The Script German

In tradition of the scriptfamily, I am here for writers to ask about everything German. Header by the lovely scriptbrit!

[mapsontheweb]

Germany Intercity Rail Network, 2020.

[awordwasthebeginning]

@official-german-translationen

How I love that German has a rather long word for ‘car insurance’ but merely three letters for ‘existential despair and the meaninglessness of life’.

[official-german-translationen]

Priorities

[antarestyl]

if you use a word more often you gotta shorten that shit down.

Same goes for “Somehow we are doing this, don’t worry, I am sure this will going to be alright” which is just “Wird” or if you wanna be fancy “Wird schon”

Or “things are going quite okay for me, there is stability and movement forward” which is “läuft”

Or the all important “Wasn?” which means “What is the cause for you contacting me and what can I do to help you?”

Or “My dear friend what is happening right in front of our eyes/ the thing that is happening is most impressive”: “Alter!”

[awordwasthebeginning]

Isso.

:D

[scriptgerman]

Hey :) Ich hab in den Notes von dem einen Quiz gesehen, dass du angeboten hast, die Anspielungen zu erklären und da hätte ich direkt ein paar Fragen, wenn du Zeit und Lust hast die zu beantworten :) Was ist das Hörspiel mit Copyrightproblemen? Bei der "aesthetic"-Frage hab ich nur Schuh des Manitu und Traumschiff Surprise erkannt, und bei den Liedern nur Schrei nach Liebe. Kannst du mir bei den anderen weiterhelfen? Und gibt es irgendwas Besonderes an Heidi Klums Stimme? Danke schon mal! xx

Hey, na klar hab ich Zeit (und das war eine angenehme Pause zwischen den Dingen die ich grad so tun muss :D)! Ich hoffe, es ist okay dass ich deine Ask öffentlich beantworte :) 

Für alle anderen – die Fragen hier beziehen sich auf das Quiz in diesem Post (LINK)

Bei dem Hörspiel mit Copyrightproblemen dachte ich, dass das eine allgemeine Anspielung auf die Copyright-Gesetze sind, nicht auf ein bestimmtes Hörspiel. Also mehr so im Sinne von “die Copyright-Gesetze werden so streng verfolgt, dass ich jetzt hier keinen bestimmten Protagonisten nennen kann, wenn ich keine Probleme kriegen will”. Es kann aber genauso gut sein, dass das eine Anspielung ist, die ich nicht kenne. bei den “aesthetics”: “shirtless gangsters, filling notebooks with cool words and phrases, questionable but effective teaching methods, howling quietly” ist glaube ich Fack ju, Göhte, obwohl es ne Weile her ist, seit ich den Film gesehen habe und mich partout nicht daran erinnern kann worauf die “shirtless gangsters” anspielen… “bad boys who only care about sex, accidental feelings, stories and faces so familiar it feels like you’ve watched them ten times before, plush animals without ears” - Keinohrhasen! Kein Till Schweiger Fan, hmm? :DD

Bei den Songs: I suppress my tears to be free again // I can be alone, you know that // And yet I have planes in my stomach - musste ich auch nachgucken, ist von Oli P. “Flugzeuge im Bauch”, das mir total unbekannt ist… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTg3TIAmFUk

Is it the one with the big sweater on, dude? // No, it's the woman who can't make it on Fridays - Fanta 4, “Die da!?!” Klassiker ;) (Oh Gott, die Jungs sehen so jung aus in dem Video :DDD) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ljcXBTFcFA

It's crazy how nicely you keep silent // How you tilt your pretty little head // And thus give the whole noisy world and me the cold shoulder - Wir sind Helden, Nur ein Wort (Hab das gerade nochmal angehört und jetzt hab ich nen Ohrwurm, mist :DD) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqywY8Wgvk8

Und an Heidi Klums Stimme gibts eigentlich nichts besonderes, die wird nur von vielen als ziemlich anstrengend wahrgenommen :)

Hoffe es ist trotz Corona alles bäm bei dir! ;)

[spacerhapsody]

i made a what untranslatable german word are you quiz because some things just can’t be translated (pop culture references in online personality quizzes, for instance)

[didthedevilturnup]

[scriptgerman]

this is a fun little quiz with obscure german pop culture references! have fun taking it & feel free to ask me about stuff it references!

