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2:33 Plattdeutsch is a separate language while Friesisch is "just" a dialect. The former i learned via my grand parents so although i can't really speak it and i only know our local dialect of it (a mix of Bremen's and Hamburg's) i can understand it 17:30 well, in the beginning when you only know so much vocabulary it is not really feasible to speak that language full time. for me it was 4 years of french at school and we spoke french most of the time only in the last 2 years due to finally knowing enough of the language. similar with english which i had in school for 11 years but it only got better when i was forced to use it at work or through the internet
Ukranian, Russian, German, Englisch. I have little practice speaking English, but I can understand it without subtitles. I learn it from your RUclips channel and can compare life in the USA and Germany
I am 62 and American but took 3 years of German in high school and have continued to try and become fluent ever since. There is little opportunity to speak German in America but I have a strong interest in German and European railroads and Model Trains. Reading train books and magazines in German and ordering models from German hobby shops has helped me learn more German. I have also traveled to Germany six times for vacations and practice German each time. My son who is 17 is going to German language school in Freiburg this summer! He wants to be an engineer and possibly work for a German company.
Funny. I'm a 70 years old German with a "strong interest" in American railroads ( besides European, German and the rest of the world railroads ). "Reading train books and magazines" ( trains) from the US and playing with trains from America and all over the world with Train Simulator and Open Rails. Greetings from Germany.
@@joachimniebling5034 Thanks for your comment. I am also in American railroads and models. I model the 1930 US time period with steam and electric locomotives and I model German Epoch III. We travel to Europe and Germany to go to railroad museums and ride on steam lines and excursions. We loved the Harzbahn and an excursion with the Eisenbahn Museum in Dresden. The Eurail pass works great for us and we go everywhere by train. We also love to get a compartment in a Schlafwagen for overnight trips. Europe has such a wonderful rail system. The USA is far bigger with long distances but our Amtrak system still should be better than it is. There are some great tourist railroads in the USA. If you haven’t been on the D&RGW in Colorado or the Cumbres and Toltec in New Mexico those are two of the best steam lines. Also Alaska RR in Alaska is very scenic.
Let me tell you a true story which is only possible in Flanders. A few years ago on a story telling event they had 4 story tellers. But each of them told in his own language: Dutch, French, English and German. The room was packed with hundreds of listeners, which all knew it and understood the 4 languages. That gave it a very special taste.
Was knowing these languages a requirement to go to the event? Because, yes you learn these languages in school somewhat, but I don't think most Flemish people speak German and French enough to follow a story. I've met some young Flemish people and they said they didn't really speak French at all.
I can see something similar happening theoretically in Switzerland, with German, French, Italian and Romansch. But I don't think people in a given region would know all four of these languages. Other than that, I can't imagine many places in Europe this would work. But other continents experience similar events frequently, especially Africa and Asia.
@@Anonymous-sb9rr They don't like French, but they at least understand it. Exposure is ubiquitous. Flamish is a dialect of Dutch which is pretty close to German.
@@sertaki Nobody understands Rumantsch. They speak German among themselves when they come from differen valleys, because the different variations of it are not mutually understandable. English is by now the language of exchange between the different linguistic groups. Ticinesi are usually quite fluent in German and to some extent in French by approximation. Among many foreigner, Spanish, Italians, Portuguese and even some Slavs, Italian is a lingua franca in the working class, still common on construction sites.
@@HelmutQ I think they only have a limited amount of exposure to French. Dutch and German are not mutually intelligible, they're not as close as a lot people think. It's not like Spanish and Italian, those are really close. But they are more similar than Dutch and English.
Mother tongue German, then learned English from 5th grade, French from 7th grade. But due to lack of practice the French almost completely vanished. And lastly Swahili which I need because I live in rural Tanzania. I feel uncomfortable visiting a foreign country and not at least try to know a few words. To me it's a sign of respect as well.
I couldn't agree more on the respect. Also, especially with rarer languages, I find it to be a huge door opener and conversation starter. Also, as soon as you travel outside of bigger cities and touristic areas, fewer if any people tend to know English. And even if they do, it's important to keep in mind that people may know English because the country used to be a colony. So the reception they give to someone who tries to speak their native tongue may be more positive because of that as well.
Thanks for raising the respect issue: I'd never visit a country without being able to say at least the very very basics (hello, thank you, excuse me, good bye).
@@ElinT13 A wise lady told me to learn those basic words you mentioned, how to count to ten, but also how to say " what do you call this" in the local language.
Yes! The first thing I learn in a new language is how to say Thank you, then please, then hello and goodbye, and only then, basic travel phrases. Consequently, I know how to say "thank you“ in many languages!😂
Oh yes. i got the same a language-history as you, but it's really "use it or lose it". And i don't think I learned all that much in school. Although I was a good student. Some vocabulary, grammar rules... but even after 9 years, i wouldn't have been able to survive in the wilderness of the UK much better than a tourist. Then comes University, and for the first time ever i had to translate a text from German into English. i learned so much in such a short time!
As a native Norwegian speaker, I began my journey with English at the age of 10 or 11. However, I don't view your content to enhance my English skills. I am drawn to your channel because of the exceptional quality of your well-researched content. It's both informative and factual, which is the sole reason for my viewership.
I'm German native who started English at the age of 10. I learned French for 5 years until 2008 but didn't really use it since. Now I'm learning Spanish since half a year at the age of 31 ... we'll see where that ends up :D
And yes here ist anathor native German who listen two your Chanel because of your contend. About my language skills, Sure First of all German and in Grade 5 I had to start with English, but when my Grandmother and my mother started to speak to each other, I allthogh piked Up a View Dutch words. In 8th Grade I started with french and after my First vacation in Italy I Beginn with Italien. But if it comes to the Level of fluency I would only consider German and English as funktional. The other languages are at best to survive a Restaurant visit.
i started with french (grade 5-11), then english (grade 7-13), and when there was a choice between another language and _"Darstellende Geometrie"_ i chose latin (grade 9-11) to get the _"Kleines Latinum"._ Of course i never spoke latin (and rarely french), but once having known french and latin (and frequent holidays in italy, although on a "german campsite" :-) enabled me to communicate in basic italian (restaurants, hotels, shopping :-) and even once have a tedious but successfull basic conversation with a monolingual spaniard without ever really having learned any of those latter two. The more languages you know, the easier it is to at least somewhat learn or understand other similar (for me: south/west or north/west european) languages. too bad that because of politics and their travel limitations to eastern europe, all those languages were completely foreign to me during the first half of my life, and then learning them from scratch (never being exposed to them or even having heard them) at a higher age wouldn't have been easy enough without a useful goal (and having become "too lazy" to attempt learning more completely different languages "just for fun").
Abitur ist nicht die einzige Möglichkeit eine Zugangsberechtigung zu deutschen Hochschulen zu erlangen. Zugegebenermaßen eher ungewöhnlich, aber ganz sicher nicht unmöglich. Lg
Hallo, I am a russian native speaker, but my German ist better than my russian today. I learned english in school and try to practice everywhere i can. Because of that i See you Chanel. Thank you for great content every time!
as a spaniard living in Germany married to my italian wife, i´m fluent in all this 3 languages; + to some degree, also fluent in english....to speak 3 or 4 languages is very common for us europeans !
España es muy cerca a los países como portugal, Lo mismo con países Europas. Por ejemplo, si eres aleman, tienes muchos vecinos, Polonia, Czechia, Dinamarca etc. Soy de los Estados Unidos, tenemos solo dos vecinos. Somos aislodas geográficamente, no tenemos la oportunidad para usar un segundo idioma.
I don't know if I missed it in this video, but learning English at German schools is not a choice. Everybody has to learn English. I am 53 years old and I startet with English at the age of 10 (in Western Germany). Today kids start earlier with English. My native language is German and I understand ostfriesisches Plattdeutsch. Me and my sister shouldn't learn to speak it even so our entire family spoke it. So we were a kind of bilingual at home. My English increased a lot through videos like yours (THANK YOU ❤), series and movies, English music and reading. But I still don't think as a fluent English speaker of myself, even so my speaking improved in the last years.
I’m going to be 60 in a couple months and my ex wife and I met in 1985. She’s two years older than me and German. Her English was not very good but today her American English is almost perfect. We struggled communicating for a while but she learned fast.
However, I know quite a few people in Germany who don't remember their school English if they are young enough to have had it required. So, if you do not travel to English speaking countries, and don't use it, it is not necessarily a working language.
I have never been to an English speaking country and I didn't really use my school English for over 20 years. But I had a basis to build upon - which I learned at school. Learning languages works different for everybody and of course there are a lot of people who don't remember much of their school lessons - me included. But it makes a difference if you had to learn it at school or not.
I'm half Scots, half French. I grew up bilingual in Scotland and had the weird experience of being taught French (a language I spoke natively at home) as a foreign language in school for 6 years. I did end up being able to spell better than my cousins in France, though.😂 I also learnt Latin for 5 years at secondary school. I began learning German at 15, Spanish in my early thirties. Those two languages were learnt mostly by immersion in the countries themselves, catching up on the formal grammar later. I acquired a passive understanding of Catalan, Italian and Portuguese, as well as Low German (Plattdüütsch), and some Dutch. I worked with languages professionally, translating and interpreting. For the past year, thanks to online resources, I've finally got around to learning Scottish Gaelic - something I've wanted to do for years. Through that, I've also come to understand some Irish too. Learning languages keeps your brain fit. I watch your videos to get the American perspective. But also because you're a nice family.
Being German, I of course speak German at home. I have always had an interest in and a knack for learning other languages, so in school I took as many as I could. That resulted in me taking 5 years of Latin (which is of questionable use, admittedly), 7 years of French and 9 years of English. I think the last point in the video is the most important. I have forgotten most of my french, because since I left school I haven't really used it at all. English, on the other hand, I've likely actually gotten better over time because I use it almost daily. That's partially my personal preference, as I watch films and series as well as read books in english, because I dislike the German dubs and translations, but a lot of it is interaction with other people online. Whether in games with voice chat, in the youtube comments or on forums and discords, it's always English that's spoken, because with English it doesn't matter where you're from. Speaking it is kind of an entrance requirement to most of the internet, I feel.
Oh cool! I think Latin would be fascinating to learn. I know of a few friends who opted to learn Latin because they were pre-med in University and they found it super helpful for understanding the root names of diseases and conditions.
@@TypeAshton You actually need Latin for some study programs (partially also depending on which university you visit). Additionally, knowing Latin makes „understanding“ (written) Italian or Spanish much easier.
@@TypeAshton not only that, Latin is probably the single most influential language. Everywhere the Roman empire spread, you find traces of it. English has had a double influence even through the occupation and its french roots. I find it super interesting looking at the etymology of Latin words and how their meaning changed over time. Like apothecam (wine cellar, iirc) and modern day uses like apothecary or Apotheke. I was fortunate to have had very good teachers in both Latin and English who raised our awareness for these connections and it is so interesting and enriching and there are countless Latin words surrounding us. Most people just don't realise it.. like audio (I hear), video (I see) it's everywhere..
@@TypeAshton honestly: The most fascinating aspect of learning Latin for me was, that it was a huge additional (but very, very Euro-centric) history course. The Roman Empire has had one of the most historic influences on our continent and therefore is for the whole of Europe a very important aspect. Learning the language not only was very boring and really, really hard, but the effect, that learning Latin for ancient texts means, you never get in the mode of being able to SPEAK Latin, always gives you the feeling of being held back. This is a huge problem, because it excludes the most important part of language learning, as you know yourself of course: having conversations. So in hindsight for me it was not a good idea to start foreign languages with Latin, as the most valuable early years for fluency (for example in English), were kind of wasted. Wouldn't I have started to explore the internet at the age of 14 and at the same time also not want having to wait for the translation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I probably would have had a very hard time to become only somewhat fluent up to 10 years later during my college years.
My native language is Finnish. Additionally, I speak English and Swedish fluently. I can also speak some Estonian and Spanish, but I'm definitely not fluent. I have also studied some German, Italian and French... but only remember some words and phrases 😅 I watch your channel to learn from two foreign cultures at the same time. German culture is of course quite similar to Finnish culture, but getting to see things from an American perspective is really interesting.
@@maikotter9945 It was a very short period: When the legal government, a.k.a. the whites or the butchers, depending on one's point of view, had won the civil war in 1918 (with decisive German help) and Germany had dictated a harsh peace to Russia at Brest-Litovsk, it was a popular idea among the White victors to create a Finnish king out of a German prince . When, just months later, Germany had accepted the harsh Treaty of Versailles, the very same White victors of Finland's civil war realized they would rather be more like the French and the Americans and have elected presidents instead of hereditary kings.
Fantastic topic. I was born and raised in the US, came to Germany almost 40 years ago as a soldier, stayed, married a Turkish/ German woman, had 2 daughters, both are tri-lingual and are now learning Spanish and Latin in high school. I speak English with my daughters, German with my wife and at work, my wife speaks Turkish with our daughters. No one has really figured us out. My daughters attend a German/ American school in Berlin and we spend our summers in Turkey. The Turks have a wise saying that learning a new language is learning a new culture.
As Southtyrolean with a strong bavarian-austrian dialect I learned standard German in school, after second grade Italian (because Southtyrol is a part of Italy). I had Latin and ancient Greek later what helps to understand written Latin-based languages. I started learning english during Covid, mostly to watch american TV shows in original - so I watch your videos to train my listening skills.
Americans can’t even speak or write in English, it irritates me to read American “english” and the way they murder the English language when they speak.
My native language is English, but have German family so I felt incentivised to learn German and then converse properly with my relatives. I always tell people it took 9 years of learning to reach fluency. I also did Spanish in school, with a two year dose of Japanese. Now I live in the Czech Republic but work for an American company, so I speak English all day anyway. I know enough Czech to get by and deal with paperwork, but conversations with me in Czech are rare. Doesn't help that my local husband speaks better English than most natives.
Swedish here. I started learning English around 9 years old... and had english classes all the way up through the entire mandatory school, so until age 17. Along with lots of influence from media, English is definitely a language I'm comfortable with. The second foreign language I learned was French. That I began at age 13, and had classes up to age 17. There is no media in french in Sweden so I was never exposed to french outside of classes. I remember NOTHING of french today. Wouldn't be able to understand a single sentence of spoken french. So yes. Learning earlier is important, as well as being constantly exposed to the language. As a European I feel kind of like a failure at just being able to speak two languages... that's nothing. Especially since my only foreign language is english, the most basic and easy language to learn (in my opinion).
Hej, I can totally relate. As a German, I, too, am most comfortable with English, forgot most of my French and Spanish from school due to not really using it. But I took up Swedish and am determined to at least always keep my level there, even if I cannot always advance in my courses. But yes, two languages for me as well... kinda lame for a European ;)
It was the same for me, I didn't speak a word of French for 8 years after school. Then however I got to know some french people and (as the cliché goes) it was actually easier for me to "re-learn" French to talk to them than to try to communicate in English. And actually even though I thought I had forgotten everything, it all came back to me very quickly. I guess even if you never use it, multiple years of learning a language will still come back later if you need it.
