AWESOME! Not really, I’ve never been a conservative voicing that everyone MUST speak the main language in a country. I might have been frustrated when put into a situation where I don’t understand a foreigner, but I’ve worked through MANY situations not knowing the persons language and helping them find what they need (at the camera store I worked at). We worked through it, plain and simple. Yes it took effort and time, but it worked.
I can finally see what it’s like to be in the reverse role. I’ve been in so many situations here not knowing what’s going on, haven’t had a clue about something, feeling helpless, unaware, and stupid. I’ve learned to get around it, and I don’t speak to people all day long on a regular basis, and I can usually get things on my own. I know I haven’t put that much energy into learning German, and I want to, I just feel so scared about speaking it, constantly being corrected, and put into this position that I’m a stupid American.
“Stupid American”
“Stupid American, he’ll never know it, not as good as us…”
This is all I hear all the time, what the fuck did I do? I’ve done nothing, I’m here because I find your country fascinating, and I’m trying, like my efforts mean NOTHING to you. I feel this relates to my other post of being kind to people and my gestures are being under-appreciated.
This put my motivation to learn the language more, but I don’t know if it’ll put the confidence into it that I lack heavily. I feel embarrassed to speak German, and I think that’s the biggest part of speaking another language. We as Americans are not taught to speak another language at an early age. We are taught that english is the only language to know and nothing else. Well that’s not true. We have HUGE spanish speaking populations and many other across the nation, we should think about it, how it would diversify ourselves and broaden our communication.
I’m frustrated that I lacked this education that the whole rest of the world somehow has seem to have gotten. I don’t want to feel like an over privileged person being judged that I come from some special place. I feel that I’ve worked VERY hard to get where I am today. I’m happy with a lot of choices I’ve made, and don’t regret anything that I’ve done.
But anyways, the position I was put in today was quite frustrating, and I just shut off. I felt so discriminated against, and as nice as the people seemed to be, I just felt so rejected from anything that was going on. It was just very draining, and I wanted to go home, but I was with a good friend (who also tried to stand up fro me multiple times) and didn’t want to just leave.
Well I’m home. Quite, away from everything and time to reflect! Time to do loads and loads of laundry 
YEAH! Sunday evenings
You have to look at the other side of the coin – there are lots of Germans who didn’t learn English properly in school either – and there is a strong assumption in Germany that everyone should be able to and if you can’t you are a bit stupid. So for them, to talk to you in English and make mistakes infront of you and their peers would be equally embarrassing…
There is also the thing of somehow proving yourself not a tourist…
And Germany doesn’t utilize such a percentage of foreign workers as the US…
And then there are also assholes everywhere.
I get so upset when I see fellow native English speakers behaving like entitled babies abroad. So you think you’re making an effort by not learning German and you want a pat on the back because you’re talking slowly and in fragmented sentences. Get over yourself. The reason people say things like; “stupid American”, is because you’re not making an effort and are behaving like a “stupid American”. People don’t speak German in Berlin because they can’t be bothered to speak English, they speak German in Berlin because they’re German. It’s so egocentric to insist that everyone you interact with change their routines and even their thought processes to accommodate you. If you’re embarrassed to make mistakes in German, get over it. You’re never going to improve unless you try. It’s baffling to me that you would want to save face in front of people, but insist that they open themselves up to embarrassment in front of you in order to put you at ease. If you’re not confident enough to try and speak the language and make mistakes and have to deal with the embarrassment of it then you should have moved to London, or New York. It sucks for sure, I know, I’ve been there too, but seriously do yourself a favor and get over it.
Mike you totally missed the point of this post. He never said anything about him expecting people to change their ways and accommodate him. He was simply stating how frustrated he was with being labeled as stupid because of his difficulty with the language. I’m learning German at school, and it’s really difficult. So having confidence issues about speaking an unfamiliar language has nothing to do with being egocentric, it’s nerves plain and simple.