I DON’T SPEAK GERMAN:
WHY NOT TO SAY THAT IN GERMAN

German Lessons > Learning Tip 1

: : PRINT : :

I don’t speak German. • Ich spreche kein Deutsch.
Recently I read some language-learning tips from the Gadling.com travel site. In an article entitled "Five types of words and phrases to learn in a foreign language" (by Katie Hammel) there were some good tips on various kinds of essential expressions travelers should learn. In fact, I thought it good enough to re-tweet it on Twitter. In general, these are good tips, but I do take issue with one bit of advice in the article:

Do you speak English?
Instead of staying mute or responding in English, this is the time to pull out the phrase “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish” or whatever the local language is. Likewise, before launching into an English interrogation, you can politely inquire of another “Do you speak English?” in his or her native tongue.

Think about it! If you’re in Spain or Mexico, and you say in reasonably good Spanish “No hablo español” (“I don’t speak Spanish.”), you just told a lie! You just said in Spanish that you don’t speak Spanish! How is that logical? The person or persons you are talking to won’t believe you. Why should they? They understood what you said, but it simply does not compute.

I selected the Spanish example because I personally had this exact experience in Mexico many years ago – and the Mexicans in the small town where I was did not believe me. They probably didn’t speak English anyway, so they simply continued to speak Spanish. Later, when I thought it over a bit, I realized how stupid it is to say “I don’t speak language-X” in language-X.

By the same token, if you want to ask someone if they speak English, ask them in English! There may be a few occasions when it makes sense to ask someone in Spanish, German, Japanese, or whatever if they speak English, but when you are struggling to communicate in a foreign country isn’t one of them. Ask in English! If they do, they’ll respond in English. If they don’t speak English, they won’t respond at all. It’s that simple.

Some coping phrases
Rather than learning how to say “I don’t speak German” in German, it makes much more sense to learn a few useful coping phrases in the target language. Improving your coping skills for communication is vital – especially if the answer to “Do you speak English?” is no. Here are some examples in German:

• Wie bitte? Pardon? (What was that? I didn’t get that.)
• Langsamer bitte. Slower, please.
• Ich verstehe nicht. I don’t understand.
• Wie sagt man...? How do you say...?
• Wiederholen Sie, bitte. Please say that again. (repeat)

So please spend your time learning German phrases and vocabulary that will serve you well – and forget “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” and “Ich spreche kein Deutsch.”!

- HF
 

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