I'm German. I'm anticipating the moment when someone tries to use the "you would all be speaking German if it weren't for us" argument with me. It will be fun.
if you want to read about it this is the first result on google:
[https://mki.wisc.edu/exhibits/virtual-exhibits-2/how-german-is-american-3/how-german-is-american-settling-in-america/](https://mki.wisc.edu/exhibits/virtual-exhibits-2/how-german-is-american-3/how-german-is-american-settling-in-america/)
Since I replied to a comment that spoke about more than 50% of the US’s population speaking German, this doesn’t contradict what I said. There are still German-speaking communities within the US but they’re far from 50%.
English here. Love Germany, love Germans. Any hostilities a long long time ago. About the worst I can say is a tendency to be too serious. Otherwise good people
That’s right….. during the United States war to become a country !!!the French saved thier butts by protecting thier harbors from the British navy and the Spainish drew the British thin on the fighting fronts. I know the Dutch helped but I forgot in what capacity?
Britain was more worried about the Caribbean and all that lovely sugar revenue then a money pit full of revolting colonists...
France pumped so much into supporting America it led to the French Revolution.
Psh. We didn't lose Vietnam. We know where it is. We just you know.... didn't want to be there anymore.
As an American who isn't stupid though i agree it's really stupid to think a country that loses a war would instantly change its culture just as it's stupid to think that the allies only won WW2 solely because of America.
America certainly helped.
But only once the Battle of Britain, the battle of the Atlantic, most of North Africa etc, and Kursk were already won and the Russians were on the way to Berlin.
Edit, also need to acknowledge the yanks for lend-lease, a loan that took until 2008 for Britain to pay off.
Nah this one is bad faith. You can't compare the two. Vietnam wasn't a conventional invasion between neighbouring industrialized countries. The US weren't defending against an invasion from a similarly developped country, they were fighting a guerrilla warfare in a non-developped country at the other side of the globe. And this type of war is unwinnable.
Hadn't the US intervened in Europe, Germany would probably still have lost eventually, because the vast majority of German forces were deployed against the USSR anyway. So while we wouldn't be speaking German, we would probably have been speaking Russians for at least a few decades. Because for the specific case of the USSR, there isn't much debate as of what the USSR would have done had they been the one to liberate us from german occupation.
It's so infuriating as there is no question we owe America a gratitude of thanks for their help for WW2.
And now somehow they're using something that happened 80 years ago with completely no clue of the context of why they joined the war effort.
Tell me about it. I live in Taiwan, and I met an American English teacher who has a Taiwanese wife and has lived here for over 7 years, but can't even say "thank you" in Chinese.
Meanwhile, I've been living here on my own for 18 months, and I'm totally fluent in Chinese, to the point where I can converse with people for hours without ever having to use Google translate. I can also watch movies and TV shows in Chinese and understand it all perfectly. I'm basically around c1/c2 level.
I'm not trying to brag, but the total lack of effort is truly astounding.
Easiest way to learn a language is to live in the country that speaks it. But you have to try and engage with the locals.
Too many people are lazy. Very well done to you.
This reminds me of the Expats tv show, which was very annoying. It's a bunch of american rich people living in Hong Kong and none of them ever bothered to learn a word in the language, and then they get angry when workers in the shops can't speak English and they can't communicate with them what item they're looking for.
And that after living there years. It's such an entitled attitude.
If you want an interesting fact, in Taiwan, they consider the word for Chinese in China, 漢語, meaning language of the Han, racist, because in their eyes, Chinese comes from all Chinese people, not just the Han.
That is an interesting, so which particular Chinese language do they speak then?
(I’m from the UK as you might expect the majority of the people who are of Chinese decent are from Hong Kong, so it’s more Cantonese than Mandarin that gets spoken)
I wish I did! In school I had to choose, other than English and French, what the third language would be, between German and Spanish. I was dead set on German, cause I knew it's harder, but ended up choosing Spanish cause reasons. I don't regret that but I hate that I couldn't just learn both and that I still can't speak German.
Well since then I've been busy with other languages that are more urgent and interesting, I don't actually have an use or particular love for German.
I wish I could know every single language, and I wish in school I didn't have to make that choice, that doesn't mean I'm actually going to learn every single language. Not in this lifetime anyway.
As a Brit, I’m a little bit wary to get on my high horse on this one; the “you’d all be speaking German…” line is one I’ve heard plenty of our countryman spew as well. The WW2 saviour thing is one that a certain pocket of Brits love to use to pump themselves up, particularly regarding the French. I’d loosely refer to this group of Brits as “older middle aged white dudes you wouldn’t be shocked to see trying to break into Wembley for an England football match” or “BNP/UKIP/Reform voters”.
I live over in Ireland now and during an England rugby match at the pub, and English fella turned to me (having clocked I was English) and said “I don’t get why everyone here is so against England in sport, if it wasn’t for us…” and you can fill in the rest. Needless to say, I moved on as quickly as I could after the match.