I was born in the early sixties and when I was in the fifth year of elementary school I got my first English lesson, just learning words. It was the first year a foreign language was educated on my school. In the sixth year I learned simple sentences. At secondary school I got French (2years), German (3years) and English (4years and as an exam subject). In secondary technical vocational school I got German and English for 2 years. The third year is internship and the fourth year is exam year. In the first two years you could also take optional languages like French, Spanish and Italian or technical German and technical English. I chose the latter two, to broaden my technical vocabulary. Although I did benefit from technical German and technical English in my career I still feel a bit sad that I didn’t chose French and Spanish. I would have loved to be fluent in French and Spanish also. Maybe after I retire.
While I agree starting earlier if definitely a huge advantage, I think many underestimate how far you can get starting later if you have the motivation and put the work in. I'm an American who started learning German at 19 years old, (3 years ago), and at this point Germans are usually shocked when they find out I'm from America. I think one of the areas that many learners stumble at is pronunciation. It's helps so much to get a bit familiar with the international phonetic alphabet and the sound system of the target language (and even with your first language too!). Many Americans pronounce German as it they were reading an English text with weird spelling, when (imo) you really need to fight that urge and learn the rules from scratch, which letters correspond to which sounds, and when you stumble across a new sound, to try to learn it. Here, a speech coach helps a ton, I had one who was familiar with American English, and meticulously pointed out where I needed get over bad habits. A good speech coach is definitely worth the money!
I 100% agree with your pronunciation point. To me, it seems that's what people from America struggle the most with. Other countries seem to be doing much better with pronunciation though. In my experience, most Americans struggle with German pronunciation even after years of learning, while most other countries seem to adapt much quicker. No idea why that's the case, but you definitely made the right choice by focusing on pronunciation. That's probably the reason why people are often surprised by how good your German is.
@@Feeber2 Not only Americans, Canadians and Brits as well. I think that is caused by the really different pronunciation rules for English compared to most other languages using the Latin alphabet.
@@apveening I don't think it's mainly due to the pronunciation rules for letters, but much more to the relative lack of sound width in the language. Most languages simply use more sounds and sound combinations and it is very difficult to reproduce non-automated sounds.
I totally agree, it’s not impossible to learn languages as an adult. I started German at 27 and was fluent before I turned 30. The main complaint I hear from native English speakers abroad is that people just switch to English with them when they try to speak German (or another foreign language) in public. In my experience, this mostly stops if you work on pronunciation. I did a language exchange with someone where we would meet for 2-3 hours a week and they would correct my pronunciation and grammar as we spoke. It was very helpful. By the time I moved from Switzerland to Germany I had a kind of Frankenstein accent that sounded very Swiss to Germans and somewhat German to Swiss people. (I also speak some Swiss Mundart, but far from perfectly). Now that I live in BW, if I try to speak Swiss German, Swiss people tell me I sound like someone from the border area, kind of a mix of Schwäbisch and Swiss dialect. All of this is possible with some dedication and willingness to apply yourself early on. Most Americans think it is impossible but it literally was just me working about 45 min - 1 h per day on my commutes on German and speaking German to whoever would talk to me in German. That for a few years and you’ve got it.
Vielen Dank fuer die Inhalte auf eurem Kanal! Meine Muttersprache ist Englisch, und meine Deutsch-Faehigkeit ist ungefaehr B1. Eines Tages lerne ich mehr Sprachen (Spanisch, Schwedisch, Platt, usw), aber zuerst muss es mehr Stunden in einem Tag geben :)
I am a Ukrainian native speaker who grew up in a bilingual UA-RU environment, had English as my first foreign language and German as a second foreign language. I enjoy your videos, but currently, I am not at the point of learning English anymore, it is more of maintaining the level I have and enjoying the wide variety of content that the English-speaking community provides. Looking forward to your new videos!
As a Belgian (from the Flemish part) I speak our three native languages (Dutch, French and German). Since English is important wherever you go I also speak that. And since my level of these languages is not so bad I can also understand a bit of Spanish and Italian. As in the Netherlands all programms on TV are in their original language, so alot of children have already a notice of another language (especially) English before they got their first lesson at school. I can say that it is definitely true you better understand the way of thinking of a foreigner if you speak his language.
My third language, or second foreign language in school, was Latin. At that time my school would only offer Latin or Russian, and I chose the former. I actually didn't regret it. Although my Spanish, Italian and French are pretty much non-existent or let's say on touristy level, it does help to figure out the meaning of many (written) words of those languages. Since learning Latin pretty much means learning grammar my understanding of English and also German grammar has really improved. Bonus: Reading the SPQR novels by John Maddox Roberts is a lot more fun with some knowledge of Latin and Roman history. 😂
But let's be honest here: yes, the "Latin Languages" are obviously related to each other. If you learn spanish, portuguese, italian, french or latin, you will be able to learn the other ones faster and mkght be able to figure out the meaning of many words in those other languages. So why would anyone pick the only dead language that isn't spoken by anyone anymore? Why not pick italian right from the start? I know, you didn't have that choice, but still! It alsways baffles my mind that people say "learn latin, that will make it easier for you to learn italian" instead of "learn italian".
I myself speak German, Bavarian (which is not considered as an official language though 😅) and English. However, my English is only something between B1-B2. I learned it at school for almost 5 years, but I forgot so many about grammar rules and vocabulary. I've decided to start learning English again about 6 months ago and that was one of the main reasons why I started watching your videos. So I apologize in advance for all grammar mistakes that I've made to write this comment 😅
As a northern German I can confirm that Plattdeutsch is classified as a different language which is close to extinction. It varies from village to village and there is no standard form but it’s still its own language.❤
I recommend watching "Sesamstraße" and "Die Sendung mit der Maus" with your son (soon sons) and any other TV Programs that the kids watch. I learned a huge amount when I watched these and others with my son when he was at that age.
When I first arrived here, and after my morning German lessons at University, I spent many an afternoon watching children's programmes. Also, took out children's books from the library and spent most weekends with my husband's nieces and nephews.
@@conniebruckner8190 Yes! I also read a lot of children's books. They're great for learning and the good ones are written with adults as much in mind as with children in mind. After all, if adults are reading to kids, the adults have to enjoy it too. :-) Back then, I wrote translations of words in the page (not in library books), and I saw the number of words decrease with the number of pages! That alone was encouraging! One of the books was "Eine Woche Voller Samstage", and the sequels were also great. One thing that was so fun about it was how much it made fun of "typical German" (and many other) things. I later read that book and the sequels to my son, and when he learned to read, he read them repeatedly himself.
@TheBlackForestFamily Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Geburt eures Sohnes! Ich wünsche euch allen angemessene Ruhe (ich weiß, dass es nicht nur Ruhe sein soll ;-) ) und viel Freude.
Russian is my native language, but I was in a special school in then-USSR that had English classes starting 2nd grade (8 y.o.). As Ashton pointed out in the video, emersion is very important -- I got a huge boost in my language abilities during a school exchange trip I took in high school. At age of 28 I moved to Poland so now this is the 3rd language I know.
German, English, French, Spanish... I am not watching your Videos for the language, but for he content and your way of presenting it. You are a great educator. ❤
Hello, My native language is german. Growing up close to the danish border, I started learning Danish and speak it at a mother tounge level. We started learning English at school at the age of 12-13. In my early twenties I learned Italian, which I now speak fluently as I live in Italy. ❤ PS: Thank you for the very well researched video. It was very interesting.
born in slovakia - thus i understand czech as well without any issues (but i don't really speak czech; they anyway understand slovak good enough)... learnt english and german in school, using english basically daily since i started working (i work for a german multinational corporation)... and now i live in germany (still working for the same german corporation, they have transfered me to germany) and speak german as well... basically i speak 3 languages, understand 4 (understand here means that i can read books/newspapers and watch videos/movies in these languages without any issues) and no, i don't watch your videos to learn english - i watch them, because they are interesting, well researched and i always learn something new from your videos - just not english per se :)
I speak German (native) and English (C1). I learned Russian in school because it was mandatory at the time, but I barely know any of it anymore. I also tried Japanese, but only a few words are left. I watch your videos because you give an outsiders look on Germany, which I find interesting.
1:39 Many Ukrainians speak natively Russian, not Ukranian. AFAIK Mila Kunis belongs to those. So Russian is simply her native language. She cannot read it because her parents emigrated to the US when she was 7.
As a Dutchy I speak Dutch obviously, English, German, a little French (enough to go around) and a few words of Spanish. As a Dutchy people keep telling me that the Dutch are straight forward in sharing their opinion when asked but I think it is rudely and unheard off to start a conversation in English (Native or non-native speaker) and expecting people to understand you and expect them as well to answer you fluently in English as well, without excusing yourself not knowing the local language. Now, where on earth did such a rude attitude come from..? Remember that knowing the language at least for a certain degree of the country you're visiting is a must. Don't expect local people to understand any foreign language at all, and remember that we, (the locals in Europe) effectively know one language well enough to express ourselves in and that would be our mother language. The rest of the languages one learns much later at school, but barely ever is spoken, since we all speak the local language, and so is not practiced, and so becomes a language one does not or barely control, and so is a language one does not really master and so is not a language one likes to be forced into by foreigners whom demand fluent speakers of the language of their choice, since the little travel booklet told them we Europeans are all bi-lingual--> which is sadly not the case.
Growing up in Germany with a canadian dad, made me a natural bilingual. In school I learned french, but I've forgotten like everything. At best I could order a coke in a restaurant. Then a friend taught me some of his norwegian. It was so good and great. He moved away sadyly. But if I'd find a norwegian course i'd really would think of taking it. As a hobby. And if you can talk one of the 3 scandinavian languages, you'd get by with the other 2 as well due to their similarity
One thing that bothers me is that Americans often don't even make any effort with other languages. Not speaking a language is one, but not even trying to pronounce some simple words is quite another. This happens with videogame titles for example, like Einhänder, Herzog Zwei or God of War: Ragnarök.
Yup. Just learn a polite apology and "I don't speaking (local language) well, do you speak English?" Lots of people will suddenly learn how to speak English if you approach them politely and open like that, hehehe.
They don't want to try to pronounce any new letter. No rolling r, no special characters that aren't that hard to say. They always have that american accent and they don't even think its noticible, but natives barely understand them because of it.
I’m an American who’s currently studying to be fluent in the following two languages: Spanish and Italian. In addition I’ve also studied the following for at least a semester’s worth of time: Mandarin, German, French, and Cantonese. I also studied Latin for three years. I alone instantly disprove the absolute nonsense and fallacy of your claims and I’m not the only one. Don’t assume and generalize
Another great video. Thank you! I do have one tip: The language called "Hochdeutsch" has - here in Hannover - a clear LONG "o" in the first syllable. Have a lovely Mother's Day! ☺
As a native Mongolian, I am fluent in both English and German, which makes it easier for me to communicate with people from different countries. I also have the ability to read Cyrillic and can understand a little bit of Russian. I find English valuable as it enables me to explore the diverse perspectives and thoughts of people around the world. English serves as a bridge that connects various ideas and individuals, allowing me to engage with a broader range of information and experiences. On the other hand, my experience with learning Spanish in school was not very successful, and I still struggle with it. However, I believe that in the future, I will undertake the task of learning Chinese, as I aspire to teach it to my future children.
I was born in Kazakhstan in a German family. This means we were speaking German at home and Russian outside. In 1988 I came to Germany, where I learned English and French at school. I continued to use English, but French I know only passively. As an adult, I spend a little bit more than a year living in Romania, where I learned to Romanian. I still use it. Although my level is probably not higher than A2. Now I have married an Afghan husband, and therefore I am learning Farsi. Learning languages is fun. It opens for you a new world of understanding and feeling about things. I’m watching your videos because it is interesting to see my own culture from the perspective of a foreigner. I watch a lot of channels with intercultural content
I started listening to your content because of my interest in keeping my English fluent. But by now I very much appreciate your diligent research - no matter what topic you choose to present - I always feel my brain has had some training. I have very often thought you should be in the teaching profession somewhere because you have the gift to break down complicated topics in a way which makes what ever it is comprehensible. Kudos!
Alles Liebe zum Muttertag! ❤ Welcome, little Black Forrest family addition! My native language is German. Languages at school (in order): English, Latin, French, Italian (extra curricular) and Spanish. I also took some Chinese classes at Volkshochschule, but forgot most of it. 😅 I went on studying English at university and also lived in the UK for a bit. Now I'm so happy to be able to use English everyday in my job - I'd really miss it otherwise.
I grew up in the States with a German mother. I speak English and German and some Spanish. I had some French in school. I taught in an international school in the Dominican Republic which is where I mainly used German in the community, because at the time German speakers were the largest expat community there, and Spanish I was learning living there, even though the Lingua Franca of the school was English. My husband who grew up in Germany speaks German and English fluently. He is good at modern Greek because he studied in Greece, and took it in school. He also has a working knowledge of Latin, Italian, French and then worked on Spanish on our honeymoon in Mexico. He studied Russian in school, so now he is studying Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and Czech on Duolingo to see whether learning languages in the same family is easier. He thinks it helps. My mother speaks German and English fluently, and also studied Arabic, and Persian. My neighbor who is from Finland and is a translator speaks at least 8 languages, and her husband who is German and Egyptian speaks at least 8 languages as well, and is a prof of Near Eastern Studies at our neighborhood University. In fact, several of my friends are in that department and speak several languages as well. That is probably because our local university draws faculty and students from all over the world.
Great video as always! You asked at the end so I'll take it as feel-good request to list my languages as well. I speak Romanian (mother tongue), English (fluent), French (fluent in all but writing where I will certainly make a lot of grammatical mistakes haha), German (since I live here for 8 years now but I'd place it bellow french definitely), Korean (i would put this as above beginner since I don't use it as much and would need a good week or two in S. Korea to get it going again). I had Latin a few years in school but I think my understanding of Latin comes mostly from derriving from Romanian, Italian and Spanish. Speaking of the last two, I can hold basic conversations. After going a few times to Spain and Italy I am confident I could learn them super fast but I'll leave them at the occasional tourist gets free service level for now. I feel really priviledged to have been born in Romania and learn Romanian first since that language is such a good mix of multiple influences and that gave me an easier time learning other languages as well. When I was growing up in the 90s back home, cartoon network was in English with no subs, my best friend went to a mother language German school and watched a lot of RTL and ProSieben, my sister watched a lot of tellenovelas (fo Spanish), my mother was a French teacher and there are probably other influences there. I feel lucky and I wish more people challenge themselves to at least coversationally speak a few languages. I think it would make the world a better place
We went to a then non-touristy island in Greece many decades ago and the 9 year old(!) daughter was in charge of welcoming all the guests in English and sometimes in French. She told us she had learned English from watching TV (and French in kindergarten and school). As the all the cartoons and other shows had either no subtitles or she had not learned to read Greek yet, the boob-tube had become her foreign language teacher. We met several children at the shops also acting as interpreters. Here in Austria it is the children of immigrants who have to go along to doctors and official offices to act as interpreters for their parents.
My work helps people from other countries making their first steps in Germany. I cannot stress enough how important it is to learn the German language. Besides a couple of specialized jobs, you won't find high, or even average paying jobs if you don't speak German. Can you survive without German: yes, can you live without it: no. P.S. German, English & Spanish.
