that the simple fact that we shared a language meant we had some sort of connection. So do birds of a feather really flock together, as the saying goes? Maybe. But if it’s true, then to what extent does a shared language imply that two people have the same mindset? And as the child of a “mixed marriage”, where exactly do I belong?

 

Thoroughly German in tongue and mind

People say that Germans are very direct. I’d agree – and I think that’s a good thing. Here in Germany you can tell people exactly what you think on (almost) any topic, you can address misunderstandings directly, and you can start meetings with a discussion of the issue at hand. But is this reflected in our language itself? It would seem that the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was of that opinion, since it is said he spoke German to his horse, presumably because it needed clear instructions. And indeed the language has many terms whose meaning is perfectly clear and direct. German has pleasing words for skunk (literally “stinky animal”), rhinoceros (“nose horn”) and the ache of wanting to travel in far-off lands (often translated into English using another word of German origin, “wanderlust”). Then of course one that’s so good, English has made it its own: beer garden. German is pragmatic and would rather link several words together than come up with a complicated descriptive: examples include “Fussbodenschleifmaschinenverleih” (floor sanding machine rental), “Telekommunikationsdienstleistungsunternehmen” (telecoms service provider) and the delightful “Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz” – no, really! – meaning law on the transfer of responsibilities for monitoring the labelling of beef. People like to poke fun at us Germans for using language in this way, but perhaps it’s just another example of the supposedly typical German efficiency and its preference for pragmatism over aesthetics.

 

Counterpoint: The fine art of being English

The English are quite the opposite: extremely polite, happy to queue even if there’s nobody else anywhere near them at the bus stop, and always apologising whenever they bump into someone. This English sensibility is also a feature of day-to-day speech. For instance, workplace etiquette in England demands that you first have to make small talk about the weather, what you did at the weekend, and what you’re going to be doing next weekend, before finally and politely asking a colleague to perform a task – but of course, only if it isn’t too much trouble. A typical exchange might run like this: “Terrible weather, isn’t it? Weekend was good, thanks… looking forward to next weekend, because… Oh, and while I’m here, could I ask you to kindly have a look at this newsletter, please?” In contrast, a German would have no qualms about going up to a colleague and saying “Hey, how was your weekend? The newsletter needs to be checked by Wednesday – will you manage? Lovely, thanks.”

English speakers also employ lots of verbs to soften the blow, such as “could”, “may”, or “would” rather than “can” and “will”, whereas Germans just tell you what they need. Take the following: “May I have the salt, please?” vs. “Give me the salt, please.” Do you see the subtle difference?

So, we Germans like to use words that get to the point, and we’re also more direct than, say, the English, who are always more polite in both word and deed, but can tend to beat about the bush.

So, what does any of this have to do with me?

Of course, people might say I’m exaggerating with the examples above. And they’d be right. But given the fact that I’m bilingual and I’ve experienced both countries, it interests me to note that I can see both tendencies in me, and I wonder where these influences actually come from. For instance, while my German half really isn’t a big fan of endless small talk, in most situations my English half prevents me from making a scene or looking to confront people about it. In that sense, I often felt more German when I was living in England than I do now that I’m back living in Germany, where I’m having to learn to deal with problems in a more direct manner. Of course, a lot of the fundamentals of my character are down to my parents, but why is it that the Germans and the English are so different in certain respects?  Is it the language we speak that makes us the person we are? Or does our frame of mind dictate the words we use? Looking back at the examples I mention, I think the two are interlinked. Naturally, our frame of mind is also shaped to a large degree by factors such as the geography and history of the country we grew up in. But language is just as defining a feature, and it seems to explain much about the characteristics of people living in a given country. What do you think?