[scriptgerman]

hey i know you may be too busy to answer but just in case.. well i have a few children in my story. a couple in primary school but also a bunch in secondary school. i found out there are no school uniforms. but when i search pictures, i find all kinds of 'uniform' that are apparently called 'school clothing'. but they pretty much look like traditional uniforms to me?? i can't tell what's the difference?

Hey there! I’m still around, just not as often as I’d want to be!

As for your question – You’re right in that German schools generally don’t have school uniforms. (I don’t want to say never, because there may be some private schools out there or something that have some form of school uniform. But that is unusual.) I’m not entirely sure what pictures you found, my own quick google with likely terms gave me mostly pictures of what seem to be British school uniforms?

So this is a guess, but I think you may have found pictures of pupils in “branded” school clothes, in that it has the logo, name & sometimes the motto of the school? In which case the answer to “What is the difference between these and traditional uniforms?” is that a) they’re not mandatory to wear and b) they’re not even mandatory to own. It’s usually a gimmick. I think I still have a sweater like that somewhere, which I wore like, ten times total, because it turned out super small and thus wasn’t really comfortable to wear. I think one of the only reasons I bought one in the first place was the fact that it was a new thing? This is probably the case with most schools – I don’t think my brother ever owned a school sweater other than his graduation sweater. Again, there may be schools out there that have some kind of mandatory dress code, but it’s not very common.

I hope this helps, but feel free to clarify if this isn’t what you meant!

AK

{EDIT: Apparenty there is something called “Schulkleidung”, which tends to be a collection of clothes that students can choose from and can give input on, rather than a fixed outfit? As per the internet, a small handful of public school has a variation of these, as well as some private schools.}

[germanlanguagerocks]

Does Germans youth every any short words like us. In example we say LOL = laugh out loud. Idk = I don't know ttyl= Talk to you later. gtg = Got to go. WTF = What the fudge. ? thanx.

We use (also English ones):

lol (laughing out loud)

thx (thanks)

wtf (what the fuck)

gg? (Gehts gut?)

Wm(s)? (Was machste (so)?)

bb (byebye)

hdl (hab dich lieb)

hdgdl (Hab dich ganz doll lieb; auch: Hab dich gedisst, du Loser :P)

ida (Ich dich auch)

guk (Gruss und Kuss)

ly (love you)

lysm (love you so much)

ABF (Allerbeste/r Freund/in)

BF (Beste/r Freund/in)

Fuuu (F*ck)

fy (F*ck you)

Mlg (Mit lieben Grüssen)

Mfg (Mit freundlichen Grüssen)

HDF (Halt die Fresse)

stfu (shut the fuck up)

ily (I love you)

kA (keine Ahnung)

LG (Liebe Grüsse)

Lm(f)ao (Laugh my (f*cking) ass off)

OMG (Oh my God)

Sry (Sorry)

vllt (vielleicht)

Yolo

[scriptgerman]

I have a character born and raised in Canada and has the accent. How much of a difficulty would it be for a ethnic German to understand them speaking German with the accent. (Side-note: Not French Canadian accent.)

You tell me, Nonnie.

No, seriously. This isn’t a question I can answer for you, as it depends on the German your Canadian is speaking as well as how used the German is to speaking with people with (foreign) accents.

Sorry I couldn’t be of more help and good luck with your story!

AK

[scriptgerman]

I heard about German street addresses have no numbers, just the person's name. So, how does changing your address work? Can you even receive mail meant for a previous occupant? That is definitely a scenario I need for my story.. How about families sharing an address, then you can't write your friend's name if it's another family member on the address?? Then where do they put your friends name??

Hey there Nonnie!