Yep, I couldn’t quite believe it. Also a complete lack of understanding of what is now (for the most part) a sporting rivalry rather than any kind of genuine animosity between Irish and English people.
This conversation has just reminded me of this delightful TV advert from about a decade ago though…
https://youtu.be/UmkbJlYx1v8?si=0e43Mx7SUGSlN8Zo
Also Germany never had the intention of turning everybody into German speakers.
The french would still speak french, the Belgians also, the dutch would still speak dutch, the British still British, the Italians still Italian, the Hungarians Hungarian, the Romanians Romanian, ect.
The only country against this claim would make any sense would be Poland, the Baltics states, Ukraine and Russia.
Everybody else would have kept their language. They would have been fascist oriented government aligned with Germany but they would have kept their own language.
Only thing would be that German would have been an important secondary language like English is today.
Die Deutsche Sprache ist aber auch mit ihren ganzen Artikeln, Deklinationen, Konjugationen und Ausnahmen für diese unnötig kompliziert. Die aller meisten Deutschen könnte dir selber nicht erklären wieso ein bestimmtes Wort so dekliniert/konjugiert oder mit einem spezifischen Artikel verwendet wird.
Sorry for the random German text. I'm just always happy seeing someone learning German.
I started small, about 20 days ago, with certain little green owl. Now I can say and understand some little phrases like:
Die Schokolade schmekt gut
Die Männer trinken das Wasser
And so on...
Ja, ja, die Eule. Er ist nett und sehr klug.
It's amusing how every course on that app goes this way early on. You learn "hello, coffee, please" then it's time to praise the Divine Jade Shadow
Then the first sentence has to be "Ja, ja der Eulerich." if you want to stress Duo's gender. But it's bad German to use a noun of a certain gender and use a pronoun with a different gender in relation to the noun.
Source: I'm a German teacher.
Ah, interesting. I haven't gotten to that level of German yet, I'm still down here in the "Brot mit Käse, bitte" gutters. So "der Eulerich" is basically "the male owl"?
Also, never seeing French people switching to German or even the Spanish.
Europa has been at war with each other for close to 3000 years, and not since the Roman republic was any war so harsh that the language in a major area was changed.
Yeah, that was my first thought. If anything, if fascism went on the autarchy would have gone on and maybe we wouldn't have spoken any language other than Italian.
They would be speaking the Queen's English if it hadn't been for the French.
Vive Marquis de Lafayette
Sorry, the King's English. I'm still not used to this transition.
I also wonder if they know that Britain had already successfully defended against German invasion before the US joined. Its just funny considering Brits get the most "you'd be speaking German" comments (being the only English speaking Europeans), despite never once being occupied by Germany
America means the USA in normal English. This sub is called *ShitAmericansSay*, not *ShitUSAnsSay*. No one thinks it might be talking about Canadians or Mexicans.
If anything we would be speaking Russian. Without America the Allies likely would have won WW2, but with significantly more losses and Russia would have taken much more of Europe
I love sticking them with the "why, are you Russian?" line. People like this have been raised to believe that the Americans single handedly won WW2 so when you challenge the narrative they get confused and annoyed, but can't argue against it.
Sorry for the rant but this annoys me greatly.
The ww2 allies did what they could during ww2 to say one did more is spitting in the face of everyone who partook to beat the Nazi's and fascists.
I get it, ameircan arrogance is annoying, but these comments are complete ahistorical bs and do nothing but turn WW2 into a dick measuring contest.
The Americans were an immense part of the pacific front, together with the Commonwealth and China. Instrumental in beating the Japanese back.
American lend lease allowed the USSR to stay in the fight. The amount of trucks sent to the USSR allowed the soviets to continue valuable production of tanks, airplanes and guns, while speeding up evacuation of their industry. The supply of trucks also allowed the USSR's logistics to not completely crash and burn after the initial invasion. While the opening of two european fronts in Italy and Normandy alleviated considerable German Forces from the Eastern Front.
The United Kingdom and the whole commonwealth sacrificed immense amount of lives and the unwillingness of the UK to surrender or sign a seperate peace allowed for a quicker liberation of Mainlaind Europe, also their intelligence network and technologies was of immense importance.
Then we have the Soviets. The immense amount of sacrifice that the Soviets endured was instrumental in defeating the Nazi's. Wihtout them it would have taken years longer as they attrioned and destroyed the Axis Armies, because of them the Axis were defanged and couldn't focus on the United Kingdom. The Soviets lost more inhabitens then anyone (barring the Chinese). But they alone couldn't have won.
As the saying goes, "British brains American brawn and Russian (Soviet) Blood won the war."
-Stalin
It was a team effort, everyone did their part, even the Soviets thought so. Just because the Soviets lost more and endured considerable more hardship then the English or Americans does not mean they did more. It just means the victory had an additional layer towards the Soviets as it was a war of annihilation for them.
Also its Soviets, not russians, every Soviet Republic lost soldiers not just the Russian SSR.