I agree with this statement only to a certain extent. It really depends on your profession and the area where you live. If you work at a global firm in a major citiy and possibly in a job that assumes a high level of qualification you can live in Germany for years without learning the language. Work in IT at the Telekom in Berlin for instance and no German is needed. Most IT projects include foreign (American, Hungarian, Spanish or Chech) experts and the common language is Englisch. Major German cities are so international, that half of the conversations you overhear in the streets are not held in German. Here in Berlin we have plenty of cafe's and restaurants - and not only ethnic ones - where the waiters don't even speak German and expect you to order in English. I do agree however with both Ashton and you, that it makes things soo much easier and just more interesting and rewarding if you speak the language of the country you live in. PS. Germain, English, French
Dear Ashton, the last few days I have watched some of your videos and want to thank you so much for your very informative and entertaining videos. The quality of your videos is far above the average standard of other „expat in Europe“ channels 👏🏻
Thank you for the comprehensive view. One thing i like to mention is, that Americans often have Problems understanding the Englisch that is spoken globally. I have done IT-Projects in a global Corporation, and in Phone or Video Conferences People from Brasil, France, Argentina, Italy could very well understand each other in english, while our American Co Workers often had to ask twice. For your language statitics, German native, english on business level and resonable Spanish. For travelling i have a basic knoweledge of french, italian, portuguese and dutch.
First, congrats on your newborn! 🎉 Second, I speak quite a few languages: my native Slovak, and - as born and raised in Czechoslovakia before it split - Czech as well (not only understand, but also speak and write on C2 level). My third language is Polish, as I grew up on the Polish border, where I am somewhere on C1 level. And I'd say I am around C1 in English, too, though I don't have any official exam. Where I do have an exam and a certificate is German, for the B2 level, which I needed for my Swiss permanent residence permit. Speaking of Switzerland, I understand Swiss German, particularly Basel/Baselbieterdütsch quite well now, but don't dare to speak it (to not endanger my neighbors with death from laughing 😂). And there is a bunch of languages I speak on a touristy level (to greet people, ask/thank for something, order in a restaurant, ask for directions,...), in particular Russian (which I learnt in primary school, as it was mandatory at my time), French (which is an obvious choice, living in the Dreiländerecke), and - as as long time karate practicioner - Japanese (though I haven't been to Japan yet).
similar situation here ... born Slovak, I can use Czech to a decent degree, learned German and English. I can understand most German dialects and also quite a bit of Polish since it is a similar language to Slovak/Czech. It is the situation with small countries/nations that they have to learn the languages of their neighbors to function properly :-) But that was mentioned in the video. If you are an American from the middle of the country, you'll most likely never meet a person that does not speak English.
Hello Ashton, hello Jonathan, Congratulations again to your new family member! I hope you all are doing well? I personally speak three languages, hochdeutsch, english and pfälzisch(our local dialect). 😀 In my opinion it crutial to start learning a second language as soon as possible. Best regards Ralf
Hi Ralf! We are all at home and resting 💜 One of the big reasons why we enrolled Jack in Kita was so that he has exposure 5 days a week to native German speakers and can hopefully develop two "native languages" in tandem. When we were in the hospital with the newest little one, he spent one morning with our neighbor who has a son the same age as Jack and they spoke exclusively German together. Really cool to see. 💜💜
Great topic.. and also, congratulations again. Hope you're all doing well. I couldn't even give you a number on how many languages I 'speak' and I'll elaborate on that. I'm from the German part of Switzerland and my mother tongue is Swiss German. As such, my first foreign language was high German. Also, learning French at school was mandatory but my french is rather weak. Passive knowledge np but active not so much. My strongest foreign languages are English (learned at school and during 1 year at uni in England) and Estonian (learned during an exchange year). Other than that, I also learned Latin and Spanish (school), Portuguese (picked up on the fly through Portuguese co workers) and Russian (Uni plus quite a bit of exposure in Estonia). I also understand quite a bit of Italian, Finnish and many Slavic languages just through exposure and knowing related languages. The language that is mostly like a second mother tongue to me, is Estonian as I learned it solely through immersion and only know how to read and write because it is 100% phonetic. Still I'm probably more fluent in English because I use it far more often. And the hardest thing you can ask of me is translating Estonian to English as Estonian words aren't linked to other words like with English where words have a coupling to their high German counterparts. So yeah, it's complicated.. 😊
WOW! That is AMAZING! You remind me quite a bit of our good friends. The husband is Dutch, wife is Lithuanian, and they live in Switzerland (where at work they must speak both French and German). Between the two of them at home, they choose to speak English - but at work, speak German and French. Their daughter is learning German from her father, Lithuanian from their mother, and french at school.
I am Colombian and I am native in Spanish, have English as my second and German as my third languges. I do as well have learned some Italian, French, Portuguese and Russian to communicate better with my friends here in Europe. My brother lives in Europe as well and he does know even more languages than I do (namely 6 fluently and some others by curiosity). I watch these videos because of the great contrasts you make about US and German cultures, I end up learning a lot about both ❤
In linguistics, bi- or multilingualism is defined by the languages that are aquired rather than learned or teached. A "second/third/n-th language" is one you get automatically by contact with native speakers (like parents, neighbors, friends, kindergardeners) during childhood, while languages you _actively_ learn are considered "foreign languages". In that regard, the Cencus Bureau's definition of multilingualism is actually a bit closer to the academic definition than simply counting what language you are able to understand and/or communicate with.
@@TypeAshton I work as a language service provider and no one in my field considers themselves bilingual when they haven't aquired the language on native or near-native level as a child. I would never call myself multilingual although I speak several languages.
Hi! I'm a Venezuelan living in Spain, so my native language is Spanish. I speak English as a second language, and I watch this kind of videos to practice 👍🏽. I learned how to speak English over 20 years ago, so I use videos, movies, books, magazines... anything that can help me to maintain my level and (why not) keep learning, since languages are alive and they never stop evolving ☝🏽
Frisian is not german. It is not hard to measure if a people or person is bilanguage or understand a language. You measure how well a person understand the words and vocabulary. Sweden didn't have a official language since it was was just viewed that we speak swedish and it wasn't viewed necessary, until 1 july 2009. Swedish was the language was out of as we say of hävd/Usucaption. The Louisiana Creole or French was really mistread in the USA the same with swedish speakers.
Youl talk about how large the hispanic is in USA. But you call yourself american bet say that your an estor is from germany are you really a american. And not all american are not amercan bet french dusch. And can't be a one part something.
Interesting as always. I'm American born and though my grandparents spoke other languages as well as english (German, Italian, Yiddish) we never spoke anything but english at home. I had French in high school, as did my wife and when we went to France 35 years ago we were completely lost and unable to understand what was spoken to us because they spoke so fast we couldn't even pick out words we knew and very little on the menus matched up with what we learned in school. It was also a time that the French weren't particularly fond of the US so absolutely no one would speak English to us except in the hotel in Paris. As we drove around France for a week we managed to find everything on our trip but we didn't find out that the US had bombed Libya until we were on our British Airways plane flying to London. Fast forward to more recent times and our more recent trips to France the locals were very friendly and many spoke english. My daughter is now fluent in German as she has lived there for a few years, but she says that the locals, in Mannheim speak a dialect of German that even many of her German friends can't figure out a lot of the time, because even though they learn Hochdeutsch in school they speak Mannheimer (Palatine German) at home and then rarely use the standard German. Actually so many Germans (at least younger ones) that she encountered speak english that she had a hard time using German because as soon as someone realized she wasn't German they switched to english.
Great video 😊 As a Norwegian I have studied English in school since the age of 10 (since 1994 Norwegian kids have English as a compulsory subject from the age of 6, 1st grade) but I did start learning on my own before I was 10 because I’ve always been a bit of a language buff 😊 I ended up studying English at uni and now teach it in high school 🤓 So I watch your videos not to learn but because I enjoy many of the topics you address (genealogy, city planning, languages). As for other languages, I did two years of French in middle school (only remember bits of it), three years of German in high school (can read and understand about 90% of spoken, but do not speak it because grammar), started learning Spanish at 35 (I’m 46 now and teach Spanish as well) and started learning Italian at 42 (am totally in ❤ with it, and am probably at about a B1. I take at least two online conversation lessons a week to keep progressing) So, four and a half languages I would say 😊 Also, you are never to old to learn a new language!
I was raised with and speak Dutch, but my English is probably just as good and i use it extensively for work and consume most media in English. Additionally I speak some German and can read and understand it well. My French is very very basic (though i can still read it). I learned some ancient greek and Latin in high school as well and all that actually helps a lot with recognizing some words in some of the other languages in europe.
I like the recommendation I read somewhere to learn four languages: 1) a lingua franca (English) 2) a language of historical importance (e.g. Latin, or in my case French) 3) a regional language (for me, that's Czech) 4) one just for fun (Swedish) Except for English, I'm not really proficient in any of those, though... only basic communication.
Mine look like this (an American): 1. The Lingua Franca (Spanish) [I'm in Texas, Latin Americans often take the same attitude to English learning that Anglos do to Spanish learning.] 2. Historical Importance/Serious Hobby (German) [My intended 2nd language to learn, and very useful for understanding older works of English literature that took the bizarre sentence patterns anyway.] 3. The Blowoff Hobby/F*&k with Native Speakers of #1 and #2 that don't have the decency to not switch to English when I'm talking to them in their language dammit, and sorry the accent isn't 100% perfect! (Russian) 5. Auxiliary (What Else is needed in the moment)
2:17 if anyone wanted to convince you that Plattdeutsch or Frisian were merely dialects, they would be wrong. They ARE distinct languages on their own.
The funny thing about this slogan is that, their local dialect is High German. Even Austrian and Swiss dialects are High German. The only people not speaking High German are in the North, speaking Low German. This confusion happens because colloquially we use the terms "Standard German" and "High German" interchangeably.
@@frankmeyer1473 : I agree. "High German" is imho a inappropriate translation of "Hochdeutsch". It just means standard German. Well, I'm speaking the "High German" dialect Alemannic. :-) When I'm visiting northern Germany (ok, meaning: Every state northern to BW and Bavaria :-) = "Weisswurstäquator") and I'm really doing my best to speak "High German", I'm often get asked: "Are you from Switzerland?" Because accidentally I'm using some southern German words, phrases or it's just because of my grammar 🙂
If you think, Americans are bad at foreign languages, try to get around in Argentina or elsewhere in South America with English, especially outside the capitals!
Great video as usual! Being from India and now lived Germany and Switzerland, I was already tetralingual, if that’s a word i.e. 4 languages (English, Hindi, Bangla, Odia) and now German. Yes! English is our native language as well 😂 In India it is actually expected to know more than one language. It’s funny ‘cause here in Europe people are impressed by that but Indians are not usually impressed 😂 Such an interesting phenomenon.
Hej , I am from Québec and now live in Danmark . My first language is of course French , I had to learn English at school but got really fluent when I went to an English speaking university.. Later after two years of teaching , I went back to university to do a bachelor in Spanish. My last sessions was in Salamanca ( Spain ) and I got fluent there. Before leaving Europe and go back to Canada , I went to Murnau (Bayern ) and took 5 months of German in the Goethe institut,. I am still speaking German pretty good even after more than 35 years.. From there I came to Danmark and got Married ,I speak Danish as a native with a little accent. With the help of my danish , I can easily read Swedish and Norvegian and understand the most of what people say but , I have never tried to speak those languages. living in Danmark and having lots of vacation I travelled to Italy 5 - 6 times and now speaks Italian easily but still makes a few mistakes and I am missing some vocabulary. I also went twice to Portugal ( 3 months in all ) , when I am there I only speak Portuguese with the people and get by quite easily . To learn languages is like everything else , you have to want to learn , use a lot of time and dedication and practice every time you have the opportunity..
Hope all is going well with the newest black forest family member and everyone is getting enough rest and bonding time!! In the Netherlands the benefits of speaking a second language is well understood and if im not mistaken both Dutch and English are mandatory with French and German optional. Also they start at a much younger age then when i was in school (many many moons ago 😂) granted kids nowadays are way more exposed to other languages then we ever where (like through music etc).
Dutch and at least one modern foreign language are mandatory, the latter usually defaults to English, but French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese and Arabic are also allowed. There may be even more allowed languages, but it is very rare to encounter those at school in the Netherlands.
It is important to note that deciding against an official language can in fact be an endorsement of monolingualism. If the US declared English as an official language there would be more grounds for civil rights activism and discrimination claims, pressuring the government to adopt some other widely spoken languages as official languages in order to not discriminate minorities. If the US had several official languages, the government would be obliged to provide all legal documents in these languages and people would be entitled to carry out all kinds of interactions with the governments, in these languages. Bureaucracy would be multilingual. The courts would be multilingual. Official languages mean obligations. By simply opting out of an official language in the first place, the US don't really put themselves in the situation where they have to provide any language in particular. They don't owe anyone anything. They can conveniently lean back and go "well as it happens, all the government interaction just happens to be in English. But that is just incidental. Of course English doesn't have more rights here! On paper English is equal to all other languages!"
Languages open doors that you otherwise could not enter. I would have never be able to work in Canada if i would not have improved my English skills or could not even follow your Videos. Also i think that learning another language also means respecting another culture on a Personal level. Also here in Germany we love to See that people at least try it out. Language and Music are the corner Stones of Personal Interaktion. On the other Hand i think it is a life long process until auf Grab all the fine nuances a language has to express yourself in it❤
I wish there was greater foreign language opportunities both in and out of the classroom in the US. I grew up in a VERY rural part of the US and German wasn't even offered to us as an option (not enough students or teachers to make a class useful). I didn't take my first German class until my late 20s and my brain already felt like a dried sponge.
@@TypeAshton But living in a country where you need the language is a great help and speaking it casually 'all the time' is much more helpful than class learning only.
@@TypeAshton The other thing is: Why would you possibly learn a foreign language in the rural USA? There is basically no need for that, unless you want to leave (for the great great outside world)...🤷♂
@@TypeAshton That was the case before Internet. Nowadays it's easy to take private lessons with a native speaker anywhere in the world, no matter where you live. It's just a matter of dedication and available time.
Don't forget another important advantage of being multilingual. It's good for both the development of the young brain, and for older people, as the more languages you master, the less chance to develop dementia! English is indeed a worldwide standard language, but it's always fun when you're able to talk to others in their native language. As a Belgian, I speak fluent Dutch, French, German and English, and a bit Spanish. Being multilingual is pretty common in Europe, as many at least speak two languages. Quite a few countries have two or more official languages. Since most study the second official language of their country at school (often mandatory) and usually add English to that, they are equipped quite well to communicate abroad. What also seems to help is that, at least in my country, all movies or docs in other languages are never dubbed, and always the original language subtitled. I also lived 12 years in Germany in the 80s & 90s, and all tv series, also the English ones, were dubbed in German. A bit weird, if you ask me, and I believe that's "tinkering" with the authenticity of the movie, and a disadvantage when it comes to learning foreign languages. Fun fact, I still recognize/link many of the famous 1980s German voices and their resp. English actor, used in U.S. series of that era. Probably part of the nostalgia of living over there.
Having learned many languages also helps if you should ever suffer a stroke. In my family, it helped in three cases already to recover the ability to speak fluently.
Foreign Languages and music can be amazing for memory loss. Just yesterday we watched a documentary on how dementia patients can forget plain spoken words, but if sung in song can remember them perfectly. The brain truly is amazing!
