Communication Archives - understand-culture

The vocabulary of knowing better

Der Besserwisser — the better-knower. Someone who always knows better, and the word is a complaint.

Der Klugscheißer — the clever-shitter, cruder and more common.

Der Oberlehrer — the head teacher, applied to anyone lecturing an adult as though in a classroom.

Belehren — to instruct or lecture at someone, and sich belehren lassen, to allow oneself to be instructed, which is what you are asked to do gracefully.

Four German words for the person who gives advice nobody asked for. A culture does not develop that much vocabulary for a behaviour it rarely encounters.

How are you

Wie geht’s? in German is a question, and it is answered. Not well, thanks — but an actual report, which may include the back, the weather, the traffic and the state of the department.

The English greeting of the same shape is not a question and is not answered. The German one is, which is why Germans answering it in English conversation produce more information than was wanted.

The borrowed word

German has no native word for small talk. It uses the English one, written as one word — Smalltalk — and it entered the language along with the practice it names.

Plauderei and Geplauder exist, but they mean chatting or prattling, and neither describes the specific business function. The thing had to be imported, and the word came with it.

The political talk show

German public broadcasting runs several weekly prime-time debate programmes simultaneously — Markus Lanz, Caren Miosga, Maybrit Illner, hart aber fair, Maischberger.

One study analysed 1,208 episodes across four of them. Another found that around 79 percent of German television viewers watch them.

A country that schedules multiple hours of televised argument every week, in prime time, on the main public channels, and watches them in those numbers, has a settled view about whether disagreement is worth listening to.

Wily

Surreptitious: kept secret, especially because it would not be approved of. From Latin surreptitius: secretly and seize.

Sneaky: furtive, sly, reluctant.

Wily: skilled at gaining an advantage, especially deceitfully.

Clever: quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas; intelligence. Derived from Middle English perhaps of Dutch or Low German origin. In the late 16th century, the term came to mean manually skillful. The sense of possessing mental agility dates to the early 1700s.

Willing to argue

The dictionary defines streitbar as follows: [constantly] prepared, having the will to, argue, with someone over something, to critically and activelydispute something; to fight for or about something, to take a stand for something or someone, a fighter; [older] prepared for battle; warrior-like, brave.

The adjective streitbar has a very positive connotation in the German language. In recalling famous persons one often reads the sentence Er war streitbar – he was streitbar.

Politicians are ever more frequently characterized as being streitbar. Streitbar does not mean that one seeks out conflicts in a negative sense. Rather, it means to stand up for ones beliefs, and not avoid serious confrontations.

“What are you thinking about?”

A comment on YouTube: “They are obviously Deep in Thought.”

“Dienst ist Dienst”

Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps – literally: Work is work. Schnaps is schnaps (alcoholic beverage) – is a very well-known German figure of speech underlining the strict separation between work and play. A similar figures of speech conveys German thinking: Erst die Arbeit, dann das Vergnügen – first work, then enjoyment.

Context Irrelevant

Germans strive to separate substance from person. They can argue vehemently and still respect each other, even remain close friends. This allows them to pay less attention to the specific context of the interaction.

It is relatively unimportant whether they are communicating with their neighbor in front of their house, an acquaintance in the streetcar, a relative on the phone or a colleague at their workplace. A discussion about a topic of substance has little to do with the person individually.

The ability to separate substance from person is in the German business context among the fundamental abilities expected not only of employees, but especially of those who lead them – management. The self-understanding of the German citizen includes – consciously or unconsciously – the obligation to argue a point, to address a problem, to state an opinion objectively, critically, fairly.

Stay with the flow

Germans avoid interrupting the flow of a conversation, a speech, or any kind presentation for several reasons. First, out of respect for the presenter and the other listeners. Second, because they assume they will gain clarity by simply continuing to follow the flow. Third, they do not feel comfortable admitting that perhaps their English language skills are not as good as they should be.