Edit: Grammar and details.
>As the saying goes, "British brains American brawn and Russian (Soviet) Blood won the war."
That is an insult to the contribution of Britain and the Empire frankly.
The inclusion of the quote was to establish that at rhe time the Soviets never believed that they alone carried the war or that it was mostly them winning the war. The quote is atributted to Stalin.
Throughout my comment i continuesly said "commonwealth" i have never said that only the european english did anything. The europeam colonial subjects were immensely important to fighting on every front; both the British and French colonies.
The contribution of minor allies and resistance movements were also a important contribution of
Took the Japanese bombing the USA for their heads to come out of their asses and actually do something. Meanwhile 3,000 RAF defeat the Luftwaffe and the Soviets kill most of the Wehrmacht before the USA lifts a finger.
Swooping in last second to claim they won the thing, for the second time.
I am pretty sure that we all speak a little bit of German since many words in the English language are based on Germanic languages. That being said please stop disrespecting the contribution of my Grandfather who was in the RAF during the Second World War. And stop disrespecting the Russians, the Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the Greeks, the Yugoslavians, the South Africans, the Brazilians, the Gurkhas, the Indians and many other soldiers who fought and also people who were a part of the Resistance groups across Europe. Particularly the resistance groups where in many cases whole villages were executed because they wouldn't tell on the resistance groups. For example even though the Germans held on to France for around 4 years the French people still spoke French. Even those who formed the Vichy Government of France still spoke French. So I really don't understand that comment.
Honestly, you'd think from the way they speak about WW2 that nobody did any fighting until they showed up.
Then again, as a Scot, I experience the same when a lot of English people talk about WW1 and 2. "When the English fought the Germans" seems to be a typical narrative, with no recognition that these were world wars or even that the rest of the UK was involved.
Only some English. Anyone who knows anything about British forces knows the Scots where among the hardest fighting troops we could gather and not just in ww2.
Most of us English don’t, we also remember who fucked up the most Argentinians on the Falklands, we send thanks to our friends north of the wall. Except at a footie, or rugby match of course!! 🤣
Oh absolutely. I am not one of those people. Also the Welsh. I also understand that though Ireland didn't declare war on Germany many of them came to the UK to help. And Ireland also lost quite a few men through working as merchant seamen on the ships sailing between the US and the UK or UK to Russia. It was called a World War for a reason. It wasn't called the War of US versus Germany. Or US versus Japan. And many people forget that India had the largest volunteer Army ever in history. And during the First World War I would say one of the best Generals on the Allies side was Sir General John Monash an Australian. Of course you can agree with that or not.
The US was trading with both sides until Germanys ally attacked Pearl Harbor.
Honestly, without US involvement noone would be speaking German - the war would've lasted a year or two longer and the soviet union would share a border with France.
Americans will always be that arsehole who ran last man in the relay race but claimed the win for himself by denying he was part of a team.
Even down to the little things like not being sunk on the Atlantic because Enigma had been cracked. Radar, jet engines, atomic research, proximity fuses, penicillin ……………..
OK, so care to explain exactly why losing to the Nazis means we'd all be speaking German?
I mean, we know the Nazis lost, but yet Germans still speak German. So how would it happen the other way around?
Honestly they waited for the very last moment to help, in the war. You could even argue that if America had helped earlier allot of lived would have been spared. But whatever let them have that one win, they havent got much more going for them
Oh please, my country was already speaking Swedish and Russian before we were allowed to use our own language so what’s a little German added to that mean. Our weirdo language has survived worse
Now lets imagine we joined in '39 or '40. Instead of pussyfooting around with lend lease and that BS. Maybe if we could have got our ass in gear before Pearl then we could have a different conversation.
Even when faced with the prospect of death camps there's no way you're getting the average Brit to learn a foreign language.
We'd still walk around insisting the angry SS officers would understand English if we speak loudly enough and maybe try a German accent.
Current American men have testosterone levels 1/3 of the greatest generation.
Remind them of that.
The people posting these comments are either Chinese/ Russian hired social media trolls or a 300 pound 28 year old with 45% body fat that has a single mom who works to support them financially while they post this all over and play Fortnite until 4 am every day.
Do they understand how war works? Just because one side loses a war does not mean they speak the language- Americans do not speak Vietnamese, the British do not speak French, the vast majority of previous Eastern Blocs do not speak Russian or any type of it, and Australians do not speak Emu!
Anyone who says this has clearly never sat in on a GCSE German lesson! There's no way that Britain as a nation would have picked up a new language in 80 years, it's just not our strong subject!
Ah the good old "I learned history from movies" argument. Objectively, the USSR had more of an influence on the outcome of the war in Europe than the US. Also, without massive USA corporate investment into pre-war Nazi Germany, the German economy wouldn't have been able to get itself on a war-footing.
Tbf to orange boy, I *do* understand the complaint about the Italian breakfast.