@@TypeAshton Don't get me started! Indeed, memory can be amazing. I had a serious accident with TBI in 2019. Complete memory loss, lost my entire life history, but neurologist said that was the least of my problems, "short term memory will be your problem". And most long-term memory (my hard drive) indeed came back. The short term "RAM" is still a problem and will probably remain so. A weird thing is that I still often cannot come up with a word in my own native language (Dutch), but can istantly say the English or German version (althigh I and my colleauges returned from German +20 years ago, we often talk German or used german words, just for fun. Might help. I also have more trouble typing in my own Dutch, often wrong or switched letters in a word, similar to dyslexia. Also curious, I don't have that issue when writing in English, probably because when I write/type, it's mostly for my website in Englsh, and rarily in Dutch. And maybe, those other four languages, most only learned in my late teens, are stored somewhere else and readily available? There are several documented examples of people that suffered serious brain injury and suddenly have a foreign accent or even speak a language they didn't knew before. So weird! What I learned during my TBI rehab is that our brain is truly amazing and processes so many things behind our brack we don't have a clue of.. until you have a brain injury. My damage is permanent, all over the brain (white areas on fMRI) en will never heal, but other parts take over some stuff. In rehab, you learn to use tricks to improve memory storage by using other functions than usual (f.i. writing down to "store" instead of hearing and storing, etc). Meanwhile, I again remember tiny details from my childhood, but no idea what I ate yesterday (dispy my wife being a fantastic cook). Have lost all my guitar chords, many names of friends, but still can sing along with songs in Spanish?! Driving a car was initially too complex, but now again no problem. There's also a funny congenital "issue", I'm left-handed but in the 60s we were forced to write right-handed in school. Result: my writing in awfull, but when I write with my left hand, from right to left (wrong direction) then I have a very beautifull writing in mirror (Da Vincy style), and I still can wirte like that after my accident, haha! The brain is even so flexible, that even an American learns to drive in narrow german streets ;-) Seriously, Ashton and Jonathan, think about how much you learned to do automatically in Germany, it's mind boggling! Fact is, the more you learn (languages, instruments, crafts, social interactions, the more resilient your brain becomes. Your Jack, growing up bilingual and bicultural, already has an advantage over U.S. kids. If you teach Jack to play an instrument, he'll outsmart you both😉
I ama Greek living in Luxembourg. I speak Greek, English,Spanish German and French. My children already speak Greek, Luxembourgish, German,French and English and learning words from a half a dozen other languages through their multi international friends🙂
There is an American journalist named Erik Kirschbaum who is on German TV quite a bit. He has been living in Germany since the late 80s but still speaks German with a heavy American accent, as if he were chewing gum while speaking. I'm like, dude, what's up with that?! When I moved to the U.S. as a non-native English speaker, my accent was largely gone after a year or so.
the reason im watching your channel: i do have alot of friends in america, and also in the usa. it is fascinating for me to see how you approach and think about things we have, i do have the feeling i get a deeper understanding of what makes my american and us friends tick.
I can’t really relate to the idea of feeling privilege because everybody would address me in my first language. I’ve always enjoyed listening to, and trying to speak, foreign languages. When I travel, I’ll prefer going abroad for this very reason. I will prefer going to countries where I do speak and understand the language, because the feeling of immersion is so good. But I also enjoy the Internet because it enables me to practice my foreign languages, and I will use at least two of them every day. The benefits of multilingualism go far beyond practical application, and I’m sorry for people who only see the utilitarian perspective. Practicing multiple languages is good for your brain, and getting used to making extra efforts to understand another human being certainly has psychological benefits as well. There is a quote attributed to Charlemagne that to possess another language is to possess another soul, and I would subscribe to that. When I started working for a company where most of the work got done in French, for a few months it felt like someone else was doing the work for me - no kidding. The extra effort that I had to make was more than compensated by learning new expressions and vocabulary every day.
Native German. Learned English in school and from American relatives. My wife is half French, learned bits n pieces of French in school as well. Also I now got relatives in France, so that's a no brainer to just be able to speak it. I like the positive tone of your videos, find it interesting to see, how your life in Germany goes, what you experience and how you feel as Americans. The YT algorithm seems to understand quite well, which languages I understand in order to provide refommendations; which I also find kinda interesting. Keep up the good work.
As always a very informative video. But it is not yet certain that english will remain the lingua franca. E.g. in African countries that speak French, the population is increasing and could displace English as the most spoken language on the African continent.
First, congrats on your newborn! 🎉 I learned english in school, but using that skill a lot it get lost over the years. The reason why i watch and more importantly understand videos like this here today is i decided years ago to stay away from german TV and watch most stuff i like online/streaming in english. At first with german subtitles, but after a while i turned them off. Of course listing is not the same as speaking a language, but a few years ago a had the chance to test my english with a guy from australia and he was pretty impressed by my english skills and the desent conversation we had that day. so, yes beside online classes to learn english, it will took it liitle longer, but watching your every day tv shows in english will help to improve your skills.
I'm 78. I took German for 3 years in American High School in the early 60's. I took 2 more years in college. In all that time I never met a German speaking person other than 3 teachers. No internet, so I slowly lost what German I had learned. I might add the city I live in sent a busload of students - 4 high schools' worth - to a competition in a nearby university. I got the highest score for my city, so I wasn't bad at learning. So, where I live in Illinois is a longer trip to the next closest state, Indiana than it is from Berlin to Poland. Face it, America is big. You could fit most of Europe in the Dakotas. They compare Germany to the size of Texas. So it isn't Americans' fault they don't speak multiple languages. We just don't have the opportunity Europeans have.
Defining "bilingual" as "speaking a non-English language at home" isn't just misleading, it's as wrong as it gets. It doesn't even include the most fundamental requirement of knowing more than one language. By that definition a Mexican immigrant who speaks exactly one language, Spanish, is counted as "bilingual". But of course only a cynic would accuse the US government of attempting to sell the results of uncontrolled mass migration as an improvement in national education. After all, governments never lie.
I am Dutch, and speak English as a second language. I also learned German and French at school, and at work I deal with a lot of Portugese truck-drivers, so I started learning Portugese as well. It's fun to learn new skills, but it's a must for me to have the language playground, to test my skills on native-speakers of that language, otherwise I won't know if I learned correctly.
I am German by birth and came to Canada as at the age of 13. I had taken minimal English classes in school in Germany, but learned Canadian English growing up. We continued to speak Pfalzisch or Plattdeutsch at home, but I heard and read German books in Hochdeutsch. Although I lost complete fluency due to German magazines adopting a lot of English terms and tech words, I continue to be "fluent" in German, even though the German speaking part of my family has now passed away. I love your show, because my youngest so;n and I would love to go to live in Germany or Europe in general. You have inspired his interest in learning about European culture and their social and economical ideals. Thank you, Vielen Dank.
Hey I‘m a german native speaker and I do also speak English, French (learned in school), Spanish (I have relatives in Mexico) and Russian (my wife was born there). And I actually watch your videos because I like the way you give insights into everything around Germany that the Germans themselves often don’t see. Plus your explanations are so good that I actually understand better how my own country works :)
At school, I learnt English, Latin and French - later on, I had a boyfriend from Latin America and decided to learn Spanish. When I was a small girl, my family went on holiday to Italy, where I got to know an Italian girl my age and we kept the connection, thus I have a passing understanding of Italian (of course facilitated by Latin, French and Spanish. The reason I watch your channel is I find the outsider's view on my country interesting - and I very much appreciate the well researched content. So please keep going!
I am a Brit. I speak also Dutch & German fluently, plus Italian, French, Norwegian, Mexican Spanish, Czech & Romanian at lower levels, but sufficient to survive. And a few words in Farsi. The biggest mistake of all is to miss copying the correct pronunciation and inflection of a language. Speaking German fluently with a strong British accent does not work well 😬
I came to Germany age 10 and learned it pretty fast with some Neue Deusche Welle Music ^^. I was able to understand English from an early age via MTV and other TV, which came after 90ies democracy came to southeast Europe and Games and the computers in the internet cafés when I was young. Originally, I am from Bulgaria and speak Bulgarian fluently and am able to understand not only this but many other Slavic languages as well. And because my family moved to south Germany, I learned Oberbayrisch, but do also understand Schwäbisch because I've been living in this area as well. We spoke both languages at home, Bulgarian and German, but I went to Italian and Russian classes, learned French for 3 years and got my DELF Certificate with my Mittlere Reife and later at University some Spanish as well. So yes, I am a total European multilanguage cliché.^^
I was born to a family of German, English and Polish descent, learning French and Castilian (aka Spanish) later in school with an interest in (at least trying) to understand and speak different languages aswell. To the Franco-German Friendship Treaty I would also like to point out that some school even allow not only to make the Abitur but also the Baccalauréat which is its French equivalent which requires having subjects that are tought in both German and French (in my case History and Politics & Economics).
It’s quite interesting, something similar happens in my country, Mexico, recently, we have more people, young people, who are able to speak a second language, usually English, but the older generations, even, my own generation (I’m 31), is quite rare to find people who speak a language other than Spanish, because Mexico is also quite large geographically speaking and you could live a nice a long life here without ever having the need to go outside, besides, in Latin America there are many many countries who also speak Spanish, I think recent times have made language learning easier and more accessible and that’s a good thing in my view
My first language is German, I moved to Canada when I was 5. I moved back to Germany in 2002 for work and was able to communicate in German but the primary language was English. My German background was very helpful with my accent as I was able to pronounce German words with more accuracy and became somewhat of an anomaly in our company with my German capability. It was a very unique experience for me to see employees from the UK and the USA struggling with German. I have also learned that language is very important to learn at a young age. My daughters have learned German, English, and Spanish, being born in Germany and now living in the USA as of 2015. This will be an advantage for them as they move forward in life. Please do not consider my next comment negative. Your German is very American. I do however love that you are learning and want to learn! This is very rare among Expatriates. I love this channel and watching your family discover all that is great in Germany! I only moved to the USA as I was transferred by my company to do big things.
As a German, I learnt English at grammar school (alongside French and Latin). For 7 years. In the end, I could read Shakespeare's plays, but I couldn't buy a piece of bread (A slight exaggeration). Teachers who taught a foreign language were not language teachers, at least at my days, but linguists. To this day, I can read and write English better than I can understand and speak it. We spoke German in English lessons, but mostly wrote in English in class tests.
Fantastic video! English native speaker, learned German and French in school but retain only a tourist-level proficiency, and Thai at home with my husband.
Hungarian, german, english, french, and a bit polish. In Hungary you need at least one foreign language exam to get your university degree, so theoretically every hungarian with a diploma speaks at least one other language
Hey Ashton. Informative Video as usual. To answer your question at the end. I am a native German but I like the English language a lot. I consume a lot of English media just to maintain my listening comprehention. I used to be in a relationship with a guy from North Carolina and tipped my toe into the American culture back than, liked it and miss it now. Following you guys is part of my way to not forget.
I'm German and those are the languages I speak: German (native speaker) English Basic French Super basic Spanish Polish (just started learning it after reconnecting with the Polish side of my family) And I understand a lot of Lauenburger Platt.
Native Hungarian, learned German in school for almost 10 years in school, also have mixec (HU-DE) cousins and a german uncle, speak english fluently since around age 14, and am currently living in Italy, and attending uni here, in Italian.
English and Russian. Watch your channel because of the fascination of your journey. The fact that you fully assemilated into the German culture and persevered through the difficulties of German, continues to inspire me to keep learning Russian.
today i noticed the first time that the " Black Forest Family " has changed and it has split , and you Ashton have your own "show"and i understand why. Your own contribution is very academic and i think you are doing a great job collecting a lot of information first before going "on air "I am always enthusiastic seeing your point of view on all sorts of topics. keep on digging !!!
GRATULIERE! Your "Tschüss" is top level😊 I am German, living in Portugal... but I am learning more English than ever before because my preferred TV Channels are broadcasted in English with Português Subtitels... at least I found out that Português language and English have more lingual roots in common then I ever would have imagined! And sometimes Main words are easy to tell, you only have to change the pronounciation and the ending. Very diffent to German sometimes tho.😂
Those common lingual roots aren't really surprising, Portuguese is a Romance language and a large part of the English vocabulary is also of Romance origin thanks to William of Normandy and his victory at Hastings in 1066.
My interest in foreign languages was sparked in 1975, when I was a preteen. Along with my Dad and one of my brothers, I was paying my Mom a visit in her hospital room, which she shared with an elderly Armenian woman who spoke only French. So, imagine my surprise when my Dad went over to chat with this woman, speaking fluent French!!! (It was some years later that I fully learned that my late father learned French - and German - through his military service in Europe during World War II with the U.S. Army.) In high school, I studied Spanish for 2 years. Later, in college, I studied German for 2 years. Then from my travels in Brazil over the past 36 years, I developed a deep interest in português. Learning Portuguese and using it in my interactions with Brazilians has deepened my respect and love for Brazil, its history, people and culture.
I am late to respond to your question Why I watch your videos. But wanted to answer nevertheless. I am German and am watching you videos because they are awesome. I love your approach on things. Every subject is well researched. Continue doing great work.
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isn't this an issue in England/UK also ie where they speak only one language vs Continental Europe ?
2:33 Plattdeutsch is a separate language while Friesisch is "just" a dialect. The former i learned via my grand parents so although i can't really speak it and i only know our local dialect of it (a mix of Bremen's and Hamburg's) i can understand it
17:30 well, in the beginning when you only know so much vocabulary it is not really feasible to speak that language full time. for me it was 4 years of french at school and we spoke french most of the time only in the last 2 years due to finally knowing enough of the language. similar with english which i had in school for 11 years but it only got better when i was forced to use it at work or through the internet
Ukranian, Russian, German, Englisch. I have little practice speaking English, but I can understand it without subtitles. I learn it from your RUclips channel and can compare life in the USA and Germany
@@Laurelinad Als mein Vater irgendwann 1936 in die Schule kam, lernte er seine erste Fremdsprache, Hochdeutsch. . .
私は今日本語を学ぶ
I am 62 and American but took 3 years of German in high school and have continued to try and become fluent ever since. There is little opportunity to speak German in America but I have a strong interest in German and European railroads and Model Trains. Reading train books and magazines in German and ordering models from German hobby shops has helped me learn more German. I have also traveled to Germany six times for vacations and practice German each time. My son who is 17 is going to German language school in Freiburg this summer! He wants to be an engineer and possibly work for a German company.
Ah that is really cool!! I hope you son enjoys his time in Freiburg. We LOVE this city!
Funny. I'm a 70 years old German with a "strong interest" in American railroads ( besides European, German and the rest of the world railroads ). "Reading train books and magazines" ( trains) from the US and playing with trains from America and all over the world with Train Simulator and Open Rails. Greetings from Germany.
@@joachimniebling5034
Thanks for your comment. I am also in American railroads and models. I model the 1930 US time period with steam and electric locomotives and I model German Epoch III. We travel to Europe and Germany to go to railroad museums and ride on steam lines and excursions. We loved the Harzbahn and an excursion with the Eisenbahn Museum in Dresden. The Eurail pass works great for us and we go everywhere by train. We also love to get a compartment in a Schlafwagen for overnight trips. Europe has such a wonderful rail system. The USA is far bigger with long distances but our Amtrak system still should be better than it is. There are some great tourist railroads in the USA. If you haven’t been on the D&RGW in Colorado or the Cumbres and Toltec in New Mexico those are two of the best steam lines. Also Alaska RR in Alaska is very scenic.
Have you been in the Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg? Did you like it? (I do!)
@@bettinaknuelle9981 Yes I have been there and loved it. I have also been to railroad museums all over Germany.