You heard wrong - our street adresses have both the occupant’s name and a number! At least such is the case everywhere I lived and the only exception I can think of would be really small villages. I delivered post for a local mailing business for a bit (as opposed to the Deutsche Post, which still delivers the bulk of mail in Germany), but it’s basically the same:

The adress on an envelope looks like this:Max MustermannMusterstraße 35a12345 Musterstadt

(”Muster” literally means exemplary, btw. Variations of this adress can be found everywhere.)

Now, when I was delivering mail, I was told that I’m not to deliver mail if the (last) name on the mail isn’t the one on the mailbox. However, not every mailbox is labelled and as you mentioned, there might be people in residency who’s name hasn’t made it on the mailbox (yet), etc. Standard practice for where I worked was to ask for the recipient at least once and after that delivering the mail as usual. I’m not sure if that’s only company policy or something the Deutsche Post does as well, or if they just don’t care all that much.

Now, to answer your other questions:

Change of adress: When moving, you have to register your new adress with the municipality. That has nothing to do with getting mail, no mailing business gets a note of that change. You can, however, notify your local mailing businesses (or only Deutsche Post) of your change of adress and have your mail automatically send to your new adress. That costs some money, but theoretically, you get all your mail to the new adress for some time (half a year to 18 months or something). Now, where I worked I got a piece of paper with changed adresses, but I think the machine’s supposed to catch the old adress, pull the mail and it gets re-addressed and the paper was just for the mail that slipped through. Anyway, to receive your mail at your new adress in the long run, you’ll have to register the change with the sender.

Can you even receive mail meant for a previous occupant? Yes, you can. Typically, this is something that happens shortly after moving - after some point the mailman catches on, usually. However, every now and again a piece of mail slips through - my parents actually got mail (junk mail, from the looks of it) for the previous occupants up to 5 years after they moved into their place.

How about families sharing an address, then you can’t write your friend’s name if it’s another family member on the address? If your friend shares the family name with the other occupants (aka the one on the mailbox), you just put their name in the place of “Max Mustermann”. If your friend doesn’t share a last name, it should still arrive, even if the name on the mailbox is not the same. To make sure though, or if it’s a care facility/ institution you send the mail to, you can add a line to the address:

Max Mustermannc/o BeispielMusterstraße 35a12345 Musterstadt

The “c/o” might also be “p.Adr.” (per Adresse, literally “per address”). Btw, if you want to send mail to a specific person at a business, you would first put the name of business, then the name of the person to receive the mail.

Hope this helps and good luck with your story!

AK

[scriptgerman]

Hi! I’m having trouble dating one of my WIPs. It’s set in a small German village, and the main character is the daughter of a middle class candle maker. This isn’t a modern story, but it’s not medieval, either. I’m looking for the period of German history where candles are still used regularly, but trains have already been invented. Can you help me?

That’s kind of a tough one, I thought, overestimating the time when electric light was invented. Then I looked up a couple of dates and your timeline seems to be mid- to late 19th century.

If you mean train in the modern sense, that is, steam-operated (or mechanical operated in general) the first railroad opened in 1835, although there were “trains” pulled by horses before that - mostly for industry and where it was (more or less) flat.

Now, I was super optimistic about the usage of electric light, but apparently private usage of electric light started around 1890 - although before that gas lamps seem to have been the way to go, candles probably would’ve been used a lot as well. Only in 1940 was the whole of Germany connected to the electric grid, by the way.

I hope this helps and good luck with your story!

AK

ps I’m so sorry, the ask was all answered and the slipped into drafts instead of the queue. I hope this still helps!

[scriptgerman]

Friends, I do have to apologize.

While I am not super active anymore (*cough cough*), I generally try to answer asks that come in.

Turns out, some of those (already answered) asks have been ending up in my draft folder as opposed to the queue.

I have queued them up now, and I do apologize.

I hope the answers will still be helpful.