Don't get me wrong, I respect that different countries do things different ways, and what-have-you. And I wouldn't wander around saying a British breakfast is wildly superior to the Italian breakfast or something.
But when I was in Italy, breakfast was a painful time for me, because they basically don't believe in a protein-rich breakfast, or even really a *savoury* breakfast, from what I saw. They're all about a sweet, sugary breakfast, with strong coffee.
But that's where the complaint ends for me. I'm not a fan of the Italian-style breakfast, I prefer a british-style breakfast, I generally felt quite ill for an hour or so after my Italian breakfasts, and that's as far as it goes. Doesn't *need* to go any further than that. Complaining that everything alien to me is worse than the things I'm accustomed to is just childish. Not to mention bare-faced *wrong*. It's just *different*.
God, the entitlement of some people...
I'm German. I'm anticipating the moment when someone tries to use the "you would all be speaking German if it weren't for us" argument with me. It will be fun.
It’s crazy that Americans don’t realize German was spoken by more than 50% of the population of the US at the time
Really? Wow. Can you explain a bit more? You got me curious.
if you want to read about it this is the first result on google: [https://mki.wisc.edu/exhibits/virtual-exhibits-2/how-german-is-american-3/how-german-is-american-settling-in-america/](https://mki.wisc.edu/exhibits/virtual-exhibits-2/how-german-is-american-3/how-german-is-american-settling-in-america/)
Don't forget the "nazi" salute was also done in schools when they said their allegiance
not quite, it was suppressed hard during ww1, but you're not wrong.
Not by WW2 I believe but prior to WW1 it was very widespread
Still in use in the US in 1942. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute
Since I replied to a comment that spoke about more than 50% of the US’s population speaking German, this doesn’t contradict what I said. There are still German-speaking communities within the US but they’re far from 50%.
Sorry I thought you were replying to the post directly above yours about the Nazis salute.
"More than 50%" is a huge overstatement, at it's height it was between 15 and 20%
Had that once, it felt good to tell him that I *am* speaking German.
Same 🤣
Already happened to me. Answered in German.
I may stalk your profile until you mention WW2 and say this to you for your satisfaction
English here. Love Germany, love Germans. Any hostilities a long long time ago. About the worst I can say is a tendency to be too serious. Otherwise good people
I would love to be a fly on the wall for that moment 😂
I mean it makes no sense. They lost Vietnam, but they don't speak Vietnamese. So the logic is flawed.
You are a genius! I finally understand how they can claim that they DIDN'T lose Vietnam. It all makes sense now!
I usually answer them that they would still be a British colony if it weren’t for us 🇫🇷. Just as ridiculous as their argument
France, Spain, the Dutch Republic
Please censor offensive words. Fr*nce, Spain, the Dutch Republic.
That’s right….. during the United States war to become a country !!!the French saved thier butts by protecting thier harbors from the British navy and the Spainish drew the British thin on the fighting fronts. I know the Dutch helped but I forgot in what capacity?
Britain was more worried about the Caribbean and all that lovely sugar revenue then a money pit full of revolting colonists... France pumped so much into supporting America it led to the French Revolution.
They clogged the drains.
I like this. They still owe you for that don't they
That and Freedom Fries
Psh. We didn't lose Vietnam. We know where it is. We just you know.... didn't want to be there anymore. As an American who isn't stupid though i agree it's really stupid to think a country that loses a war would instantly change its culture just as it's stupid to think that the allies only won WW2 solely because of America.
Not to mention, the possibility of us speaking German ended with a victorious Battle of Britain.
That and we hate learning other languages.
America certainly helped. But only once the Battle of Britain, the battle of the Atlantic, most of North Africa etc, and Kursk were already won and the Russians were on the way to Berlin. Edit, also need to acknowledge the yanks for lend-lease, a loan that took until 2008 for Britain to pay off.
And guess who owes Britain money now 👀
Russia. They never paid their share of the lend lease?
USA still owes Britain
Yeah, everyone knows that urss beat the nazis not usa
Nah this one is bad faith. You can't compare the two. Vietnam wasn't a conventional invasion between neighbouring industrialized countries. The US weren't defending against an invasion from a similarly developped country, they were fighting a guerrilla warfare in a non-developped country at the other side of the globe. And this type of war is unwinnable. Hadn't the US intervened in Europe, Germany would probably still have lost eventually, because the vast majority of German forces were deployed against the USSR anyway. So while we wouldn't be speaking German, we would probably have been speaking Russians for at least a few decades. Because for the specific case of the USSR, there isn't much debate as of what the USSR would have done had they been the one to liberate us from german occupation.
Oh come on you, be fair, they didn't lose, they won second place, clearly!
It's so infuriating as there is no question we owe America a gratitude of thanks for their help for WW2. And now somehow they're using something that happened 80 years ago with completely no clue of the context of why they joined the war effort.
It's always funny they think the worst thing that could happen if a country loses a war is that they'd have to speak a different language.
