Last Wednesday evening a personal language tutor showed up on our doorstep. We spent an hour and a half learning German from him and will see him almost weekly over the next year because Mr. Meena’s company graciously provided us with 100 hours of language training. I thought that the one-on-one language teaching scene was for rich kids and motivated scholars. We are neither.
We have Rosetta Stone and some cool phone apps to help us along in this German adventure, but learning from an individual in a personalized setting makes it easier to remember and speak naturally. Plus, you learn things that might not be in the standard textbook.
Mr. Meena’s company asked for us to take a survey to gauge our level of German, but we assured them that there would be no point and they listed us as absolute beginners. Sounds about right. So, I’d like to share some useful and interesting information with other absolute beginners.
One of the first greetings you learn in Deutschland is the phrase ‘Guten Morgen’, for good morning. This phrase is reserved for when you wake up and are starting your day. Once you’ve been awake for a while, maybe around 10am, you should say ‘Guten Tag’, which also means good morning. If you say ‘Guten Morgen’ to a German at 11am, they’re going to think you’re a lazy bum that overslept. Blunder #1 avoided.
There is also the phrase ‘Guten Nachmittag’, which your faithful translator app will say is good afternoon. What it won’t tell you is that no one ever says this. You just continue to say ‘Guten Tag’ until the evening, when you can switch to ‘Guten Abend’, for good evening. Gaffe #2 bypassed.
I also learned that the phrase ‘Mrs.’ or ‘Fräulein’ is never used. That explains all the emails I received addressing me as Ms. Meena. Now I know that it wasn’t done out of confusion about my marital status. I have to admit, it does make things simpler.
And the last tidbit I have for you today is the word ‘Mahlzeit’, which is a lunchtime greeting of ‘mealtime’. Mr. Meena’s office coworkers say ‘Mahlzeit’ to each other when they are hungry, as they leave for lunch, as they pass others along the way to lunch, to the cashier when they receive their food, and generally at every opportunity they have. If someone says ‘Mahlzeit’ to you in Germany, you should respond by saying it back to them. It’s a chorus of ‘Mahlzeit’s. Some Germans say it sarcastically in the afternoon if they are hungry again, or if they see something unappealing that they definitely wouldn’t eat.
So now Mr. Meena and I have gone from absolute beginner level to slightly more adept at greeting Germans before we ask if they can speak English. You’ve got to start somewhere.
What helpful tips do you know about German greetings?
Featured photo by mekong virus licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Above photo modified by My Meena Life.
I clicked over from another of your posts (Day in the Life) to read this and was highly amused. I love how you explain each of the sayings and when to say them. I have German friends that I've gone to visit in Germany, but they typically practice their English with myself and my husband rather than allowing us to practice our Hochdeutsch along with corrections. It ends up working out pretty well for me because my German is miserable, but nevertheless it makes posts like this all the more valuable to me/us so that I can learn a little and figure out the culture better even if I'm not really getting/making the opportunity to practice my German in Germany.
Glad I could help! A lot of people have told me they have the same problem, where Germans will always switch to speaking English with them even when they want to practice. Maybe you can compromise with one hour of English and one hour of German (with corrections)? That was an idea that worked for a friend of mine.