[scriptgerman]

Hey, I'm hoping you might still be active? I have a few Swiss characters who sometimes speak English using translated German slang. Like "Quit getting on my cookies!" It's done on purpose and not because of lack of knowledge. Would this be more on the normal side or more of an odd quirk? Also, since my characters are Swiss, I can't find ways to incorporate their German differences.

Hi Nonnie!

I am, well… Answering an odd question here and there when there is one and I have the time. 

Regarding your question: My Swiss German is uh, non-existant, basically a black hole, so I can’t say for certain, but using literally translated German idioms into English is totally a thing. There’s postcards and everything that do that.

Also speaking English, but pronouncing it German. Or speaking English and just… using a German (slang) word in the middle because it fits so much better than any English word one might come up with – this might be a way for you to incorporate some Swiss German as well.

Good luck with your story!

[scriptgerman]

I want a German student who studied about worldwide ethnic minorities and their languages in high school. I know it is unlikely but there's always exceptions. I can make up a fictional school and it being an elective. But some tips on making it sensible? An elite private school? Not in the rural countryside. And I'm sure Hauptschule is out of the question. Or how about not part of normal schooling but an extra curricular class due to interest? Thanks very much.

Dear Nonnie, 

i gotta admit, your question really threw me off kilter. It’s an interesting question, but I’m not sure how happy you’ll be with my answer, depending on what you mean with “worldwide ethnic minorities and their languages” because I really doubt you can even invent a class like that and have it deal with a wide variety of minorities and minority languages from all around the world.

Also, you mentioned elite private schools and I was like “Do we have something like that?”. Germany has some private schools, but it’s not a big thing. I don’t know about elite, because the first thing that came to mind was news about a private school where the entire year had failed the A-levels, so.

The way I can see this work is, as you mentioned, with electives and extra curriculars. I wouldn’t throw my book against the wall if you had a private school for the upper years (year 10-12) specialised on languages where minority languages are an elective. But that’s only three years and the school would probably concentrate on one or two minorities a year, if it even is an elective that runs through all three years.

Extra curriculars, at least at my school and these where my friends went to, had two problems: (1) Often they’re a thing for a year and don’t have a follow-up course and (2) you need someone to teach it, which means a) finding a teacher or in this case more likely several teachers who have both enough knowledge about the topic and the time and b) paying them, which is always a problem.

I hope this helps and I’d love to hear more about it when your idea is more refined! Anybody else have some ideas about it - feel free to weight in, by either reblogging this post or sending an ask/ submission.

AK

[scriptgerman]

When do Germans usually eat? Also, perhaps typical restaurant, cafe, fast food, bar opening days and hours. Perhaps when they would be crowded? Maybe menu change times too?

Hey there Nonnie!

Sensible questions you got going there.

When do Germans usually eat? Well, it varies, I’d say. But as a general thing, breakfast sometime after getting up and before Lunch, Lunch around 12-1pm , Dinner probably sometime between 6pm and 8pm, depending on schedule?

Your other questions…

Restaurants - opening hours ranging from around 11am to 11pm, I’d say. Possibly one day a week closed (generally weekdays, sometimes Sundays) even in the high season, possibly more in the low season, possibly closed between, say, 2.30pm and 5.30pm. The chances for these possibles to apply are higher in the countryside, where restaurants might only have open on the weekend in the low season. Crowded around lunchtime and dinnertime, will probably have some lunch options until 2.30pm.

Cafés - open generally between 9am and 5-6pm, if (connected to) a bakery they’re opened earlier, of course (6am weekdays/ 7am weekends). again - the more on the countryside, the shorter the opening hours. Bakeries with a Café area tend to be opened every day, just Cafés will have opening days like Restaurants. Crowded in the afternoon, between 3pm and 4.30pm. Possibly some lunch options between 11am and 3pm.