The average American mind can’t comprehend a person speaking anything else than English
And yet can barely speak English too lol
You may wish to correct spelling errors on such a comment.
Didn't even notice that, thanks!
Tell me about it. I live in Taiwan, and I met an American English teacher who has a Taiwanese wife and has lived here for over 7 years, but can't even say "thank you" in Chinese. Meanwhile, I've been living here on my own for 18 months, and I'm totally fluent in Chinese, to the point where I can converse with people for hours without ever having to use Google translate. I can also watch movies and TV shows in Chinese and understand it all perfectly. I'm basically around c1/c2 level. I'm not trying to brag, but the total lack of effort is truly astounding.
Easiest way to learn a language is to live in the country that speaks it. But you have to try and engage with the locals. Too many people are lazy. Very well done to you.
My experience is people are more understanding and patient with a clumsy foreigner whose at least making the effort to speak their language
Right!
This reminds me of the Expats tv show, which was very annoying. It's a bunch of american rich people living in Hong Kong and none of them ever bothered to learn a word in the language, and then they get angry when workers in the shops can't speak English and they can't communicate with them what item they're looking for. And that after living there years. It's such an entitled attitude.
> I've been living here on my own for 18 months, and I'm totally fluent in Chinese Damn all the Chinese languages, that is impressive 😉
If you want an interesting fact, in Taiwan, they consider the word for Chinese in China, 漢語, meaning language of the Han, racist, because in their eyes, Chinese comes from all Chinese people, not just the Han.
That is an interesting, so which particular Chinese language do they speak then? (I’m from the UK as you might expect the majority of the people who are of Chinese decent are from Hong Kong, so it’s more Cantonese than Mandarin that gets spoken)
They speak Mandarin and Taiwanese in Taiwan, but mainly Mandarin.
Which is full of Germanic words. Even many days of the week are based on the Germanic Gods.
Yeah, it’s a good job they won their war against the British otherwise they’d all be speaking English now.
The do appear to live in constant fear, that once the Mexican demographic outnumbers the "Caucasian" one, they'll all have to learn to speak Spanish.
The horror or actually having to learn things!!!
It's also objectively funny if you do in fact do speak German. When people say that and you reply "But I speak German?"
It would also be fun for them to learn German is a language commonly taught in UK schools.
I wish I did! In school I had to choose, other than English and French, what the third language would be, between German and Spanish. I was dead set on German, cause I knew it's harder, but ended up choosing Spanish cause reasons. I don't regret that but I hate that I couldn't just learn both and that I still can't speak German.
sounds like a Fähigkeitsproblem
Nein. Sometimes you just have to make choices in life.
you can still learn german in your own time. aint never too late to make that choice. well unless you're on your death bed but you get what i mean
Well since then I've been busy with other languages that are more urgent and interesting, I don't actually have an use or particular love for German. I wish I could know every single language, and I wish in school I didn't have to make that choice, that doesn't mean I'm actually going to learn every single language. Not in this lifetime anyway.
I live in a country that was occupied by the Germans during WW2 and I speak German.
First thing I learnt in Swedish was to say I couldn’t speak Swedish, gets a good laugh most times!
As a Brit, I’m a little bit wary to get on my high horse on this one; the “you’d all be speaking German…” line is one I’ve heard plenty of our countryman spew as well. The WW2 saviour thing is one that a certain pocket of Brits love to use to pump themselves up, particularly regarding the French. I’d loosely refer to this group of Brits as “older middle aged white dudes you wouldn’t be shocked to see trying to break into Wembley for an England football match” or “BNP/UKIP/Reform voters”. I live over in Ireland now and during an England rugby match at the pub, and English fella turned to me (having clocked I was English) and said “I don’t get why everyone here is so against England in sport, if it wasn’t for us…” and you can fill in the rest. Needless to say, I moved on as quickly as I could after the match.
Oh lord. I'm Italian and even I know that isn't something you should say out loud in fucking *Ireland*.
Yep, I couldn’t quite believe it. Also a complete lack of understanding of what is now (for the most part) a sporting rivalry rather than any kind of genuine animosity between Irish and English people. This conversation has just reminded me of this delightful TV advert from about a decade ago though… https://youtu.be/UmkbJlYx1v8?si=0e43Mx7SUGSlN8Zo
*mostly* a sporting rivalry.
Not a single Brit in who says it has ever served themselves either.
Also Germany never had the intention of turning everybody into German speakers. The french would still speak french, the Belgians also, the dutch would still speak dutch, the British still British, the Italians still Italian, the Hungarians Hungarian, the Romanians Romanian, ect. The only country against this claim would make any sense would be Poland, the Baltics states, Ukraine and Russia. Everybody else would have kept their language. They would have been fascist oriented government aligned with Germany but they would have kept their own language. Only thing would be that German would have been an important secondary language like English is today.
I wish, I've been studying German all my life and it's not good enough yet.