Let me tell you a true story which is only possible in Flanders. A few years ago on a story telling event they had 4 story tellers. But each of them told in his own language: Dutch, French, English and German. The room was packed with hundreds of listeners, which all knew it and understood the 4 languages. That gave it a very special taste.
Was knowing these languages a requirement to go to the event? Because, yes you learn these languages in school somewhat, but I don't think most Flemish people speak German and French enough to follow a story. I've met some young Flemish people and they said they didn't really speak French at all.
I can see something similar happening theoretically in Switzerland, with German, French, Italian and Romansch.
But I don't think people in a given region would know all four of these languages.
Other than that, I can't imagine many places in Europe this would work.
But other continents experience similar events frequently, especially Africa and Asia.
@@Anonymous-sb9rr They don't like French, but they at least understand it. Exposure is ubiquitous. Flamish is a dialect of Dutch which is pretty close to German.
@@sertaki Nobody understands Rumantsch. They speak German among themselves when they come from differen valleys, because the different variations of it are not mutually understandable. English is by now the language of exchange between the different linguistic groups. Ticinesi are usually quite fluent in German and to some extent in French by approximation. Among many foreigner, Spanish, Italians, Portuguese and even some Slavs, Italian is a lingua franca in the working class, still common on construction sites.
@@HelmutQ I think they only have a limited amount of exposure to French. Dutch and German are not mutually intelligible, they're not as close as a lot people think. It's not like Spanish and Italian, those are really close. But they are more similar than Dutch and English.
Mother tongue German, then learned English from 5th grade, French from 7th grade. But due to lack of practice the French almost completely vanished. And lastly Swahili which I need because I live in rural Tanzania.
I feel uncomfortable visiting a foreign country and not at least try to know a few words. To me it's a sign of respect as well.
I couldn't agree more on the respect. Also, especially with rarer languages, I find it to be a huge door opener and conversation starter. Also, as soon as you travel outside of bigger cities and touristic areas, fewer if any people tend to know English. And even if they do, it's important to keep in mind that people may know English because the country used to be a colony. So the reception they give to someone who tries to speak their native tongue may be more positive because of that as well.
Thanks for raising the respect issue: I'd never visit a country without being able to say at least the very very basics (hello, thank you, excuse me, good bye).
@@ElinT13 A wise lady told me to learn those basic words you mentioned, how to count to ten, but also how to say " what do you call this" in the local language.
Yes! The first thing I learn in a new language is how to say Thank you, then please, then hello and goodbye, and only then, basic travel phrases. Consequently, I know how to say "thank you“ in many languages!😂
Oh yes. i got the same a language-history as you, but it's really "use it or lose it". And i don't think I learned all that much in school. Although I was a good student. Some vocabulary, grammar rules... but even after 9 years, i wouldn't have been able to survive in the wilderness of the UK much better than a tourist. Then comes University, and for the first time ever i had to translate a text from German into English. i learned so much in such a short time!
As a native Norwegian speaker, I began my journey with English at the age of 10 or 11. However, I don't view your content to enhance my English skills. I am drawn to your channel because of the exceptional quality of your well-researched content. It's both informative and factual, which is the sole reason for my viewership.
I feel the same way about the well researched and informative facts provided by the channel.
I am not Norwegian.
Same for me as a German.
I'm German native who started English at the age of 10. I learned French for 5 years until 2008 but didn't really use it since. Now I'm learning Spanish since half a year at the age of 31 ... we'll see where that ends up :D
And yes here ist anathor native German who listen two your Chanel because of your contend. About my language skills, Sure First of all German and in Grade 5 I had to start with English, but when my Grandmother and my mother started to speak to each other, I allthogh piked Up a View Dutch words. In 8th Grade I started with french and after my First vacation in Italy I Beginn with Italien. But if it comes to the Level of fluency I would only consider German and English as funktional. The other languages are at best to survive a Restaurant visit.
17:50 In fact, the Abitur, which is the only graduation that allows to attend any German university, requires to have taken 2 foreign languages.
In my case it was Latin.
i started with french (grade 5-11), then english (grade 7-13), and when there was a choice between another language and _"Darstellende Geometrie"_ i chose latin (grade 9-11) to get the _"Kleines Latinum"._ Of course i never spoke latin (and rarely french), but once having known french and latin (and frequent holidays in italy, although on a "german campsite" :-) enabled me to communicate in basic italian (restaurants, hotels, shopping :-) and even once have a tedious but successfull basic conversation with a monolingual spaniard without ever really having learned any of those latter two.
The more languages you know, the easier it is to at least somewhat learn or understand other similar (for me: south/west or north/west european) languages. too bad that because of politics and their travel limitations to eastern europe, all those languages were completely foreign to me during the first half of my life, and then learning them from scratch (never being exposed to them or even having heard them) at a higher age wouldn't have been easy enough without a useful goal (and having become "too lazy" to attempt learning more completely different languages "just for fun").
Abitur ist nicht die einzige Möglichkeit eine Zugangsberechtigung zu deutschen Hochschulen zu erlangen. Zugegebenermaßen eher ungewöhnlich, aber ganz sicher nicht unmöglich. Lg
Latein nur von der 6-9 gemacht. Da hat man alles wieder vergessen:D und trotzdem Abitur
in Baden Württemberg you can have a technical Abitur without a 2nd language and go to University - like me 🙂
Hallo, I am a russian native speaker, but my German ist better than my russian today. I learned english in school and try to practice everywhere i can. Because of that i See you Chanel. Thank you for great content every time!
as a spaniard living in Germany married to my italian wife, i´m fluent in all this 3 languages; + to some degree, also fluent in english....to speak 3 or 4 languages is very common for us europeans !
¡Estoy aprendiendo castellano y alemán! Muy difícil aquí en los Estados Unidos
@TheTwitch1000 con quién hablar en castellano en los EEUU no será demasiado difícil, con quién hablar en alemán sí
@@alfredogimenez334 es verdad. Traveling to España next year will help as well. Happy holidays friend
España es muy cerca a los países como portugal, Lo mismo con países Europas. Por ejemplo, si eres aleman, tienes muchos vecinos, Polonia, Czechia, Dinamarca etc. Soy de los Estados Unidos, tenemos solo dos vecinos.
Somos aislodas geográficamente, no tenemos la oportunidad para usar un segundo idioma.
Sigue Hermano, estoy aprendiendo español tambien. Gib nicht auf! Dont give up! 😊❤🎉@@HP-Greenblatt
I don't know if I missed it in this video, but learning English at German schools is not a choice. Everybody has to learn English.
I am 53 years old and I startet with English at the age of 10 (in Western Germany). Today kids start earlier with English.
My native language is German and I understand ostfriesisches Plattdeutsch. Me and my sister shouldn't learn to speak it even so our entire family spoke it. So we were a kind of bilingual at home. My English increased a lot through videos like yours (THANK YOU ❤), series and movies, English music and reading. But I still don't think as a fluent English speaker of myself, even so my speaking improved in the last years.
moin moin _p
I’m going to be 60 in a couple months and my ex wife and I met in 1985. She’s two years older than me and German. Her English was not very good but today her American English is almost perfect. We struggled communicating for a while but she learned fast.
Being "not fluent" is fine. As an American who learned German, my German is all but gone now... You can read, speak and write - that is excellent.
However, I know quite a few people in Germany who don't remember their school English if they are young enough to have had it required. So, if you do not travel to English speaking countries, and don't use it, it is not necessarily a working language.
I have never been to an English speaking country and I didn't really use my school English for over 20 years. But I had a basis to build upon - which I learned at school. Learning languages works different for everybody and of course there are a lot of people who don't remember much of their school lessons - me included. But it makes a difference if you had to learn it at school or not.
I'm half Scots, half French. I grew up bilingual in Scotland and had the weird experience of being taught French (a language I spoke natively at home) as a foreign language in school for 6 years. I did end up being able to spell better than my cousins in France, though.😂 I also learnt Latin for 5 years at secondary school.
I began learning German at 15, Spanish in my early thirties. Those two languages were learnt mostly by immersion in the countries themselves, catching up on the formal grammar later. I acquired a passive understanding of Catalan, Italian and Portuguese, as well as Low German (Plattdüütsch), and some Dutch. I worked with languages professionally, translating and interpreting.
For the past year, thanks to online resources, I've finally got around to learning Scottish Gaelic - something I've wanted to do for years. Through that, I've also come to understand some Irish too. Learning languages keeps your brain fit.
I watch your videos to get the American perspective. But also because you're a nice family.
Dysgais i Gwyddeleg Albanaidd a Chymraeg yn yr un penwythnos
Being German, I of course speak German at home. I have always had an interest in and a knack for learning other languages, so in school I took as many as I could. That resulted in me taking 5 years of Latin (which is of questionable use, admittedly), 7 years of French and 9 years of English.
I think the last point in the video is the most important. I have forgotten most of my french, because since I left school I haven't really used it at all. English, on the other hand, I've likely actually gotten better over time because I use it almost daily. That's partially my personal preference, as I watch films and series as well as read books in english, because I dislike the German dubs and translations, but a lot of it is interaction with other people online. Whether in games with voice chat, in the youtube comments or on forums and discords, it's always English that's spoken, because with English it doesn't matter where you're from. Speaking it is kind of an entrance requirement to most of the internet, I feel.
Oh cool! I think Latin would be fascinating to learn. I know of a few friends who opted to learn Latin because they were pre-med in University and they found it super helpful for understanding the root names of diseases and conditions.
Exactly my point of view.
@@TypeAshton You actually need Latin for some study programs (partially also depending on which university you visit). Additionally, knowing Latin makes „understanding“ (written) Italian or Spanish much easier.
@@TypeAshton not only that, Latin is probably the single most influential language. Everywhere the Roman empire spread, you find traces of it. English has had a double influence even through the occupation and its french roots.
I find it super interesting looking at the etymology of Latin words and how their meaning changed over time. Like apothecam (wine cellar, iirc) and modern day uses like apothecary or Apotheke. I was fortunate to have had very good teachers in both Latin and English who raised our awareness for these connections and it is so interesting and enriching and there are countless Latin words surrounding us. Most people just don't realise it.. like audio (I hear), video (I see) it's everywhere..
@@TypeAshton honestly: The most fascinating aspect of learning Latin for me was, that it was a huge additional (but very, very Euro-centric) history course. The Roman Empire has had one of the most historic influences on our continent and therefore is for the whole of Europe a very important aspect.
Learning the language not only was very boring and really, really hard, but the effect, that learning Latin for ancient texts means, you never get in the mode of being able to SPEAK Latin, always gives you the feeling of being held back. This is a huge problem, because it excludes the most important part of language learning, as you know yourself of course: having conversations. So in hindsight for me it was not a good idea to start foreign languages with Latin, as the most valuable early years for fluency (for example in English), were kind of wasted.
Wouldn't I have started to explore the internet at the age of 14 and at the same time also not want having to wait for the translation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I probably would have had a very hard time to become only somewhat fluent up to 10 years later during my college years.
My native language is Finnish. Additionally, I speak English and Swedish fluently. I can also speak some Estonian and Spanish, but I'm definitely not fluent. I have also studied some German, Italian and French... but only remember some words and phrases 😅 I watch your channel to learn from two foreign cultures at the same time. German culture is of course quite similar to Finnish culture, but getting to see things from an American perspective is really interesting.
Republik Finnland ... WHY KING?
@@maikotter9945
It was a very short period:
When the legal government, a.k.a. the whites or the butchers, depending on one's point of view, had won the civil war in 1918 (with decisive German help) and Germany had dictated a harsh peace to Russia at Brest-Litovsk, it was a popular idea among the White victors to create a Finnish king out of a German prince .
When, just months later, Germany had accepted the harsh Treaty of Versailles, the very same White victors of Finland's civil war realized they would rather be more like the French and the Americans and have elected presidents instead of hereditary kings.
Fantastic topic. I was born and raised in the US, came to Germany almost 40 years ago as a soldier, stayed, married a Turkish/ German woman, had 2 daughters, both are tri-lingual and are now learning Spanish and Latin in high school. I speak English with my daughters, German with my wife and at work, my wife speaks Turkish with our daughters. No one has really figured us out.
My daughters attend a German/ American school in Berlin and we spend our summers in Turkey.
The Turks have a wise saying that learning a new language is learning a new culture.
Yeni lisan, yeni insan. :-)
As Southtyrolean with a strong bavarian-austrian dialect I learned standard German in school, after second grade Italian (because Southtyrol is a part of Italy). I had Latin and ancient Greek later what helps to understand written Latin-based languages. I started learning english during Covid, mostly to watch american TV shows in original - so I watch your videos to train my listening skills.
Americans can’t even speak or write in English, it irritates me to read American “english” and the way they murder the English language when they speak.
All names in big letters... English, Bavarian, Austrian, American.... otherwise your English is very good
@@kralikkral5560 thank you very much
> Southtyrolean
Südösterreicher. ;)
@@Kleberei oder Norditaliener
Funfact: There is only ONE country in the world with German as only official Language: Fürstentum Liechtenstein.
That is super fascinating!
And their German is terrible.
Germany is slowly speaking more Denglish......
We need to keep converting them to get the english rate higher. 🇬🇧❤🇺🇲 🤠👍
They speak Swiss-german.
@@oliverarndt4759 of sorts.
My native language is English, but have German family so I felt incentivised to learn German and then converse properly with my relatives. I always tell people it took 9 years of learning to reach fluency. I also did Spanish in school, with a two year dose of Japanese.
Now I live in the Czech Republic but work for an American company, so I speak English all day anyway. I know enough Czech to get by and deal with paperwork, but conversations with me in Czech are rare. Doesn't help that my local husband speaks better English than most natives.
Swedish here. I started learning English around 9 years old... and had english classes all the way up through the entire mandatory school, so until age 17. Along with lots of influence from media, English is definitely a language I'm comfortable with. The second foreign language I learned was French. That I began at age 13, and had classes up to age 17. There is no media in french in Sweden so I was never exposed to french outside of classes. I remember NOTHING of french today. Wouldn't be able to understand a single sentence of spoken french. So yes. Learning earlier is important, as well as being constantly exposed to the language. As a European I feel kind of like a failure at just being able to speak two languages... that's nothing. Especially since my only foreign language is english, the most basic and easy language to learn (in my opinion).
Hej, I can totally relate. As a German, I, too, am most comfortable with English, forgot most of my French and Spanish from school due to not really using it. But I took up Swedish and am determined to at least always keep my level there, even if I cannot always advance in my courses. But yes, two languages for me as well... kinda lame for a European ;)
It was the same for me, I didn't speak a word of French for 8 years after school. Then however I got to know some french people and (as the cliché goes) it was actually easier for me to "re-learn" French to talk to them than to try to communicate in English. And actually even though I thought I had forgotten everything, it all came back to me very quickly. I guess even if you never use it, multiple years of learning a language will still come back later if you need it.
Yup agree. As a German I wouldn't even count English as a Fremdsprache at this point either.
I was born in the early sixties and when I was in the fifth year of elementary school I got my first English lesson, just learning words. It was the first year a foreign language was educated on my school. In the sixth year I learned simple sentences. At secondary school I got French (2years), German (3years) and English (4years and as an exam subject). In secondary technical vocational school I got German and English for 2 years. The third year is internship and the fourth year is exam year. In the first two years you could also take optional languages like French, Spanish and Italian or technical German and technical English. I chose the latter two, to broaden my technical vocabulary. Although I did benefit from technical German and technical English in my career I still feel a bit sad that I didn’t chose French and Spanish. I would have loved to be fluent in French and Spanish also. Maybe after I retire.