Fast Food - depending on the chain/ fast food place. The bigger the city, the longer the opening hours - possibly 24h, although the closest McDonalds in my parents’ (middle sized) city is closed between midnight (maybe later on weekends) and 6am I think. There’s a fast food place in the village (5000 people) I grew up in, which was opened between 11am and 10pm (midnight on weekends) last I checked, but a lot of people commute through the village, so I guess they get the occasional commuter picking stuff up. Crowded during lunchtime, possibly after bars are closing. Menu changes if at all after “breakfast time” ~11am)

Bars - open between 5pm and 3am, possibly shorter during the weekday and depending on the establishment longer on weekends. Often open everyday. Crowded after 7pm.

There are also some combined establishments: Café, Bar, Restaurant all in one. Those might have a smaller menu when compared to “regular” restaurants which is restricted to certain times (the kitchen might close relatively early for everything other than small stuff), but everything else applies to them as well. Might close sooner than regular bars.

Hope this helps,

AK

[scriptgerman]

I'm going to need to give my German character a number of favourite local bands/singers, however I only have good access to translated material and knowledge of more internationally known ones instead of the obscure, especially if I can't find it on youtube. Perhaps you could give me a nice obscure list?

Hi Nonnie!

Why do you need to give your German character favourite local bands? Also, how local? Are we talking German-wide or subculture wide or just-known-in-this-town-local?

If you could specify what you mean with “local” and maybe a genre or something I’ll see what I can do.

AK

[scriptgerman]

What sort of wild animals would you find on the streets (or sky) of Stuttgart? Is bird/insect nests a common sight on buildings? How about abandoned pets? Do people ever feed them or care for them?

Hey there Nonnie!

First of all, thank you very much for this question. I grew up relatively close to Stuttgart and reading up on these questions was super interesting! I wasn’t wrong in what I thought you’d might find, but I didn’t even come close to what the articles I read talked about.

So, as you might know, Stuttgart lies in a basin, and with this climate change thing going on, it’s not getting as cold as it used to… Turns out a lot of animals from the south like that.

So, a list for you (you didn’t include water, but…):

Too many insects to talk about them all, but there’s a type of endangered bugs living in trees that were supposed to be cut down, because of the construction of the new train station and apparently people have beehives in their backyards.

The usual birds, aka (city) pigeons, common blackbirds, probably ravens, magpies, swallows and small songbirds native to Southern Germany

But also parrots (probably escaped, not set free) and the alpine swift and the melodious warbler, both of whom usually live more south

Bats - apparently more people than usual had problems with masses of bats in their apartments this autumn

There’s foxes, badgers, racoons (not native, classified as an invasive species), some deer and apparently even the occasional boar??

A big population of hare in the parks

Wels catfish - one of the few species of fish thriving in the Neckar, but not well-liked, because they eat all the native fish, trout and bass for example

Turtles, once set free, still thriving

As for your other questions: Is bird/insect nests a common sight on buildings? yes

How about abandoned pets? Depends on your definition of pet, I’d say. 

Do people ever feed them or care for them? Probably some do, yes, although dogs are generally reported to the local animal shelter, and cats probably as well.

Hope this helps, 

AK

[scriptgerman]

Where in Germany could someone who can neither speak German nor English live? In other words, I'm looking for neighborhoods with large foreign population where it's possible to survive with another language.

Hey there Nonnie!

Take this with a little bit of salt, but here are my thoughts on this:

In the late 50s and the 60s, Germany invited “Gastarbeiter” (guest workers) to come to Germany and work. There were agreements with other countries and everything, because the economy grew to an extent that (West-) Germany couldn’t handle it with only German workers. The first workers came from Italy, but later they came from Greece, Spain, Turkey, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia and what once was Yugoslavia as well.

Now, the plan was for the people to come to Germany, stay and work here for a bit, and then return home. Wanna guess how well that one worked out?

Anyway, I didn’t find numbers, but I think if you want a neighbourhood where someone could get by speaking neither German nor English, your best bet are Turkish neighbourhoods, simply because I think they are the biggest group of Gastarbeiter we got. No one ever offered the guest workers extensive German classes (because the plan was for them to go back, and all), and I think many, if not most, second and even third generations speak Turkish at least a bit, sometimes even as their mother tongue.