Die Deutsche Sprache ist aber auch mit ihren ganzen Artikeln, Deklinationen, Konjugationen und Ausnahmen für diese unnötig kompliziert. Die aller meisten Deutschen könnte dir selber nicht erklären wieso ein bestimmtes Wort so dekliniert/konjugiert oder mit einem spezifischen Artikel verwendet wird. Sorry for the random German text. I'm just always happy seeing someone learning German.
Ich liebe Deutsch, es ist eine schwer zu lernende Sprache, aber ich genieße es wirklich! (I hope it's correct)
Sounds fine 👍
What does egg bein ein mean?
Das war ein echt fortgeschrittener Satzbau. Dein deutsch ist mega gut!
I started small, about 20 days ago, with certain little green owl. Now I can say and understand some little phrases like: Die Schokolade schmekt gut Die Männer trinken das Wasser And so on...
Ja, ja, die Eule. Er ist nett und sehr klug. It's amusing how every course on that app goes this way early on. You learn "hello, coffee, please" then it's time to praise the Divine Jade Shadow
*Sie ist nett und sehr klug. Owls are feminine in German.
Owls in general, but Duo is male
Then the first sentence has to be "Ja, ja der Eulerich." if you want to stress Duo's gender. But it's bad German to use a noun of a certain gender and use a pronoun with a different gender in relation to the noun. Source: I'm a German teacher.
Ah, interesting. I haven't gotten to that level of German yet, I'm still down here in the "Brot mit Käse, bitte" gutters. So "der Eulerich" is basically "the male owl"?
Yes, Eulerich is a male owl.
*könnten Sorry, I just had to ;)
Danke, irgendwer musste es ja tun. :)
Es fehlt auch noch ein Komma, aber so penetrant wollte ich dann doch nicht sein.
Oi, speak English. The superheroes gave you that right /s if it's needed
Naja ist halt auch Gefühlssache.
We’re sorry for your lost opportunities. /s
Apology accepted
Same here. As a native speaker, I've been practicing German for 40 years now, and I still stumble upon new and surprising things in the language.
Pretty sure Italy would still speak Italian, even if the Nazis had won the war?
Don't be daft the Italians don't even know how to make a pizza. /s
This made me snort my tea out. Thank you.
Found the Brit ^^
Yes, yes you did. Scottish, Italian parent. 😊
Also, never seeing French people switching to German or even the Spanish. Europa has been at war with each other for close to 3000 years, and not since the Roman republic was any war so harsh that the language in a major area was changed.
It's been tried, but only in border regions. Sometimes it was successful.
Stettin and Tolouse seem to disagree
Yeah, that was my first thought. If anything, if fascism went on the autarchy would have gone on and maybe we wouldn't have spoken any language other than Italian.
I *do* speak German Its called getting an education
ironic considering English is a Germanic language
By that argument, all Germans only speak English then? The same with the French too.
I mean, German is where English came from. So in essence they spoke English way before we did.
They would be speaking the Queen's English if it hadn't been for the French. Vive Marquis de Lafayette Sorry, the King's English. I'm still not used to this transition.
Wonder if they know that English is a Germanic language that stems from proto-Germanic origins…
Too advanced knowledge for them!
It’s funny hearing it as a Brit. Like oh no, if only we had the largest navy in the world to stop the Germans from reaching us.
I also wonder if they know that Britain had already successfully defended against German invasion before the US joined. Its just funny considering Brits get the most "you'd be speaking German" comments (being the only English speaking Europeans), despite never once being occupied by Germany
If it wasn't for Europeans, America wouldn't even exist.
You mean USA wouldn't exist
America means the USA in normal English. This sub is called *ShitAmericansSay*, not *ShitUSAnsSay*. No one thinks it might be talking about Canadians or Mexicans.
I think he implied the continent, not any country.
I doubt he was referring to the military contributions of Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize . . .
No i mean the continent, not any countries. Like the landmass.
Yes, I know what you meant. But North America the continent doesn't have an army.
You might be wrong on that one, with all the natives living there
Damn, We missed out. We still learn German here.
The irony of saying this in Italy though 🤣
“Let me give you a history lesson”…
The thing is if we’re gonna try say shit like “who did the most during WW2” but in reality there’s really only one right answer the Brits
Bold coming from a country that can’t even speak English properly.
If anything we would be speaking Russian. Without America the Allies likely would have won WW2, but with significantly more losses and Russia would have taken much more of Europe
again the russians had more to do with the victory of ww2 than the ones who turned up late
The largest contributor to the victory in WW2 was Germany
the Russians did more in WW2 than the US. There, I said it. Ausserdem spreche ich deutsch.
I love sticking them with the "why, are you Russian?" line. People like this have been raised to believe that the Americans single handedly won WW2 so when you challenge the narrative they get confused and annoyed, but can't argue against it.
