Cultural Diversity in German Speaking Countries

Language Diversity:

By Dirk Hamel-Wood

German standard language

• The standard language in Germany is Standard German, also know as High German or Hochdeutsch.

• Standard German is by law required as a medium for spoken and written German.

• There are 16 different dialects of the German language, commonly used at home and before young children are sent to primary school.

German standard language

• However, out of the 82 million people in Germany, 7% of these people do not speak German as their primary language.

• The largest minority in Germany are the Turkish people, with 1.8 million speakers in the country, descendants of guestworkers who came to the country after WWII, to rebuild the country.

German schools

• Out of most German primary schools, about 50% of the students are ancestral Germans and only speak one language.

• The other 50% consists of 15 different nationalities and 20 different home languages.

• German is the most common language in European schools, along with English.

German Schools

• Some immigrant languages such as Turkish, while common, are looked down upon and are shown almost no respect.

• These immigrant languages, i.e. Turkish, have almost no schooling or social media in the German society, so many of these speakers are illiterate in their own language.

Language and Culture

• German language and culture are actually one and the same. It is fairly impossible to actually understand the language if you don’t understand the culture to some degree.

• In German, sometimes knowing when and where to say something is as important as saying it.

• One of these similarities is knowing when to say something like “Auf Wiedersehen!”, when leaving a store or establishment.

Language and Culture

• Another one of these similarities is the “Du” and “Sie”, the respectively informal and formal versions of the word “You.” These two words technically mean the same thing, but hold different places in society.

• Even if someone, fluent in German but ignorant of culture, visited the country, they would stick out in so many ways, for example, there is a special way to hold a knife and fork.

Dialect regions of Germany Major Regions in Germany

German NationalFlag

Quiz Questions

• 1. What it the standard language in Germany?• A. Afrikaans• B. Hochdeutsch• C. English

• 2. How many Turkish speakers live in Germany?• A. There aren’t any…• B. 2,000,000• C. 1.8 million

References

• Me… I wrote this.• www2.hawaii.edu/~cmhiggin/Crutchfield%20Paper

%201.doc- Paper on German Language and Turkish immigrants.

• www2.erzwiss.uni-hamburg.de/.../Gogolin/a10_Gogolin_EERJ_1_1.pdf- Paper on language in German Schools.

• http://german.about.com/cs/culture/a/langcult.htm - Article on how German language and culture mesh.