While I agree starting earlier if definitely a huge advantage, I think many underestimate how far you can get starting later if you have the motivation and put the work in. I'm an American who started learning German at 19 years old, (3 years ago), and at this point Germans are usually shocked when they find out I'm from America.
I think one of the areas that many learners stumble at is pronunciation. It's helps so much to get a bit familiar with the international phonetic alphabet and the sound system of the target language (and even with your first language too!). Many Americans pronounce German as it they were reading an English text with weird spelling, when (imo) you really need to fight that urge and learn the rules from scratch, which letters correspond to which sounds, and when you stumble across a new sound, to try to learn it.
Here, a speech coach helps a ton, I had one who was familiar with American English, and meticulously pointed out where I needed get over bad habits. A good speech coach is definitely worth the money!
I 100% agree with your pronunciation point. To me, it seems that's what people from America struggle the most with. Other countries seem to be doing much better with pronunciation though. In my experience, most Americans struggle with German pronunciation even after years of learning, while most other countries seem to adapt much quicker. No idea why that's the case, but you definitely made the right choice by focusing on pronunciation. That's probably the reason why people are often surprised by how good your German is.
@@Feeber2 Not only Americans, Canadians and Brits as well. I think that is caused by the really different pronunciation rules for English compared to most other languages using the Latin alphabet.
@@apveening yes sorry, I should have said native english speakers
@@apveening I don't think it's mainly due to the pronunciation rules for letters, but much more to the relative lack of sound width in the language. Most languages simply use more sounds and sound combinations and it is very difficult to reproduce non-automated sounds.
I totally agree, it’s not impossible to learn languages as an adult. I started German at 27 and was fluent before I turned 30. The main complaint I hear from native English speakers abroad is that people just switch to English with them when they try to speak German (or another foreign language) in public. In my experience, this mostly stops if you work on pronunciation. I did a language exchange with someone where we would meet for 2-3 hours a week and they would correct my pronunciation and grammar as we spoke. It was very helpful. By the time I moved from Switzerland to Germany I had a kind of Frankenstein accent that sounded very Swiss to Germans and somewhat German to Swiss people. (I also speak some Swiss Mundart, but far from perfectly). Now that I live in BW, if I try to speak Swiss German, Swiss people tell me I sound like someone from the border area, kind of a mix of Schwäbisch and Swiss dialect. All of this is possible with some dedication and willingness to apply yourself early on. Most Americans think it is impossible but it literally was just me working about 45 min - 1 h per day on my commutes on German and speaking German to whoever would talk to me in German. That for a few years and you’ve got it.
Vielen Dank fuer die Inhalte auf eurem Kanal! Meine Muttersprache ist Englisch, und meine Deutsch-Faehigkeit ist ungefaehr B1. Eines Tages lerne ich mehr Sprachen (Spanisch, Schwedisch, Platt, usw), aber zuerst muss es mehr Stunden in einem Tag geben :)
Hello 👋 how are you doing today??
Sehr gutes Deutsch
Du beherrschst die deutsche Sprache sehr gut. Prima, weiter so.
I am a Ukrainian native speaker who grew up in a bilingual UA-RU environment, had English as my first foreign language and German as a second foreign language. I enjoy your videos, but currently, I am not at the point of learning English anymore, it is more of maintaining the level I have and enjoying the wide variety of content that the English-speaking community provides.
Looking forward to your new videos!
As a Belgian (from the Flemish part) I speak our three native languages (Dutch, French and German). Since English is important wherever you go I also speak that. And since my level of these languages is not so bad I can also understand a bit of Spanish and Italian. As in the Netherlands all programms on TV are in their original language, so alot of children have already a notice of another language (especially) English before they got their first lesson at school. I can say that it is definitely true you better understand the way of thinking of a foreigner if you speak his language.
My third language, or second foreign language in school, was Latin. At that time my school would only offer Latin or Russian, and I chose the former.
I actually didn't regret it. Although my Spanish, Italian and French are pretty much non-existent or let's say on touristy level, it does help to figure out the meaning of many (written) words of those languages. Since learning Latin pretty much means learning grammar my understanding of English and also German grammar has really improved.
Bonus: Reading the SPQR novels by John Maddox Roberts is a lot more fun with some knowledge of Latin and Roman history. 😂
I can agree on that bonus.
About SPQR: It is also used in the Italian version of Asterix & Obelix: sono pazzi questi romani
But let's be honest here: yes, the "Latin Languages" are obviously related to each other. If you learn spanish, portuguese, italian, french or latin, you will be able to learn the other ones faster and mkght be able to figure out the meaning of many words in those other languages. So why would anyone pick the only dead language that isn't spoken by anyone anymore? Why not pick italian right from the start?
I know, you didn't have that choice, but still! It alsways baffles my mind that people say "learn latin, that will make it easier for you to learn italian" instead of "learn italian".
I myself speak German, Bavarian (which is not considered as an official language though 😅) and English. However, my English is only something between B1-B2. I learned it at school for almost 5 years, but I forgot so many about grammar rules and vocabulary. I've decided to start learning English again about 6 months ago and that was one of the main reasons why I started watching your videos. So I apologize in advance for all grammar mistakes that I've made to write this comment 😅
As a northern German I can confirm that Plattdeutsch is classified as a different language which is close to extinction. It varies from village to village and there is no standard form but it’s still its own language.❤
I recommend watching "Sesamstraße" and "Die Sendung mit der Maus" with your son (soon sons) and any other TV Programs that the kids watch. I learned a huge amount when I watched these and others with my son when he was at that age.
When I first arrived here, and after my morning German lessons at University, I spent many an afternoon watching children's programmes. Also, took out children's books from the library and spent most weekends with my husband's nieces and nephews.
The 2nd son was born a few days ago.
@@conniebruckner8190 Yes! I also read a lot of children's books. They're great for learning and the good ones are written with adults as much in mind as with children in mind. After all, if adults are reading to kids, the adults have to enjoy it too. :-) Back then, I wrote translations of words in the page (not in library books), and I saw the number of words decrease with the number of pages! That alone was encouraging! One of the books was "Eine Woche Voller Samstage", and the sequels were also great. One thing that was so fun about it was how much it made fun of "typical German" (and many other) things. I later read that book and the sequels to my son, and when he learned to read, he read them repeatedly himself.
@TheBlackForestFamily Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Geburt eures Sohnes! Ich wünsche euch allen angemessene Ruhe (ich weiß, dass es nicht nur Ruhe sein soll ;-) ) und viel Freude.
@@arnodobler1096 Thanks
Russian is my native language, but I was in a special school in then-USSR that had English classes starting 2nd grade (8 y.o.). As Ashton pointed out in the video, emersion is very important -- I got a huge boost in my language abilities during a school exchange trip I took in high school. At age of 28 I moved to Poland so now this is the 3rd language I know.
German, English, French, Spanish... I am not watching your Videos for the language, but for he content and your way of presenting it. You are a great educator. ❤
Hello, My native language is german. Growing up close to the danish border, I started learning Danish and speak it at a mother tounge level.
We started learning English at school at the age of 12-13.
In my early twenties I learned Italian, which I now speak fluently as I live in Italy.
❤ PS: Thank you for the very well researched video. It was very interesting.
born in slovakia - thus i understand czech as well without any issues (but i don't really speak czech; they anyway understand slovak good enough)... learnt english and german in school, using english basically daily since i started working (i work for a german multinational corporation)... and now i live in germany (still working for the same german corporation, they have transfered me to germany) and speak german as well... basically i speak 3 languages, understand 4 (understand here means that i can read books/newspapers and watch videos/movies in these languages without any issues)
and no, i don't watch your videos to learn english - i watch them, because they are interesting, well researched and i always learn something new from your videos - just not english per se :)
I speak German (native) and English (C1). I learned Russian in school because it was mandatory at the time, but I barely know any of it anymore. I also tried Japanese, but only a few words are left.
I watch your videos because you give an outsiders look on Germany, which I find interesting.
1:39 Many Ukrainians speak natively Russian, not Ukranian. AFAIK Mila Kunis belongs to those. So Russian is simply her native language. She cannot read it because her parents emigrated to the US when she was 7.
As a Dutchy I speak Dutch obviously, English, German, a little French (enough to go around) and a few words of Spanish.
As a Dutchy people keep telling me that the Dutch are straight forward in sharing their opinion when asked but I think it is rudely and unheard off to start a conversation in English (Native or non-native speaker) and expecting people to understand you and expect them as well to answer you fluently in English as well, without excusing yourself not knowing the local language.
Now, where on earth did such a rude attitude come from..? Remember that knowing the language at least for a certain degree of the country you're visiting is a must. Don't expect local people to understand any foreign language at all, and remember that we, (the locals in Europe) effectively know one language well enough to express ourselves in and that would be our mother language.
The rest of the languages one learns much later at school, but barely ever is spoken, since we all speak the local language, and so is not practiced, and so becomes a language one does not or barely control, and so is a language one does not really master and so is not a language one likes to be forced into by foreigners whom demand fluent speakers of the language of their choice, since the little travel booklet told them we Europeans are all bi-lingual--> which is sadly not the case.
Growing up in Germany with a canadian dad, made me a natural bilingual. In school I learned french, but I've forgotten like everything. At best I could order a coke in a restaurant. Then a friend taught me some of his norwegian. It was so good and great. He moved away sadyly. But if I'd find a norwegian course i'd really would think of taking it. As a hobby. And if you can talk one of the 3 scandinavian languages, you'd get by with the other 2 as well due to their similarity
One thing that bothers me is that Americans often don't even make any effort with other languages. Not speaking a language is one, but not even trying to pronounce some simple words is quite another. This happens with videogame titles for example, like Einhänder, Herzog Zwei or God of War: Ragnarök.
It's actually always a good start if you speak the first few sentences in the respective language. .
Yup. Just learn a polite apology and "I don't speaking (local language) well, do you speak English?"
Lots of people will suddenly learn how to speak English if you approach them politely and open like that, hehehe.
They don't want to try to pronounce any new letter. No rolling r, no special characters that aren't that hard to say. They always have that american accent and they don't even think its noticible, but natives barely understand them because of it.
I’m an American who’s currently studying to be fluent in the following two languages: Spanish and Italian. In addition I’ve also studied the following for at least a semester’s worth of time: Mandarin, German, French, and Cantonese. I also studied Latin for three years. I alone instantly disprove the absolute nonsense and fallacy of your claims and I’m not the only one. Don’t assume and generalize
@davidlucas4136 okay, I agree that it is a generalisation, but it is still something I often see. Great for you though. Props.
Another great video. Thank you! I do have one tip: The language called "Hochdeutsch" has - here in Hannover - a clear LONG "o" in the first syllable. Have a lovely Mother's Day! ☺
And if they say "here in Hannover", they actually mean "here, where we speak Hochdeutsch". 😉
@@patrickhanft Tun sie auch! 😂
As a native Mongolian, I am fluent in both English and German, which makes it easier for me to communicate with people from different countries. I also have the ability to read Cyrillic and can understand a little bit of Russian.
I find English valuable as it enables me to explore the diverse perspectives and thoughts of people around the world. English serves as a bridge that connects various ideas and individuals, allowing me to engage with a broader range of information and experiences.
On the other hand, my experience with learning Spanish in school was not very successful, and I still struggle with it. However, I believe that in the future, I will undertake the task of learning Chinese, as I aspire to teach it to my future children.
I was born in Kazakhstan in a German family. This means we were speaking German at home and Russian outside. In 1988 I came to Germany, where I learned English and French at school. I continued to use English, but French I know only passively. As an adult, I spend a little bit more than a year living in Romania, where I learned to Romanian. I still use it. Although my level is probably not higher than A2. Now I have married an Afghan husband, and therefore I am learning Farsi. Learning languages is fun. It opens for you a new world of understanding and feeling about things.
I’m watching your videos because it is interesting to see my own culture from the perspective of a foreigner. I watch a lot of channels with intercultural content
I started listening to your content because of my interest in keeping my English fluent. But by now I very much appreciate your diligent research - no matter what topic you choose to present - I always feel my brain has had some training. I have very often thought you should be in the teaching profession somewhere because you have the gift to break down complicated topics in a way which makes what ever it is comprehensible. Kudos!
Alles Liebe zum Muttertag! ❤ Welcome, little Black Forrest family addition!
My native language is German. Languages at school (in order): English, Latin, French, Italian (extra curricular) and Spanish. I also took some Chinese classes at Volkshochschule, but forgot most of it. 😅 I went on studying English at university and also lived in the UK for a bit.
Now I'm so happy to be able to use English everyday in my job - I'd really miss it otherwise.
I grew up in the States with a German mother. I speak English and German and some Spanish. I had some French in school. I taught in an international school in the Dominican Republic which is where I mainly used German in the community, because at the time German speakers were the largest expat community there, and Spanish I was learning living there, even though the Lingua Franca of the school was English. My husband who grew up in Germany speaks German and English fluently. He is good at modern Greek because he studied in Greece, and took it in school. He also has a working knowledge of Latin, Italian, French and then worked on Spanish on our honeymoon in Mexico. He studied Russian in school, so now he is studying Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and Czech on Duolingo to see whether learning languages in the same family is easier. He thinks it helps. My mother speaks German and English fluently, and also studied Arabic, and Persian. My neighbor who is from Finland and is a translator speaks at least 8 languages, and her husband who is German and Egyptian speaks at least 8 languages as well, and is a prof of Near Eastern Studies at our neighborhood University. In fact, several of my friends are in that department and speak several languages as well. That is probably because our local university draws faculty and students from all over the world.
can't lie Jonathan sounds like he has learned German for one week
Great video as always! You asked at the end so I'll take it as feel-good request to list my languages as well. I speak Romanian (mother tongue), English (fluent), French (fluent in all but writing where I will certainly make a lot of grammatical mistakes haha), German (since I live here for 8 years now but I'd place it bellow french definitely), Korean (i would put this as above beginner since I don't use it as much and would need a good week or two in S. Korea to get it going again). I had Latin a few years in school but I think my understanding of Latin comes mostly from derriving from Romanian, Italian and Spanish. Speaking of the last two, I can hold basic conversations. After going a few times to Spain and Italy I am confident I could learn them super fast but I'll leave them at the occasional tourist gets free service level for now. I feel really priviledged to have been born in Romania and learn Romanian first since that language is such a good mix of multiple influences and that gave me an easier time learning other languages as well. When I was growing up in the 90s back home, cartoon network was in English with no subs, my best friend went to a mother language German school and watched a lot of RTL and ProSieben, my sister watched a lot of tellenovelas (fo Spanish), my mother was a French teacher and there are probably other influences there. I feel lucky and I wish more people challenge themselves to at least coversationally speak a few languages. I think it would make the world a better place
We went to a then non-touristy island in Greece many decades ago and the 9 year old(!) daughter was in charge of welcoming all the guests in English and sometimes in French. She told us she had learned English from watching TV (and French in kindergarten and school). As the all the cartoons and other shows had either no subtitles or she had not learned to read Greek yet, the boob-tube had become her foreign language teacher. We met several children at the shops also acting as interpreters. Here in Austria it is the children of immigrants who have to go along to doctors and official offices to act as interpreters for their parents.
