User talk:(WT-en) AndreasAndreas

Hello, AndreasAndreas! Welcome to Wikivoyage.

To help get you started contributing, we've created a tips for new contributors page, full of helpful links about policies and guidelines and style, as well as some important information on copyleft and basic stuff like how to edit a page. If you need help, check out Project:Help, or post a message in the travellers' pub. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 17:28, 2 June 2010 (EDT)

German and Scandinavian

I speak Danish and Swedish, I can do a Norwegian accent, I'm quite fluent in English and have some command of Japanese, and would in general claim to have some flair for languages - yet despite 5 years of German in school, I still struggle when someone talks to me in German at normal speed (mostly because I never use it). I also work at an alarm central in the travel insurance industry, with around 50/50 mix of Swedes and Danes, and nearly without fail, German speakers are required to switch to English, or wait till a German speaking operator is available, for them to be understood, and they most certainly don't understand us. Furthermore I have friends from Flensburg, and they all have to speak Danish, in order to be understood, since none of the Danes in the circle understands German well enough to have a halfway descent conversation.

when I think back to the German lessons in school and high-school, and how everyone struggled, the concept of the Swedes being able to understand German as a standard, frankly seems rather preposterous, especially since Danish is much closer to German than Swedish is. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 17:21, 2 June 2010 (EDT)

German

Hi Andreas, as you have seen Killerduh's debate with me, i strongly urge you not to start the same edit warring like him. German ist understood by everyone i encountered in Vienna and most speak the standard German with Vienniese in their daily life. I'm quite often in Austria (Vienna and Upper Austria) and have quite a lot of Austrian friends. Yes, Austrians use different words and have a distinct accent but even northern Germans understand the general context. If you want to start this discussion (several times discussed here!) then on the talk pages.

May i ask you two points in the technical way:

1. Please sign all your edits on talk pages with ~~~~. The button is below the summary field and is marked with Sign your name: It makes life much easier and allows easier reading for others (it automatically generates you signature).
2. Please refrain using words like swear words like idiots. We are based on consensus and capital letters are seen as shouting.

Thank you, (WT-en) jan 07:18, 3 June 2010 (EDT)

Recent edits

• Scandinavians don't understand German without prior training, we might understand bits and pieces since the languages belong to the same language group, but claiming conversations can be conducted with any sort of fluency, without either parties having substantial training in the said languages, are simply false and misleading: [1]

• Please don't introduce spelling mistakes in pages, as you did here: [2]

• Claiming Northern Norwegians have notably poorer standards of education than virtually the rest of the world is frankly preposterous: [3]

• While I know very little about this, other than the little German I know worked just fine in Zell am See, Imst, Vienna and Munich for that matter. A brief look at the relevant wikipedia pages certainly seem to make the Austro-Bavarian discussion look very academic considering this Wikivoyage version mainly caters to English speakers. And so, your ventures into the arts of linguistics, might be better directed towards Wikipedia.

Austro-Bavarian

Hi Andreas, as other users and i already explained to you, Wikivoyage is not Wikipedia and Austro-Bavarian is rather academic even on Wikivoyage. Please refrain from changing German to Austro Bavarian. The national language of Austria is German and everyone understands and writes papers in it. Austria has a rich culture that is different to Germany but they share the same language (with the German speaking Switzerland),too. This discussion is of no use for traveller who are aware that Austria and German-speaking Switzerland is different to Germany. Here the Project:The_traveller_comes_first so don't blow differences out of proportion. (WT-en) jan 10:26, 16 August 2010 (EDT)