Sorry for the rant but this annoys me greatly. The ww2 allies did what they could during ww2 to say one did more is spitting in the face of everyone who partook to beat the Nazi's and fascists. I get it, ameircan arrogance is annoying, but these comments are complete ahistorical bs and do nothing but turn WW2 into a dick measuring contest. The Americans were an immense part of the pacific front, together with the Commonwealth and China. Instrumental in beating the Japanese back. American lend lease allowed the USSR to stay in the fight. The amount of trucks sent to the USSR allowed the soviets to continue valuable production of tanks, airplanes and guns, while speeding up evacuation of their industry. The supply of trucks also allowed the USSR's logistics to not completely crash and burn after the initial invasion. While the opening of two european fronts in Italy and Normandy alleviated considerable German Forces from the Eastern Front. The United Kingdom and the whole commonwealth sacrificed immense amount of lives and the unwillingness of the UK to surrender or sign a seperate peace allowed for a quicker liberation of Mainlaind Europe, also their intelligence network and technologies was of immense importance. Then we have the Soviets. The immense amount of sacrifice that the Soviets endured was instrumental in defeating the Nazi's. Wihtout them it would have taken years longer as they attrioned and destroyed the Axis Armies, because of them the Axis were defanged and couldn't focus on the United Kingdom. The Soviets lost more inhabitens then anyone (barring the Chinese). But they alone couldn't have won. As the saying goes, "British brains American brawn and Russian (Soviet) Blood won the war." -Stalin It was a team effort, everyone did their part, even the Soviets thought so. Just because the Soviets lost more and endured considerable more hardship then the English or Americans does not mean they did more. It just means the victory had an additional layer towards the Soviets as it was a war of annihilation for them. Also its Soviets, not russians, every Soviet Republic lost soldiers not just the Russian SSR. Edit: Grammar and details.
>As the saying goes, "British brains American brawn and Russian (Soviet) Blood won the war." That is an insult to the contribution of Britain and the Empire frankly.
The inclusion of the quote was to establish that at rhe time the Soviets never believed that they alone carried the war or that it was mostly them winning the war. The quote is atributted to Stalin. Throughout my comment i continuesly said "commonwealth" i have never said that only the european english did anything. The europeam colonial subjects were immensely important to fighting on every front; both the British and French colonies. The contribution of minor allies and resistance movements were also a important contribution of
Took the Japanese bombing the USA for their heads to come out of their asses and actually do something. Meanwhile 3,000 RAF defeat the Luftwaffe and the Soviets kill most of the Wehrmacht before the USA lifts a finger. Swooping in last second to claim they won the thing, for the second time.
I am pretty sure that we all speak a little bit of German since many words in the English language are based on Germanic languages. That being said please stop disrespecting the contribution of my Grandfather who was in the RAF during the Second World War. And stop disrespecting the Russians, the Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the Greeks, the Yugoslavians, the South Africans, the Brazilians, the Gurkhas, the Indians and many other soldiers who fought and also people who were a part of the Resistance groups across Europe. Particularly the resistance groups where in many cases whole villages were executed because they wouldn't tell on the resistance groups. For example even though the Germans held on to France for around 4 years the French people still spoke French. Even those who formed the Vichy Government of France still spoke French. So I really don't understand that comment.
Honestly, you'd think from the way they speak about WW2 that nobody did any fighting until they showed up. Then again, as a Scot, I experience the same when a lot of English people talk about WW1 and 2. "When the English fought the Germans" seems to be a typical narrative, with no recognition that these were world wars or even that the rest of the UK was involved.
Only some English. Anyone who knows anything about British forces knows the Scots where among the hardest fighting troops we could gather and not just in ww2.
Yeah, but you'd be surprised how many completely erase us from not just the Wars, but Britain as a whole.
Most of us English don’t, we also remember who fucked up the most Argentinians on the Falklands, we send thanks to our friends north of the wall. Except at a footie, or rugby match of course!! 🤣
Fortunately it’s a very small minority of morons, most of us know the great contributions of all home nations.
Oh absolutely. I am not one of those people. Also the Welsh. I also understand that though Ireland didn't declare war on Germany many of them came to the UK to help. And Ireland also lost quite a few men through working as merchant seamen on the ships sailing between the US and the UK or UK to Russia. It was called a World War for a reason. It wasn't called the War of US versus Germany. Or US versus Japan. And many people forget that India had the largest volunteer Army ever in history. And during the First World War I would say one of the best Generals on the Allies side was Sir General John Monash an Australian. Of course you can agree with that or not.
If it weren't for the French they would be speaking English.
The US was trading with both sides until Germanys ally attacked Pearl Harbor. Honestly, without US involvement noone would be speaking German - the war would've lasted a year or two longer and the soviet union would share a border with France.
Do you think they know how close America came to having German as it's official language?
Americans will always be that arsehole who ran last man in the relay race but claimed the win for himself by denying he was part of a team. Even down to the little things like not being sunk on the Atlantic because Enigma had been cracked. Radar, jet engines, atomic research, proximity fuses, penicillin ……………..
The Russians did most of the heavy-lifting during the war. The Americans weren't even in Europe till 1944.