My work helps people from other countries making their first steps in Germany. I cannot stress enough how important it is to learn the German language. Besides a couple of specialized jobs, you won't find high, or even average paying jobs if you don't speak German. Can you survive without German: yes, can you live without it: no.
P.S. German, English & Spanish.
I agree with this statement only to a certain extent. It really depends on your profession and the area where you live. If you work at a global firm in a major citiy and possibly in a job that assumes a high level of qualification you can live in Germany for years without learning the language. Work in IT at the Telekom in Berlin for instance and no German is needed. Most IT projects include foreign (American, Hungarian, Spanish or Chech) experts and the common language is Englisch. Major German cities are so international, that half of the conversations you overhear in the streets are not held in German. Here in Berlin we have plenty of cafe's and restaurants - and not only ethnic ones - where the waiters don't even speak German and expect you to order in English. I do agree however with both Ashton and you, that it makes things soo much easier and just more interesting and rewarding if you speak the language of the country you live in.
PS. Germain, English, French
@@aautrata lol. With that many „if‘s“ I’d call the job specialized.
Dear Ashton, the last few days I have watched some of your videos and want to thank you so much for your very informative and entertaining videos. The quality of your videos is far above the average standard of other „expat in Europe“ channels 👏🏻
Thank you for the comprehensive view.
One thing i like to mention is, that Americans often have Problems understanding the Englisch that is spoken globally.
I have done IT-Projects in a global Corporation, and in Phone or Video Conferences People from Brasil, France, Argentina, Italy could very well understand each other in english, while our American Co Workers often had to ask twice.
For your language statitics, German native, english on business level and resonable Spanish. For travelling i have a basic knoweledge of french, italian, portuguese and dutch.
First, congrats on your newborn! 🎉
Second, I speak quite a few languages: my native Slovak, and - as born and raised in Czechoslovakia before it split - Czech as well (not only understand, but also speak and write on C2 level). My third language is Polish, as I grew up on the Polish border, where I am somewhere on C1 level. And I'd say I am around C1 in English, too, though I don't have any official exam.
Where I do have an exam and a certificate is German, for the B2 level, which I needed for my Swiss permanent residence permit. Speaking of Switzerland, I understand Swiss German, particularly Basel/Baselbieterdütsch quite well now, but don't dare to speak it (to not endanger my neighbors with death from laughing 😂).
And there is a bunch of languages I speak on a touristy level (to greet people, ask/thank for something, order in a restaurant, ask for directions,...), in particular Russian (which I learnt in primary school, as it was mandatory at my time), French (which is an obvious choice, living in the Dreiländerecke), and - as as long time karate practicioner - Japanese (though I haven't been to Japan yet).
similar situation here ... born Slovak, I can use Czech to a decent degree, learned German and English. I can understand most German dialects and also quite a bit of Polish since it is a similar language to Slovak/Czech.
It is the situation with small countries/nations that they have to learn the languages of their neighbors to function properly :-) But that was mentioned in the video. If you are an American from the middle of the country, you'll most likely never meet a person that does not speak English.
Hello Ashton, hello Jonathan,
Congratulations again to your new family member! I hope you all are doing well?
I personally speak three languages, hochdeutsch, english and pfälzisch(our local dialect). 😀
In my opinion it crutial to start learning a second language as soon as possible.
Best regards Ralf
Hi Ralf! We are all at home and resting 💜
One of the big reasons why we enrolled Jack in Kita was so that he has exposure 5 days a week to native German speakers and can hopefully develop two "native languages" in tandem. When we were in the hospital with the newest little one, he spent one morning with our neighbor who has a son the same age as Jack and they spoke exclusively German together. Really cool to see. 💜💜
Great to hear that about the development of Jacks language skills! You made that absolutly right decision.
Pälzisch bitte, net pfälzisch❤😂
Great topic.. and also, congratulations again. Hope you're all doing well.
I couldn't even give you a number on how many languages I 'speak' and I'll elaborate on that.
I'm from the German part of Switzerland and my mother tongue is Swiss German. As such, my first foreign language was high German. Also, learning French at school was mandatory but my french is rather weak. Passive knowledge np but active not so much.
My strongest foreign languages are English (learned at school and during 1 year at uni in England) and Estonian (learned during an exchange year). Other than that, I also learned Latin and Spanish (school), Portuguese (picked up on the fly through Portuguese co workers) and Russian (Uni plus quite a bit of exposure in Estonia). I also understand quite a bit of Italian, Finnish and many Slavic languages just through exposure and knowing related languages.
The language that is mostly like a second mother tongue to me, is Estonian as I learned it solely through immersion and only know how to read and write because it is 100% phonetic. Still I'm probably more fluent in English because I use it far more often. And the hardest thing you can ask of me is translating Estonian to English as Estonian words aren't linked to other words like with English where words have a coupling to their high German counterparts.
So yeah, it's complicated.. 😊
WOW! That is AMAZING! You remind me quite a bit of our good friends. The husband is Dutch, wife is Lithuanian, and they live in Switzerland (where at work they must speak both French and German). Between the two of them at home, they choose to speak English - but at work, speak German and French. Their daughter is learning German from her father, Lithuanian from their mother, and french at school.
I am Colombian and I am native in Spanish, have English as my second and German as my third languges. I do as well have learned some Italian, French, Portuguese and Russian to communicate better with my friends here in Europe. My brother lives in Europe as well and he does know even more languages than I do (namely 6 fluently and some others by curiosity). I watch these videos because of the great contrasts you make about US and German cultures, I end up learning a lot about both ❤
This commentsection full of internationals all writing in more or less perfect english is actually the best prove for the content of the video.
It always blows me away at how eloquent and well versed some audience members are in foreign languages.
In linguistics, bi- or multilingualism is defined by the languages that are aquired rather than learned or teached. A "second/third/n-th language" is one you get automatically by contact with native speakers (like parents, neighbors, friends, kindergardeners) during childhood, while languages you _actively_ learn are considered "foreign languages". In that regard, the Cencus Bureau's definition of multilingualism is actually a bit closer to the academic definition than simply counting what language you are able to understand and/or communicate with.
Ah that actually makes a lot of sense and is super interesting. I would wonder if the German definition then adopts this same standpoint.
@@TypeAshton I work as a language service provider and no one in my field considers themselves bilingual when they haven't aquired the language on native or near-native level as a child. I would never call myself multilingual although I speak several languages.
Hi!
I'm a Venezuelan living in Spain, so my native language is Spanish. I speak English as a second language, and I watch this kind of videos to practice 👍🏽. I learned how to speak English over 20 years ago, so I use videos, movies, books, magazines... anything that can help me to maintain my level and (why not) keep learning, since languages are alive and they never stop evolving ☝🏽
Frisian is not german.
It is not hard to measure if a people or person is bilanguage or understand a language. You measure how well a person understand the words and vocabulary.
Sweden didn't have a official language since it was was just viewed that we speak swedish and it wasn't viewed necessary, until 1 july 2009. Swedish was the language was out of as we say of hävd/Usucaption.
The Louisiana Creole or French was really mistread in the USA the same with swedish speakers.
Youl talk about how large the hispanic is in USA. But you call yourself american bet say that your an estor is from germany are you really a american. And not all american are not amercan bet french dusch. And can't be a one part something.
Texas was once spanish Florida was once spanish. New Orleans was french New Amsterdam was dusch.
Interesting as always. I'm American born and though my grandparents spoke other languages as well as english (German, Italian, Yiddish) we never spoke anything but english at home. I had French in high school, as did my wife and when we went to France 35 years ago we were completely lost and unable to understand what was spoken to us because they spoke so fast we couldn't even pick out words we knew and very little on the menus matched up with what we learned in school. It was also a time that the French weren't particularly fond of the US so absolutely no one would speak English to us except in the hotel in Paris. As we drove around France for a week we managed to find everything on our trip but we didn't find out that the US had bombed Libya until we were on our British Airways plane flying to London. Fast forward to more recent times and our more recent trips to France the locals were very friendly and many spoke english. My daughter is now fluent in German as she has lived there for a few years, but she says that the locals, in Mannheim speak a dialect of German that even many of her German friends can't figure out a lot of the time, because even though they learn Hochdeutsch in school they speak Mannheimer (Palatine German) at home and then rarely use the standard German. Actually so many Germans (at least younger ones) that she encountered speak english that she had a hard time using German because as soon as someone realized she wasn't German they switched to english.
Plattdeutsch and frysian ARE different languages, not just dialects!
Is no Frysian closer tae English as ane wast germanic leid mair nor Deutsch?
@miamha Frysian is the language closest to english.
Great video 😊 As a Norwegian I have studied English in school since the age of 10 (since 1994 Norwegian kids have English as a compulsory subject from the age of 6, 1st grade) but I did start learning on my own before I was 10 because I’ve always been a bit of a language buff 😊 I ended up studying English at uni and now teach it in high school 🤓 So I watch your videos not to learn but because I enjoy many of the topics you address (genealogy, city planning, languages). As for other languages, I did two years of French in middle school (only remember bits of it), three years of German in high school (can read and understand about 90% of spoken, but do not speak it because grammar), started learning Spanish at 35 (I’m 46 now and teach Spanish as well) and started learning Italian at 42 (am totally in ❤ with it, and am probably at about a B1. I take at least two online conversation lessons a week to keep progressing) So, four and a half languages I would say 😊 Also, you are never to old to learn a new language!
I was raised with and speak Dutch, but my English is probably just as good and i use it extensively for work and consume most media in English.
Additionally I speak some German and can read and understand it well. My French is very very basic (though i can still read it).
I learned some ancient greek and Latin in high school as well and all that actually helps a lot with recognizing some words in some of the other languages in europe.
Watching to see Germany from US perspective, enjoy the good content plus the unique topics you cover in such a high quality
I like the recommendation I read somewhere to learn four languages:
1) a lingua franca (English)
2) a language of historical importance (e.g. Latin, or in my case French)
3) a regional language (for me, that's Czech)
4) one just for fun (Swedish)
Except for English, I'm not really proficient in any of those, though... only basic communication.
Mine look like this (an American):
1. The Lingua Franca (Spanish) [I'm in Texas, Latin Americans often take the same attitude to English learning that Anglos do to Spanish learning.]
2. Historical Importance/Serious Hobby (German) [My intended 2nd language to learn, and very useful for understanding older works of English literature that took the bizarre sentence patterns anyway.]
3. The Blowoff Hobby/F*&k with Native Speakers of #1 and #2 that don't have the decency to not switch to English when I'm talking to them in their language dammit, and sorry the accent isn't 100% perfect! (Russian)
5. Auxiliary (What Else is needed in the moment)
2:17 if anyone wanted to convince you that Plattdeutsch or Frisian were merely dialects, they would be wrong. They ARE distinct languages on their own.
"Wir können alles, ausser Hochdeutsch" 🙂
("We can do everything except High German". A former Slogan of the state of Baden-Württemberg)
The funny thing about this slogan is that, their local dialect is High German. Even Austrian and Swiss dialects are High German. The only people not speaking High German are in the North, speaking Low German.
This confusion happens because colloquially we use the terms "Standard German" and "High German" interchangeably.
@@frankmeyer1473 : I agree. "High German" is imho a inappropriate translation of "Hochdeutsch". It just means standard German.
Well, I'm speaking the "High German" dialect Alemannic. :-) When I'm visiting northern Germany (ok, meaning: Every state northern to BW and Bavaria :-) = "Weisswurstäquator") and I'm really doing my best to speak "High German", I'm often get asked: "Are you from Switzerland?" Because accidentally I'm using some southern German words, phrases or it's just because of my grammar 🙂
If you think, Americans are bad at foreign languages, try to get around in Argentina or elsewhere in South America with English, especially outside the capitals!
That is what my husband encountered. I had to do all the translating!
Great video as usual! Being from India and now lived Germany and Switzerland, I was already tetralingual, if that’s a word i.e. 4 languages (English, Hindi, Bangla, Odia) and now German. Yes! English is our native language as well 😂 In India it is actually expected to know more than one language. It’s funny ‘cause here in Europe people are impressed by that but Indians are not usually impressed 😂 Such an interesting phenomenon.
You’re from Orissa? Just wondering, since my family is from there.
I am from Kolkata but my parents are from Odisha 😊 I am a hybrid of Bengali and Odia 😄
@@sudipdas9389 cool 😎; it is very rare that I encounter another Indian with Oriya ancestry unless it is through my parents/relatives
@@abinashmishra329 Glad to hear that man, cheers!
"Quadrilingual" is the correct word.
Hej , I am from Québec and now live in Danmark . My first language is of course French , I had to learn English at school but got really fluent when I went to an English speaking university.. Later after two years of teaching , I went back to university to do a bachelor in Spanish. My last sessions was in Salamanca ( Spain ) and I got fluent there. Before leaving Europe and go back to Canada , I went to Murnau (Bayern ) and took 5 months of German in the Goethe institut,. I am still speaking German pretty good even after more than 35 years.. From there I came to Danmark and got Married ,I speak Danish as a native with a little accent. With the help of my danish , I can easily read Swedish and Norvegian and understand the most of what people say but , I have never tried to speak those languages. living in Danmark and having lots of vacation I travelled to Italy 5 - 6 times and now speaks Italian easily but still makes a few mistakes and I am missing some vocabulary. I also went twice to Portugal ( 3 months in all ) , when I am there I only speak Portuguese with the people and get by quite easily .
To learn languages is like everything else , you have to want to learn , use a lot of time and dedication and practice every time you have the opportunity..
Hope all is going well with the newest black forest family member and everyone is getting enough rest and bonding time!!
In the Netherlands the benefits of speaking a second language is well understood and if im not mistaken both Dutch and English are mandatory with French and German optional.
Also they start at a much younger age then when i was in school (many many moons ago 😂) granted kids nowadays are way more exposed to other languages then we ever where (like through music etc).
Dutch and at least one modern foreign language are mandatory, the latter usually defaults to English, but French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese and Arabic are also allowed. There may be even more allowed languages, but it is very rare to encounter those at school in the Netherlands.
It is important to note that deciding against an official language can in fact be an endorsement of monolingualism.
If the US declared English as an official language there would be more grounds for civil rights activism and discrimination claims, pressuring the government to adopt some other widely spoken languages as official languages in order to not discriminate minorities.
If the US had several official languages, the government would be obliged to provide all legal documents in these languages and people would be entitled to carry out all kinds of interactions with the governments, in these languages. Bureaucracy would be multilingual. The courts would be multilingual. Official languages mean obligations.
By simply opting out of an official language in the first place, the US don't really put themselves in the situation where they have to provide any language in particular. They don't owe anyone anything. They can conveniently lean back and go "well as it happens, all the government interaction just happens to be in English. But that is just incidental. Of course English doesn't have more rights here! On paper English is equal to all other languages!"
Languages open doors that you otherwise could not enter. I would have never be able to work in Canada if i would not have improved my English skills or could not even follow your Videos. Also i think that learning another language also means respecting another culture on a Personal level. Also here in Germany we love to See that people at least try it out. Language and Music are the corner Stones of Personal Interaktion. On the other Hand i think it is a life long process until auf Grab all the fine nuances a language has to express yourself in it❤
I wish there was greater foreign language opportunities both in and out of the classroom in the US. I grew up in a VERY rural part of the US and German wasn't even offered to us as an option (not enough students or teachers to make a class useful).