I wouldn’t go “Impossible!” at someone getting by with solely Arabic, Italian or Polish either, but as I said, I think Turkish neighbourhoods are more widely spread? Might just be because people with a Turkish background were the biggest minority group where I grew up by far.

You’re best bet are probably neighbourhoods in the big cities, the first to come to my mind were Berlin and the Ruhr area.

If anybody else can add to this, I’d love to hear about it, and the Nonny probably too! Feel free to reblog this post or submit something.

AK

[scriptgerman]

About East/West

@theomensilike (who, for some reason I cannot tag), graciously submitted this about some East/ West differences. Vielen Dank!

The twins would need to be at least 31 today to have been 3 and lived at least a few months in East and West Germany instead of the reunited Germany.

- Someone aged about 35 today would for example have experienced his first few years living in East Germany and have vague memories. For example: They would have been in school for the first year(s) expecting to live by the East German system. They would have gotten a first handkerchief marking their age and being part of the youth organisation or just missed that.

Someone that age used to tell me that losing that mark of age was a pitty for him. But the main thing influencing him was that his parents had told him lively stories of being watched all the time. Being controlled. Not speaking your mind towards friends or even family because they might be spies. People were so frightened of the Stasi that for example a husband would formally check his wife’s passport. Children might pick up a joke making fun of the political leaders and innocently tell that in school. Their parents would be frightened.

How much of this fear and danger would be transferred to the child depends on the family and their involvement. Some people only registered the absurdity of life under those conditions long after they had changed. Some people kept certain habits and taught their children those habits without noticing.

- Someone aged about 60 today would have experienced it for a long time. I mostly know about this from people living in West Germany who just experienced it when visiting. Or when they had pen pals because all their mail would be opened and sometimes parts would be blacked out. (16-year-old girls’ letters to each other!)

This is a feeling they can use to relate to today’s youth feeling watched and sad about being watched because our emails etc might be read by anyone.

Differences you notice today when you are from West Germany:

 - names differ a bit. When there was a division, people in East Germany tended towards “American” names, so children would be called Mandy, Mike, Trixi, … - you seldom saw that in West Germany. So in some generations you can still recognize people from East Germany by that difference. (Today the names are partly a byword for stupidity in Germany. Someone MIGHT make fun of a person being called “Mandy”)

Here is a list from 2010 - the difference is vanishing: http://www.t-online.de/leben/familie/schwangerschaft/id_42993216/beliebte-vornamen-in-west-und-ostdeutschland-.html

- mothers working has a longer tradition in East Germany. It is more common there, but you only notice that after a while or in subtle differences. There is less stigma in relying on group child care from a very early age on.

- people still earn less - even in government jobs. By abusing possibilities, it might for example happen that you work 20 hours instead of the agreed upon 8 for a university in East Germany, where you would be paid 8 to work 6 in West Germany. There is no real compensation in living costs.

- Depending on where you live in Germany over all there are very different expectations regarding education. In some areas getting a university degree is becoming more or less the “norm” for people somehow able to achieve them, even when they need more time or invest a lot of money in tutors. In others it is still considered a waste of time to not work with your hands. This might affect the twins, but this is not something where “east” and “west” is the only dividing border.

- Even people who were born quite a while after the reunification often comment on something that they think is typical for “Ossis” or “Wessis”

Additional stuff about feelings. This is NOT to be understood as a fact, just as something that might be useful to write from a West German perspective:

- when you visit there coming from West Germany you sometimes feel like everything is about ten years back (in a nice way). Everything seems a bit slower, more innocent, … Every time I saw some group of youths hanging around in town I was just touched by them drinking bear instead of vodka and not many of them smoking. Advertisements seem less “modernized”. People seemed less worried about regulations somehow.

- Some dialects sound very sweet, others unbearable when you’re not used to them.

- people are a bit calmer and slower (not slow as in stupid, slow as in taking your time). This is noticeable when working across the country e.g. as a freelancer.