For those who speak German...

[teh_blumchenkinder]

any German AT ALL. especially fluent speakers.
.___. I am now a-scared of your language. It's given me a migraine. It's amazing.
*backs up*
Let me explain.
I fancy myself a history buff. I'm a language nerd--> I'm a (functionally) Linguistics major, and I willingly seek out linguistic situations. I also love finding stuff out.
Thus... awkward question time!
Soooo rumor (as in a good dozen books I could casually find and a bunch of articles) has it that in 1996 there was an orthographic revamp/update. Granted, it's happened before, but this one, theoretically, you were alive for.
What was it like?
Furthermore, how do you function in a land where there's like, 5 different 'dialects' (yet another point that confuses me, only 'traditional' differences are called that...) 20(?) kilometers away. From what I can gather, it is and is not like what happens in England and the United States--> speak slowly and use small/simple words and you can communicate until you get used to each other's speech... but amplified in Germany/German in general. Is it like that? Am I off-base?
Can you function in Switzerland if you're from Berlin?
I could think of more, but I'm procrastinating from my final paper which is due in ... eight hours.
EDIT: no this has no direct/temporal bearing on my paper. I'm just curious!

[draggar]

You think German is bad? Try learning a Slovak language like Czech.

As for dialects - English is the same way. US English has a few dialects / accents, UK (Queen's) English is a different dialect, etc.

[fireheart]

As for dialects - English is the same way. US English has a few dialects / accents, UK (Queen's) English is a different dialect, etc.

Try Australian English. Sometimes I have to explain what a "chook" means on the forums

Just a little UK/US guide to Australian English:

chook=chicken.
snag=sausage.
barbie=barbecue.
TAFE=basically a technical school where you can learn how to be a mechanic, a plumber etc.
University=college.
thongs=flip-flops. (although we do sometimes refer to G-strings as thongs)
G-string/T-string=thong.

Have I explained everything? Oh and before Nyoibo repeats me....Vegemite=yummy.

As for other languages, I have enough trouble with French. There's Canadian French, France French, Cajun French....

[Sapphire Silk]

As for other languages, I have enough trouble with French. There's Canadian French, France French, Cajun French....

I knew a French teacher when I lived in North Dakota who would disagree that French Canadian is actually French. "I don't know what language they're speaking, but it's not French," was how she put it to me . . . which I thought was rather funny as I have been to Quebec many times and run into French snobs from there who refuse to communicate in English to non-French speakers.

[AdminAssistant]

Are you referring to the spelling changes? For example, essets being indicated by "ss" and that sort of thing? I know a little bit about German, but not much. (I just took a reading course over the summer.) Our professor talked a lot about the spelling changes (and how a lot of older folks don't like them) and the different dialects. He did talk about the reasons why some things were pronounced differently in northern Germany than in southern Germany, but I don't really remember. Oh, and that Bavaria is basically the German equivalent of Texas - they just kind of do their own thing.

You're at a college, right? Do they have a German department or offer German classes? If so, send an e-mail to that professor and see they'd be willing to meet with you. Ideally you'd want a native speaker or someone who's spent considerable amounts of time there.

ETA: My French professors refused to acknowledge Quebecois as French. I may be going there in November, so we'll see if my crappy French holds up. I do not know BCS, Russian, etc, but I do have friends that have studied those different languages. From what they tell me, English-speakers struggle with those languages because they use cases. BCS has 6, Russian has 7, Ukrainian has 8, etc. (I think, don't quote me on that.) Well, that and the different alphabet. I'm not sure if Czech or Slovak has cases. German has 4 cases, a grammar system that I never could understand (like English my ass), and a vocabulary that is, actually, quite French. Oh, and they capitalize all nouns. And if you want to make a new word, you just string lots of other words together.

[AdminAssistant]

A friend who used to live in Montreal said that a common greeting is "Bonjour hi" and that it's the speaker's way of saying, "I speak both languages, which do you speak?" I'll be there for a conference, so I doubt I'll be out and about much, so hopefully it won't be an issue. (But I will be getting some poutine gosh darn it.)

See, to me, French made a lot of sense. There are a lot of rules, and a lot of exceptions to those rules, but I understand it. (Although I still can't remember how to decline -re verbs.) German just really confused me.

[Nyoibo]

I think the worst language for different dialects is Chinese.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I took German classes in junior high and high school from 1993-99. If there was any major changes to the language, I wasn't made aware of them.

Of course, by the time I was done with my sixth year of German, I was still only about as fluent as the average third-year German student.

[Becks]

Oh, and that Bavaria is basically the German equivalent of Texas - they just kind of do their own thing.

I give credit to the Wittelsbachs.

[Kogarashi]

As far as I can recall, German doesn't HAVE a grammar system...as long as you get all the right words into your sentence you're good. It's sort of like driving into something blind and not having a clue until you're out the other side.

The main grammar system (aside from cases) I learned was where to stick the verbs. Everything else, as I recall, is a little more free-form, since it's the cases that define the rest of the parts of the sentence.

I'm sure it doesn't help that I took enough German classes that the grammar started to become second nature to me, so I have a hard time thinking about the specific rules. It's vocabulary where I'm still stuck at a second-grade or so level, because I stink at it.

And I love the whole "make a new word by stringing existing words together" part! It's awesome!

[AccountingDrone]

Are you referring to the spelling changes? For example, essets being indicated by "ss" and that sort of thing? I know a little bit about German, but not much. (I just took a reading course over the summer.) Our professor talked a lot about the spelling changes (and how a lot of older folks don't like them) and the different dialects. He did talk about the reasons why some things were pronounced differently in northern Germany than in southern Germany, but I don't really remember. Oh, and that Bavaria is basically the German equivalent of Texas - they just kind of do their own thing.

not to mention, they seem to have eliminated the gerund

[MoonCat]

A lot of English words have German origins. That said, I don't think I could communicate easily in German...or Polish...both the languages of my ancestors. Most of the non-English words that I do know are food words.

[Kheldarson]

Let's see, the genitive case is gone, main verb always goes as the second part of speech in the sentence, and all extra verbs, verb parts, infinitives, etc. go at the end, in the order they would've appeared in the sentence.

And irregular verbs suck.

[Salted Grump]

"I don't know what language they're speaking, but it's not French,"

Actually, Quebecois French is very similar to rural Normandy French. There were many instances in World war 2 where the Quebec Regiments would be invited into villages in Normandy and everyone could talk perfectly to one another due to the extremely similar accents and inflections.

[Chromatix]

The thing to remember about German is that the verb at the end of the sentence goes. Well, it can also appear as the second word in the sentence, or verbs can appear in both places. For the rest, just put it together as in English and you shouldn't be too far wrong.

The only substantive spelling change I know about is the wholesale replacement of ß with ss. They did that at about the time my dad was working on a project in Hamburg, so it was actually sort of relevant. However, I understand they're not very strict about it, and it was already common practice to substitute one way or the other depending on context (eg. using ß might have been difficult in an e-mail).