Help for the tourists?

Question

I have been to Berlin last summer and I loved it!! Beautifull city. I want to go there again BUT nobody was speaking english there! There were no signs in english anywhere, no help for the visiters. I couldn't enen know what paintings am I looking at, at the museums. I could not order food, or buy anything unless I could see it and point to it! God bless a fellow we had and couls speak german!And I know that German people speek english because I am Greek and when you come here for vacations and you ask for directions you speak english!

I dont expect anyone who comes to Greece to learn greek to get by...

Answer 1

Although most Germans in school are required to take English, most of the older population and many in the former East Germany do not speak much English. I wouldn't really expect the museums to have more than one language for the description of displays.  If you go into the same situation in non-tourist areas of Greece you run into the same situation.  Even some of the tavernas in Plaka in Athens (a very popular tourist area) did not have English translations on menus.  But I did end up having a great meal at a lovely outdoor taverna, and the owner and I drew pictures to communicate.  

Shawna did a good job of giving you some of the basics that you'll need, but as a native speaker, I hope Shawna will allow me to make some minor corrections to assure you are understood.  

If there is an "e" at the end of the word, it is pronounced like a long "a".  So the word for "Please" would be "Bitte" and pronounced "bit-tay".  

When you see a word with an ö, that's an umlaut o (an o with 2 dots above it).  The best way to pronounce this is to form your mouth like you are going to say an O but say a long A instead.  If you are saying "you're welcome" it would be "bitte schön" and pronounced "bit-tay schayn".  Shawna shows you pronounce an "r", but this is not correct.

Also, in the pharse, "Wie heissen Sie?" Shawna shows the pronounciation for "heissen" as hies-sen".  Keep in mind that in German "ei" is always pronounced like the English word "eye" and "ie" is pronounced "ee".

Yes, there are a lot of dialects, but these corrections that I've made are not dialect issues.  These are common language rules that apply throughout all dialects.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I was also in Berlin last summer and didnt have that problem, I was speaking english to everybody I have met and had no problem with ordering food, buying stuff or anything else!

I think that at any tourist information center you can find someone that can speak english... It would also be good to learn a few simple phrases in German....

Answer 3

That is really strange I never encountered that situation...When I am there I am trying to practice my German and all they want to do is practice their English....

Wear a cuter outfit......that would do the trick..LOL

Good Luck...

Answer 4

It is helpful to learn some common phrases in Deutsch.  Like

"hello, do you understand English?" or "I only speak a little Deutsch".  I have lived in Germany for over 3 years now, and that is how I started off.  Just learn the basics.  Most all

Germans are taught some English in school at some point.  

So, they probably can speak some, but just don't really remember a lot of it.  If you make the effort to speak their

language, and aren't good at it, sometimes they will make the effort to speak yours, and chances are they are pretty good at it.  If you want to go back to Germany, maybe try to learn a little bit, or go to a different city where English is a little more used.  

Here are some to get you started!

Guten Morgen

goot-en mor-gen

Good Morning

Guten Tag

goot-en tahk

Hello/Good Day

Guten Abend

goot-en ah-bent

Good Evening

Gute Nacht

goot-eh nakht

Good Night

Tag / Hallo / Tschüs / Tschau

tahk / hah-loh / tchews / chow

Hi / Hello / Bye

Auf Wiedersehen

owf vee-dair-zayn

Goodbye

Bis später

biss shpay-ter

See you later

Bis bald

biss bahlt

See you soon

Bis morgen

biss mohr-gen

See you tomorrow

Bitte

bih-tuh

Please

Danke (schön)

dahn-kuh shurn

Thank you

Bitte schön

bih-tuh shurn

You're welcome

Es tut mir leid.

ehs toot meer lite

I'm sorry

Entschuldigen Sie

ehnt-shool-dih-gun zee

Excuse me

Gehen wir!

geh-en veer

Let's go!

Wie geht es Ihnen?

vee gayt es ee-nen

How are you? (formal)

Wie geht's?

vee gayts

How are you? (informal)

(Sehr) Gut / So lala

zair goot / zo lahlah

(Very) Good / OK

Schlecht / Nicht Gut

shlekht / nisht goot

Bad / Not good

Es geht.

ess gate

I'm ok. (informal)

Ja / Nein

yah / nine

Yes / No

Wie heißen Sie?

vee hie-ssen zee

What's your name? (formal)

Wie heißt du?

vee hiesst doo

What's your name? (informal)

Ich heiße...

ikh hie-ssuh

I am called...

Freut mich.

froyt mikh

Pleased to meet you.

Gleichfalls.

glykh-fals

Likewise.

Herr / Frau / Fräulein

hair / frow / froi-line

Mister / Misses / Miss

Woher kommen Sie?

vo-hair koh-men zee

Where are you from? (formal)

Woher kommst du?

vo-hair kohmst doo

Where are you from? (informal)

Ich komme aus...

ikh koh-muh ows...

I'm from...