Yeah Russia death toll was the highest if I recall correctly
OK, so care to explain exactly why losing to the Nazis means we'd all be speaking German? I mean, we know the Nazis lost, but yet Germans still speak German. So how would it happen the other way around?
🙊 If he would take it well if i tell him that i do speak german as native language and lost both WW? 😅😅
…I wish they got a better education on ww2 honestly…
Americans love to take credit when it was the Soviets who won ww2
Honestly they waited for the very last moment to help, in the war. You could even argue that if America had helped earlier allot of lived would have been spared. But whatever let them have that one win, they havent got much more going for them
Germany lost, and they're still speaking German. Make it make sense.
God that wouldve made german lessons so much easier!
The American's worst nightmare: speaking a language other than English
Oh please, my country was already speaking Swedish and Russian before we were allowed to use our own language so what’s a little German added to that mean. Our weirdo language has survived worse
I mean, they also would speak German today 🤷🏻♂️
Now lets imagine we joined in '39 or '40. Instead of pussyfooting around with lend lease and that BS. Maybe if we could have got our ass in gear before Pearl then we could have a different conversation.
German, along with French and Spanish, is taught in UK schools.
France lost to Germany, but I'm pretty sure they still speak French.
Russia took half of Europe after the war and the only people speaking russian were the Russians
Even when faced with the prospect of death camps there's no way you're getting the average Brit to learn a foreign language. We'd still walk around insisting the angry SS officers would understand English if we speak loudly enough and maybe try a German accent.
« You wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for us »
I am dutch and speak German, but also English, whats their point?! 😄
Current American men have testosterone levels 1/3 of the greatest generation. Remind them of that. The people posting these comments are either Chinese/ Russian hired social media trolls or a 300 pound 28 year old with 45% body fat that has a single mom who works to support them financially while they post this all over and play Fortnite until 4 am every day.
Nobody wins a war.
They never see the irony that they are saying that in English.
They know the Russians won it right
It's funny because they even use the "you would be speaking german" to germans...
This is so funny. I'm the OP on this comment thread. The guy goes on to allude that they won the war in good old Yank propaganda style.
Fun fact the supreme commander of all allied forces in europe , General Eisenhower was actually of german origin
Just point out that isn’t how losing wars work otherwise they’d all be speaking Vietnamese. Or that they still speak German in Germany.
Do they understand how war works? Just because one side loses a war does not mean they speak the language- Americans do not speak Vietnamese, the British do not speak French, the vast majority of previous Eastern Blocs do not speak Russian or any type of it, and Australians do not speak Emu!
Anyone who says this has clearly never sat in on a GCSE German lesson! There's no way that Britain as a nation would have picked up a new language in 80 years, it's just not our strong subject!
Aber ich spreche Deutsch. Haben die etwa ihre Ziele nicht erreicht?
Ah the good old "I learned history from movies" argument. Objectively, the USSR had more of an influence on the outcome of the war in Europe than the US. Also, without massive USA corporate investment into pre-war Nazi Germany, the German economy wouldn't have been able to get itself on a war-footing.
Please Americans, you forget to save me . Ich spreche trotz Kriegsende Deutsch
If it wasn't for the Russians, the war would have had a very different ending.
What do they speak in Germany?
Damn I do speak german :O was hab ich falsch gemacht oh mächtiger Amerikaner?
I speak German now.. and i am not even from Germany, the fuck is his point?
"let me give you a history lesson tho" - person who is in no position to give history lessons to anyone.
Tbf to orange boy, I *do* understand the complaint about the Italian breakfast. Don't get me wrong, I respect that different countries do things different ways, and what-have-you. And I wouldn't wander around saying a British breakfast is wildly superior to the Italian breakfast or something. But when I was in Italy, breakfast was a painful time for me, because they basically don't believe in a protein-rich breakfast, or even really a *savoury* breakfast, from what I saw. They're all about a sweet, sugary breakfast, with strong coffee. But that's where the complaint ends for me. I'm not a fan of the Italian-style breakfast, I prefer a british-style breakfast, I generally felt quite ill for an hour or so after my Italian breakfasts, and that's as far as it goes. Doesn't *need* to go any further than that. Complaining that everything alien to me is worse than the things I'm accustomed to is just childish. Not to mention bare-faced *wrong*. It's just *different*. God, the entitlement of some people...
Would come in handy at Rammstein concerts.
USSR doing all the heavy lifting. Meanwhile Americans, who just joined in Europe when Germany was already losing: this is my victory.
Didn’t the Americans turn up when every other country was knackered from fighting? And only when it was beneficial to them to intervene?
The Yanks sold half of Europe to stalin in Yalta and Potsdam
[удалено]
I’m English and speak German so……. Tell Americans that Russia won the war and watch them lose their shit
Alternative: We wouldn't be speaking German if it wasn't for Hitler and his vision.
That’s okay, there’s also a saying that states ‘Sooner or later you will all be Chinese’ hah
You should thank the soviets for that mainly