I didn't take my first German class until my late 20s and my brain already felt like a dried sponge.
@@TypeAshton But living in a country where you need the language is a great help and speaking it casually 'all the time' is much more helpful than class learning only.
@@TypeAshton The other thing is: Why would you possibly learn a foreign language in the rural USA? There is basically no need for that, unless you want to leave (for the great great outside world)...🤷♂
@@TypeAshton That was the case before Internet. Nowadays it's easy to take private lessons with a native speaker anywhere in the world, no matter where you live. It's just a matter of dedication and available time.
Don't forget another important advantage of being multilingual. It's good for both the development of the young brain, and for older people, as the more languages you master, the less chance to develop dementia! English is indeed a worldwide standard language, but it's always fun when you're able to talk to others in their native language. As a Belgian, I speak fluent Dutch, French, German and English, and a bit Spanish. Being multilingual is pretty common in Europe, as many at least speak two languages. Quite a few countries have two or more official languages. Since most study the second official language of their country at school (often mandatory) and usually add English to that, they are equipped quite well to communicate abroad. What also seems to help is that, at least in my country, all movies or docs in other languages are never dubbed, and always the original language subtitled. I also lived 12 years in Germany in the 80s & 90s, and all tv series, also the English ones, were dubbed in German. A bit weird, if you ask me, and I believe that's "tinkering" with the authenticity of the movie, and a disadvantage when it comes to learning foreign languages. Fun fact, I still recognize/link many of the famous 1980s German voices and their resp. English actor, used in U.S. series of that era. Probably part of the nostalgia of living over there.
Having learned many languages also helps if you should ever suffer a stroke.
In my family, it helped in three cases already to recover the ability to speak fluently.
Foreign Languages and music can be amazing for memory loss. Just yesterday we watched a documentary on how dementia patients can forget plain spoken words, but if sung in song can remember them perfectly. The brain truly is amazing!
@@TypeAshton Don't get me started! Indeed, memory can be amazing. I had a serious accident with TBI in 2019. Complete memory loss, lost my entire life history, but neurologist said that was the least of my problems, "short term memory will be your problem". And most long-term memory (my hard drive) indeed came back. The short term "RAM" is still a problem and will probably remain so. A weird thing is that I still often cannot come up with a word in my own native language (Dutch), but can istantly say the English or German version (althigh I and my colleauges returned from German +20 years ago, we often talk German or used german words, just for fun. Might help. I also have more trouble typing in my own Dutch, often wrong or switched letters in a word, similar to dyslexia. Also curious, I don't have that issue when writing in English, probably because when I write/type, it's mostly for my website in Englsh, and rarily in Dutch. And maybe, those other four languages, most only learned in my late teens, are stored somewhere else and readily available? There are several documented examples of people that suffered serious brain injury and suddenly have a foreign accent or even speak a language they didn't knew before. So weird! What I learned during my TBI rehab is that our brain is truly amazing and processes so many things behind our brack we don't have a clue of.. until you have a brain injury. My damage is permanent, all over the brain (white areas on fMRI) en will never heal, but other parts take over some stuff. In rehab, you learn to use tricks to improve memory storage by using other functions than usual (f.i. writing down to "store" instead of hearing and storing, etc). Meanwhile, I again remember tiny details from my childhood, but no idea what I ate yesterday (dispy my wife being a fantastic cook). Have lost all my guitar chords, many names of friends, but still can sing along with songs in Spanish?! Driving a car was initially too complex, but now again no problem. There's also a funny congenital "issue", I'm left-handed but in the 60s we were forced to write right-handed in school. Result: my writing in awfull, but when I write with my left hand, from right to left (wrong direction) then I have a very beautifull writing in mirror (Da Vincy style), and I still can wirte like that after my accident, haha! The brain is even so flexible, that even an American learns to drive in narrow german streets ;-) Seriously, Ashton and Jonathan, think about how much you learned to do automatically in Germany, it's mind boggling! Fact is, the more you learn (languages, instruments, crafts, social interactions, the more resilient your brain becomes. Your Jack, growing up bilingual and bicultural, already has an advantage over U.S. kids. If you teach Jack to play an instrument, he'll outsmart you both😉
I ama Greek living in Luxembourg. I speak Greek, English,Spanish German and French. My children already speak Greek, Luxembourgish, German,French and English and learning words from a half a dozen other languages through their multi international friends🙂
There is an American journalist named Erik Kirschbaum who is on German TV quite a bit. He has been living in Germany since the late 80s but still speaks German with a heavy American accent, as if he were chewing gum while speaking. I'm like, dude, what's up with that?! When I moved to the U.S. as a non-native English speaker, my accent was largely gone after a year or so.
A person who speaks two languages is bilingual. If three languages, trilingual. If one language, American.
😂😂😂😂❤🎉
the reason im watching your channel: i do have alot of friends in america, and also in the usa. it is fascinating for me to see how you approach and think about things we have, i do have the feeling i get a deeper understanding of what makes my american and us friends tick.
I can’t really relate to the idea of feeling privilege because everybody would address me in my first language. I’ve always enjoyed listening to, and trying to speak, foreign languages. When I travel, I’ll prefer going abroad for this very reason. I will prefer going to countries where I do speak and understand the language, because the feeling of immersion is so good. But I also enjoy the Internet because it enables me to practice my foreign languages, and I will use at least two of them every day.
The benefits of multilingualism go far beyond practical application, and I’m sorry for people who only see the utilitarian perspective. Practicing multiple languages is good for your brain, and getting used to making extra efforts to understand another human being certainly has psychological benefits as well. There is a quote attributed to Charlemagne that to possess another language is to possess another soul, and I would subscribe to that. When I started working for a company where most of the work got done in French, for a few months it felt like someone else was doing the work for me - no kidding. The extra effort that I had to make was more than compensated by learning new expressions and vocabulary every day.
Native German. Learned English in school and from American relatives. My wife is half French, learned bits n pieces of French in school as well. Also I now got relatives in France, so that's a no brainer to just be able to speak it.
I like the positive tone of your videos, find it interesting to see, how your life in Germany goes, what you experience and how you feel as Americans. The YT algorithm seems to understand quite well, which languages I understand in order to provide refommendations; which I also find kinda interesting.
Keep up the good work.
As always a very informative video.
But it is not yet certain that english will remain the lingua franca. E.g. in African countries that speak French, the population is increasing and could displace English as the most spoken language on the African continent.
First, congrats on your newborn! 🎉 I learned english in school, but using that skill a lot it get lost over the years. The reason why i watch and more importantly understand videos like this here today is i decided years ago to stay away from german TV and watch most stuff i like online/streaming in english. At first with german subtitles, but after a while i turned them off. Of course listing is not the same as speaking a language, but a few years ago a had the chance to test my english with a guy from australia and he was pretty impressed by my english skills and the desent conversation we had that day. so, yes beside online classes to learn english, it will took it liitle longer, but watching your every day tv shows in english will help to improve your skills.
Some people (on a certain island) would add english to the list :P
Maybe even only a certain part of that certain island.
Kind regards Christiaan
I'm 78. I took German for 3 years in American High School in the early 60's. I took 2 more years in college. In all that time I never met a German speaking person other than 3 teachers. No internet, so I slowly lost what German I had learned. I might add the city I live in sent a busload of students - 4 high schools' worth - to a competition in a nearby university. I got the highest score for my city, so I wasn't bad at learning. So, where I live in Illinois is a longer trip to the next closest state, Indiana than it is from Berlin to Poland. Face it, America is big. You could fit most of Europe in the Dakotas. They compare Germany to the size of Texas. So it isn't Americans' fault they don't speak multiple languages. We just don't have the opportunity Europeans have.
Defining "bilingual" as "speaking a non-English language at home" isn't just misleading, it's as wrong as it gets. It doesn't even include the most fundamental requirement of knowing more than one language. By that definition a Mexican immigrant who speaks exactly one language, Spanish, is counted as "bilingual". But of course only a cynic would accuse the US government of attempting to sell the results of uncontrolled mass migration as an improvement in national education. After all, governments never lie.
I am Dutch, and speak English as a second language. I also learned German and French at school, and at work I deal with a lot of Portugese truck-drivers, so I started learning Portugese as well. It's fun to learn new skills, but it's a must for me to have the language playground, to test my skills on native-speakers of that language, otherwise I won't know if I learned correctly.
I am German by birth and came to Canada as at the age of 13. I had taken minimal English classes in school in Germany, but learned Canadian English growing up. We continued to speak Pfalzisch or Plattdeutsch at home, but I heard and read German books in Hochdeutsch. Although I lost complete fluency due to German magazines adopting a lot of English terms and tech words, I continue to be "fluent" in German, even though the German speaking part of my family has now passed away. I love your show, because my youngest so;n and I would love to go to live in Germany or Europe in general. You have inspired his interest in learning about European culture and their social and economical ideals. Thank you, Vielen Dank.
Hey I‘m a german native speaker and I do also speak English, French (learned in school), Spanish (I have relatives in Mexico) and Russian (my wife was born there). And I actually watch your videos because I like the way you give insights into everything around Germany that the Germans themselves often don’t see. Plus your explanations are so good that I actually understand better how my own country works :)
At school, I learnt English, Latin and French - later on, I had a boyfriend from Latin America and decided to learn Spanish. When I was a small girl, my family went on holiday to Italy, where I got to know an Italian girl my age and we kept the connection, thus I have a passing understanding of Italian (of course facilitated by Latin, French and Spanish.
The reason I watch your channel is I find the outsider's view on my country interesting - and I very much appreciate the well researched content. So please keep going!
I am a Brit. I speak also Dutch & German fluently, plus Italian, French, Norwegian, Mexican Spanish, Czech & Romanian at lower levels, but sufficient to survive. And a few words in Farsi. The biggest mistake of all is to miss copying the correct pronunciation and inflection of a language. Speaking German fluently with a strong British accent does not work well 😬
I came to Germany age 10 and learned it pretty fast with some Neue Deusche Welle Music ^^. I was able to understand English from an early age via MTV and other TV, which came after 90ies democracy came to southeast Europe and Games and the computers in the internet cafés when I was young. Originally, I am from Bulgaria and speak Bulgarian fluently and am able to understand not only this but many other Slavic languages as well. And because my family moved to south Germany, I learned Oberbayrisch, but do also understand Schwäbisch because I've been living in this area as well. We spoke both languages at home, Bulgarian and German, but I went to Italian and Russian classes, learned French for 3 years and got my DELF Certificate with my Mittlere Reife and later at University some Spanish as well. So yes, I am a total European multilanguage cliché.^^
I was born to a family of German, English and Polish descent, learning French and Castilian (aka Spanish) later in school with an interest in (at least trying) to understand and speak different languages aswell. To the Franco-German Friendship Treaty I would also like to point out that some school even allow not only to make the Abitur but also the Baccalauréat which is its French equivalent which requires having subjects that are tought in both German and French (in my case History and Politics & Economics).
It’s quite interesting, something similar happens in my country, Mexico, recently, we have more people, young people, who are able to speak a second language, usually English, but the older generations, even, my own generation (I’m 31), is quite rare to find people who speak a language other than Spanish, because Mexico is also quite large geographically speaking and you could live a nice a long life here without ever having the need to go outside, besides, in Latin America there are many many countries who also speak Spanish, I think recent times have made language learning easier and more accessible and that’s a good thing in my view
I am fluent in Jive, Pig Latin, and Houstonian Jibberish
My first language is German, I moved to Canada when I was 5. I moved back to Germany in 2002 for work and was able to communicate in German but the primary language was English. My German background was very helpful with my accent as I was able to pronounce German words with more accuracy and became somewhat of an anomaly in our company with my German capability. It was a very unique experience for me to see employees from the UK and the USA struggling with German. I have also learned that language is very important to learn at a young age. My daughters have learned German, English, and Spanish, being born in Germany and now living in the USA as of 2015. This will be an advantage for them as they move forward in life. Please do not consider my next comment negative. Your German is very American. I do however love that you are learning and want to learn! This is very rare among Expatriates. I love this channel and watching your family discover all that is great in Germany! I only moved to the USA as I was transferred by my company to do big things.
As a German, I learnt English at grammar school (alongside French and Latin). For 7 years. In the end, I could read Shakespeare's plays, but I couldn't buy a piece of bread (A slight exaggeration). Teachers who taught a foreign language were not language teachers, at least at my days, but linguists. To this day, I can read and write English better than I can understand and speak it. We spoke German in English lessons, but mostly wrote in English in class tests.
Fantastic video! English native speaker, learned German and French in school but retain only a tourist-level proficiency, and Thai at home with my husband.
Hungarian, german, english, french, and a bit polish. In Hungary you need at least one foreign language exam to get your university degree, so theoretically every hungarian with a diploma speaks at least one other language
Hey Ashton. Informative Video as usual. To answer your question at the end. I am a native German but I like the English language a lot. I consume a lot of English media just to maintain my listening comprehention. I used to be in a relationship with a guy from North Carolina and tipped my toe into the American culture back than, liked it and miss it now. Following you guys is part of my way to not forget.
I'm German and those are the languages I speak:
German (native speaker)
English
Basic French
Super basic Spanish
Polish (just started learning it after reconnecting with the Polish side of my family)
And I understand a lot of Lauenburger Platt.
Native Hungarian, learned German in school for almost 10 years in school, also have mixec (HU-DE) cousins and a german uncle, speak english fluently since around age 14, and am currently living in Italy, and attending uni here, in Italian.
English and Russian. Watch your channel because of the fascination of your journey. The fact that you fully assemilated into the German culture and persevered through the difficulties of German, continues to inspire me to keep learning Russian.
today i noticed the first time that the " Black Forest Family " has changed and it has split , and you Ashton have your own "show"and i understand why. Your own contribution is
very academic and i think you are doing a great job collecting a lot of information first before going "on air "I am always enthusiastic seeing your point of view on all sorts of topics.
keep on digging !!!
Thank you so much!
GRATULIERE! Your "Tschüss" is top level😊
I am German, living in Portugal... but I am learning more English than ever before because my preferred TV Channels are broadcasted in English with Português Subtitels... at least I found out that Português language and English have more lingual roots in common then I ever would have imagined! And sometimes Main words are easy to tell, you only have to change the pronounciation and the ending. Very diffent to German sometimes tho.😂
Those common lingual roots aren't really surprising, Portuguese is a Romance language and a large part of the English vocabulary is also of Romance origin thanks to William of Normandy and his victory at Hastings in 1066.
My interest in foreign languages was sparked in 1975, when I was a preteen. Along with my Dad and one of my brothers, I was paying my Mom a visit in her hospital room, which she shared with an elderly Armenian woman who spoke only French. So, imagine my surprise when my Dad went over to chat with this woman, speaking fluent French!!! (It was some years later that I fully learned that my late father learned French - and German - through his military service in Europe during World War II with the U.S. Army.)
In high school, I studied Spanish for 2 years. Later, in college, I studied German for 2 years. Then from my travels in Brazil over the past 36 years, I developed a deep interest in português. Learning Portuguese and using it in my interactions with Brazilians has deepened my respect and love for Brazil, its history, people and culture.
I am late to respond to your question
Why I watch your videos. But wanted to answer nevertheless. I am German and am watching you videos because they are awesome. I love your approach on things. Every subject is well researched. Continue doing great work.