I Am German, I Have A German Passport I Do NOT Understand English, Danke

I'm a German citizen, but for some reason, no matter how hard I try to speak my Native Tongue, people all over Germany still insist on speaking to me in English, even when I don't utter a single English word to them.

When I call them on it they say that it's on account of my accent.

The messed up thing is that in New York City, where I've lived for many a year, on account of my lack of a New Yawk accent, people from there ask me where I'm from.

I can't freakin' win.

In this short little vignette, despite speaking my fluent German to her, the hard working Beamte behind the counter STILL spoke to me in English, despite that my Papers, that, btw, are DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HER are nothing other than my freakin' GERMAN Passport.

At least she was nice about it.

I've got into verbal fisticuffs, with more than one person, in the very short time I've been here, with people that have refused to back down from their assumption that I'm not a Good German.

I really wish I could figure this out, because I'm just simple man trying to make his way in the Universe, and this is one of the weirdest Static Fields that has ever crossed my path.

It's a challenge.

But I'll make do.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• I Am German
• Danke

[Spytheweb]

Nice camera, what kind is it?

[DigitalComponents]

@Spytheweb Canon Powershot SX 1 IS with a fisheye lens, shot it at 1080p, but bandwidth *sucks* here in Germany, no fiber to speak of, cable is limited and old buildings like mine only have copper A/DSL, so I had to down convert it to 480p, so it wouldn't take 12 hours to upload. The original file was 450 megs and the conversion got it down to 50 megs.

[DigitalComponents]

Your point is? You see that maroon rectangular document that I'm passing to the very nice hard working lady behind the desk? That's my EU Passport that she needs to see for ID before they can issue me my Personalausweis ID Karte, that's only given to German Citizens. Without that, I can't live/work here more than 90 days. To me it's kinda like getting The Golden Ticket from Willie Wonka. So there. And like, whatever. Vielen Danke for dropping by. Please Drive-Thru. Twice.

[danskhaab]

You do have a strong accent.. I'm not German and I can very easily tell. I also think the woman was just trying to be nice to make it easier for you. You even say "Entschuldigung" and "Ich verstehe nicht" a lot, so what else is she supposed to do? :P

[Falkenmond1337]

Um sorry, but you don't speak fluent german...you answered her question "What do you want?" with "I'm good" and that's only one of the faults in this conversation...

[chibigrunt]

If you come to the U.S, don't sweat it. We don't speak "English" either :P

[tattat44]

I don't spreken ze deustech, but when you said "Yah, mein text cards" or something like that, it sounded very American, so that's probably why.

[4juxtapose4]

haha!

[iamserge]

@lutdabs To me as a German there's not even an hint of a doubt that this clearly has nothing to do with speaking German fluently or in any way it sounds like his native tongue. Either he insists - being an American obviously - that his German is perfect or makes a fool of himself acting in a weird way. And even it would be true that he doesn't speak English - he might better learn English...

[coolfly005]

sounds a bit dutch or danish to me....

[Biancapanzram]

...This is ridiculous...You'r joking, yea?...You are NOT AT ALL a native German speaker...You are CLEARLY American as hell!!...If you continue acting out this "supposed hardship" (lame), then you will only continue to make yourself look like an idiot......Kewl cam, by the way...

[MaiaRikae]

I don't buy this.

I'm American, my husband is German and our daughter (born and raised in the US) could get a German passport, too. That doesn't make her a native speaker. Besides, your passport was on the other side of the table.

And your accent? Even I can tell it's American. No way, with those "R"s, you're a native German speaker. You also failed to understand what she was saying twice.

This is a joke, right?

[pulsengine]

@DigitalComponents Although you do have a very strong American accent, I understand where your coming from. I'm English and when I go to Germany, people insist on trying out their English on me, and they're very good at it. When you try and practice your German, they either just respond in English or try and convince you that your saying the wrong thing because of a slight mispronunciation. But hey, atleast it means I can speak my native tongue almost wherever I am in Deutschland.

[jbmortensen]

This video can't be real.  It seems like a joke.