Wo wohnen Sie?

vo voh-nen zee

Where do you live? (formal)

Wo wohnst du?

vo vohnst doo

Where do you live? (informal)

Ich wohne in...

ikh voh-nuh in

I live in...

Wie alt sind Sie?

vee alt zint zee

How old are you? (formal)

Wie alt bist du?

vee alt bisst doo

How old are you? (informal)

Ich bin ____ Jahre alt.

ikh bin ____ yaa-reh alt

I am ____ years old.

Sprechen Sie deutsch?

shpreck-en zee doytch

Do you speak German? (formal)

Sprichst du englisch?

shprikhst doo eng-lish

Do you speak English? (informal)

Ich spreche (kein)...

ikh shpreck-uh kine

I (don't) speak...

Verstehen Sie? / Verstehst du?

fehr-shtay-en zee / fehr-shtayst doo

Do you understand? (formal / informal)

Ich verstehe (nicht).

ikh fehr-shtay-eh nikht

I (don't) understand.

Ich weiß (nicht).

ikh vise nikht

I (don't) know.

Können Sie mir helfen?

ker-nen zee meer h**l-fen

Can you help me? (formal)



Kannst du mir helfen?

kahnst doo meer h**l-fen

Can you help me? (informal)

Natürlich

nah-tewr-likh

Of course

Kann ich Ihnen helfen?

kahn ikh ee-nen h**l-fen

May I help you? (formal)

Kann ich dir helfen?

kahn ikh deer h**l-fen

May I help you? (informal)

Wie bitte?

vee bih-tuh

What? Pardon me?

Wie sagt man ___ auf deutsch?

vee zahkt mahn ___ owf doytch

How do you say ___ in German?

Wo ist / Wo sind... ?

voh ist / voh zint

Where is / Where are... ?

Es gibt...

ess geept

There is / are...

Was ist los?

vahs ist lohs

What's the matter?

Das macht nichts.

dass makht nikhts

It doesn't matter.

Das ist mir egal.

dass ist meer eh-gahl

I don't care.

Keine Angst!

ky-nuh ahngst

Don't worry!

Ich habe es vergessen.

ikh hah-buh ess fehr-geh-sen

I forgot.

Jetzt muss ich gehen.

yetz mooss ikh geh-en

I must go now.

Ich habe Hunger / Durst.

ikh hah-buh hoong-er / dirst

I'm hungry / thirsty.

Ich bin krank / müde.

ikh bin krahnk moo-duh

I'm sick / tired.

Ich habe Langeweile.

ikh hah-buh lahn-guh-vy-luh

I'm bored.

Gesundheit!

geh-soont-hyt

Bless you!

Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

herts-likh-en glewk-voonsh

Congratulations!

Sei ruhig!

zy roo-hikh

Be quiet!

Willkommen!

vil-koh-men

Welcome!

Viel Glück!

feel glewk

Good luck!

Ich liebe dich.

ikh leeb-uh dikh

I love you.

Good luck! And keep in mind, there are many different dialects in Germany, so they may understand you in one town, and then you travel 200km, and they have no clue what you are saying.  I have seen it before between Germans.  It reminds me of, and I'm gonna use stereotypes here, the most back woods southern redneck talking to the gangster from the inner city using slang.  So, have fun, and you can learn a lot online.

Answer 5

Consider two aspects:

- Compared to Greece the german economy is not much relying on tourism. In places of rather little touristic interest you can't expect everything / everybody being bilingual.

- German is but russian the most widely spoken language by native speakers in europe. About two times as many people speak german as their mother tongue compared to either British, French, Spanish, Italian, ...

From my own experience I know that it's much harder getting along with english visiting France or Spain. I don't think the situation is so bad in germany, especially at tourist places.

Anyway, many german words of daily life are very similar to english because english is also a germanic language, although with a great "latin" influence.

For practical purposes:

- For shopping / restaurants a pocket dictionary will be very helpful. In case you need further assistance ask the stuff / waiter if there's someone among them who speaks english well.

- In (bigger) museums very often printed guides are available also in english, sometimes guided tours in english are offered as well.

Answer 6

As much as I love Germany, not all places here are very "English speaking friendly".  Is that a bad thing?  No, not really.  German companies and restaurants don't 'have' to speak English or publish menus in English.  Would it be nice?  Sure it would.  Usually, you will get a menu in English if you ask for it, especially in high tourism areas.

I learned early on that speaking German will get me more than not speaking it.  Even when I was only here for a couple years and my German was REALLY bad, it least I tried and that made a huge difference.  It was easy to see that I was an American trying to speak German and people went out of their way to help me.  Now that my German is MUCH better and I can speak in several dialects, I tend to get less assistance because they think that I am from the area.  But my grammar gives me away, sometimes (German grammar is hard for non-Europeans).

Just be patient and ask nicely if they speak English or have English menus.  If you go to a museum, ask if they have any English speaking tours.  Most Germans are friendly and will gladly help you out if you only ask for the help.