App
FML for mobile
Free
Open in app

By nolinguist - 22/11/2009 17:39 - Austria

Today, I arrived in Austria. Within about an hour, I realized that I couldn't understand any "German". Turns out they have a totally different dialect here to anything I was taught in school. I'm here till May. FML
I agree, your life sucks 28 322
You deserved it 18 801
Mother's Day: Sweets and Bummers
Between disastrous breakfasts in bed and unusual gifts, Mother's Day is an inexhaustible source of laughter. More…
Previous FML Next FML

Same thing different taste

Next

Top comments

allmidnighteyes 10

"ich liebe meine scheide" just say that everywhere you go

72 3
badbunny 0

remember, the universal language for ordering at a restaraunt is point at the item listed.

45 1

Comments

Trompete87 0

Ja, österreichisches Deutsch ist sehr schwierig zu verstehen. Sie sprechen nicht so deutlich wie die Deutschen. Aber du hast jetzt eine gute Gelegenheit zu praktizieren! Toi toi toi!

3 0
Nobinx 15

ich hätte 'die' statt 'sie' gesagt und 'üben' statt 'praktizieren', that's false friend from 'practice' ?

0 0
purple5 0

It's not completely different to how they speak German in Germany.. I've been to Austria a few times to different places on holiday, and they understand what you say usually if you speak german. It's just like any country... say in the UK where I'm from, we all speak English but different areas have their own dialect and certain words and phrases different to other places. Austria probably works the same.. some areas speak more German, others I know speak more French, some even a bit Italian. You should be fine.

0 2
rawrraa 0

You idiot. That's Switzerland. You might want to invest in a MAP!

2 0
BAZOWER 0

TBH you should probably check what language a country speaks before you commit to six months there. I dunno, just a thought.

0 3
vynns 0

This. I mean, surely you'd have done some research on the country if you're staying there for a significant amount of time right?

0 1
chris_42 11

YDI for relying on what you learned in school and not taking the time to learn about it at home. You're going to be spending 6 months there, why not learn a little about the dialect?

1 0
gigi2009 0

well if you learned hochdeutsch then you have absolutely no chance in OÖ ;) no, don't worry, the upper austrians (and tho i'm from there i do mean it :P ) are lovely country folk - they'll try and help. but still, kinda a ydi?! it's a different country -- could you understand the scots the first time you heard one of em speak?! some germans can't understand other germans if they're not from the same region. heck, there're some valleys in tyrol especially where, if you're not from there, you can listen all you want and still find it impossible to believe they're speaking german - and this is from a native german speaker. YDI.

3 0
gigi2009 0

everyone who's spent a month at a language camp will spend the first week back home readjusting xD :)

0 0
unloved763 0

Then you wouldn't be happy in Germany either because you know, people don't all talk in "high German" there either, they have dialects that would be impossible for you to understand as well. But the good thing is, that in both Germany and Austria, everyone understands your School-German and if you make it clear to them, then most people can speak it too. It's not hard to switch between that and dialect. YDI for not researching and being ignorant. I don't understand every American dialect either, I'm still going to America and doing fine.

0 0
doch_fml 4

Es ist nicht so anders. Viel Glueck :)

0 0
doch_fml 4

Oh and by the way, it takes a tad longer than an hour to adjust to communicating in a new language... Just keep trying and you'll be fine.

0 0
capthavoc123 0

So I guess you can't understand English when you travel between New York and Pittsburgh, either? And French in Djibouti is completely different from French in France? Dialect isn't the same as language, retard. It's the same as the difference between saying "soda" and "pop". If you can't understand the dialect of German that they speak in Austria, then I'm guessing you were a straight D student in German.

0 3
dawnsdream 0

The difference in English between speakers in New York and speakers in Pittsburgh is hardly the same as the difference between High German and Austrian German. A better example would be the 'standard' midwestern American accent compared to an extremely thick cockney accent and dialect. Sure, you can understand some of what's being said, but it's very difficult - and it's even more difficult for a non-native speaker of English who is accustomed to the American accent. I'm a German major with an A average, and I've spent a semester in Germany - but if I were to go to Austria (or parts of Bavaria, for that matter), I would still have trouble understanding the dialect and accent combined. I could learn the dialect with time, but I wouldn't know without prior experience that Palatschinken meant Pfannkuchen (pancakes) or that they say Kasten for wardrobe instead of for crate. (Thank you wikipedia for those translations.) It's like a non-native English speaker knowing that a gumband in Pittsburgh is a rubber band. If you learn the basic/official form of the language in school, you're not going to understand a very strong dialect of the language spoken by native speakers easily at all.

2 0
arienh4 0

Funny thing is that most Americans can't even understand an English message here on FML. And that wasn't even pronounciated.

0 1
Rayn4u_fml 0

#93 Beat me to it ^^ #49 I guess you never had to learn a language from scratch because that comment has so many ignorant remarks in it; I couldn’t even bother to start correcting them even if I wanted to. And FYI: French in Canada (Quebec) makes no sense to French people from France, since you mentioned your ‘broad’ knowledge about the French language and its dialects.

1 0
xNephilim 18

#49, you're an idiot. The dialects in Germany an German-speaking countries are ridiculously different. They don't just pronounce a few words differently, they have entirely different words. Even I, as a native German, have trouble understanding some of them. Even the area I grew up in had seriously different dialects. There's a valley about an hour from where I lived and if I ever went there, I would feel like I'm in a different country, because the people there have such a bad dialect. If you want to compare the US and Germany, you might wanna say it's like having a person who grew up in a really 'proper' home, or a foreigner, being forced to live with the biggest rednecks you could possibly find. Or with the stereotypical black person. (no racism intended) My point is, if that happens - and it HAS happened to me when I first moved to Georgia - it's really hard to understand the redneck and black slang. But it's still nowhere near as hard as going to a different Bundesland in Germany.

0 0