Top nazi officers that spoke english differently?

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alycatz
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Re: Top nazi officers that spoke english differently?

#31

Post by alycatz » 05 Oct 2014, 10:29

ilovehistory wrote:Hitler went to a "Realschule" where he learned a bit french but he was very bad.

And yes, I speak a bit french, maybe more then Hitler ;-)
What is a realschule?

So your an average German that speaks three languages... That kind of answers my last question. Average German soldiers may of spoke more than german.. Quite possible french but english too.

I only speak english, born in english soeaking country. :P
aly

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Helmut0815
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Location: Lower Saxony, Germany

Re: Top nazi officers that spoke english differently?

#32

Post by Helmut0815 » 05 Oct 2014, 11:13

alycatz wrote:
ilovehistory wrote:Hitler went to a "Realschule" where he learned a bit french but he was very bad.

And yes, I speak a bit french, maybe more then Hitler ;-)
What is a realschule?

So your an average German that speaks three languages... That kind of answers my last question. Average German soldiers may of spoke more than german.. Quite possible french but english too.[
Realschule = secondary school or junior high school (for middle class pupil)

But the majority of germans had an education level below this, they went to a "Volksschule", which translates as basic secondary school were no foreign languages were taught. On the other hand upper class pupil went to "Gymnasium" (grammar school or high school) and there Latin was the first foreign language.

So the average german soldier just spoke german and had a very limited knowledge or foreign languages, just enough to say "Good mornning". Even among the officers there were few who spoke english or french fluently.


regards


Helmut


Nautilus
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Re: Top nazi officers that spoke english differently?

#33

Post by Nautilus » 01 Dec 2014, 23:18

alycatz wrote:You say upper class men knew how to speak french / english, what about the average german soldier?
Most likely the average soldier of the 1940s regardless of nationality knew very little of foreign languages. Passable knowledge of French language was a bourgeois thing, for people coming from middle or upper class families. Sailors and ordinary population from cosmopolitan, port cities might have knew one or more languages beyond their native due to contact with foreign businesses and travellers. Urban kids from poorer classes might have learned some English or French phrases due to contact with foreign cinema and radio.

But most recruits in the pre-1950s world came from rural backgrounds and had limited formal education, and basically knew their native language only (with a strong dialectal flavor - local languages got displaced by literary language only at the dawn of the age of television).

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