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karohemdAs a German native, the portrayal in English-speaking films, TV series etc. often bugs me. This has improved much recently from the “Schweinhund” Nazi types of classic Hollywood WWII films but there are still some tropes that remain that grate because they are unrealistic.
I was prompted to write this short guide by a tweet by Chris Ing (who runs the fantastic Star Wars actual play podcast, Silhouette Zero) and is mainly meant for RPGs, although most of it would also apply to characters who are meant to be fluent in English (because of their education or because they've been living in an English-speaking country for a while) in fiction, TV and film.
Note: This is just a random collection of ideas off the top of my head, comments and suggestions/questions are welcome.
Name
Traditional names like Fritz, Hans, Dietrich etc. for male and Marie/Maria, Greta/Grete (never Gretchen, the Faust character is basically the only one with that given name in the German speaking world), Anna/Anneliese, Elisabeth for female are just that and would look very odd in a modern setting. It's easy to find the most popular names for a year on the internet (especially more recent ones might surprise you).
Also, pick one you can pronounce like a native speaker would, otherwise it does not work at all, because the one thing someone can pronounce perfectly is their name. If in doubt, consult a native speaker. :)
Language
Never use und, ich, du, ja, nein, numbers and other simple words because they are literally the first ones anyone learns and would not get wrong, either. Similarly, don't have them address English/American people with Herr/Frau. Basically, avoid replacing English words with any German words you might know or have picked up somewhere in an otherwise perfect English sentence.
What someone who isn't bilingual struggles with are complicated, archaic and technical terms and especially idioms. For example, you might hear a German person say they are holding their thumbs instead of crossing their fingers.
Obviously, these sort of replacements are tricky if your knowledge of German is limited so I suggest leaving them out entirely and concentrate on the accent.
Accent
Again, I suggest not to overdo it. The major thing Germans tend to struggle with is not the th (although that's still a bit of a hurdle) but the difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants as there are basically no voiced consonants in German and general intonation/diction.
Examples:
in German f, ph and v are pronounced the same, e.g Vater could as well be spelled Fater. Speaking from my own experience, it is very hard to get rid of this.
Many Germans wouldn't voice the th in “there” and “thing” differently
Sentence structure
After accent, this is the second most obvious indicator of a German native speaker using English. Unfortunately, it's also the one that is hardest to reproduce unless you actually know German (or are friends with English speaking Germans and hear them speak regularly. It's also not easy to describe or at least it would completely go beyond my intentions for this short guide
A good tip
Listen to native German actors in English media. Not Arnold Schwarzenegger because he has a strong regional Austrian accent and it's very obvious. A few suggestions: Franka Potente, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger (who recently impressed me in Atomic Blonde), Thomas Kretschmann as Baron Strucker in Age of Ultron, Udo Kier, Armin Müller-Stahl etc.
I was prompted to write this short guide by a tweet by Chris Ing (who runs the fantastic Star Wars actual play podcast, Silhouette Zero) and is mainly meant for RPGs, although most of it would also apply to characters who are meant to be fluent in English (because of their education or because they've been living in an English-speaking country for a while) in fiction, TV and film.
Note: This is just a random collection of ideas off the top of my head, comments and suggestions/questions are welcome.
Name
Traditional names like Fritz, Hans, Dietrich etc. for male and Marie/Maria, Greta/Grete (never Gretchen, the Faust character is basically the only one with that given name in the German speaking world), Anna/Anneliese, Elisabeth for female are just that and would look very odd in a modern setting. It's easy to find the most popular names for a year on the internet (especially more recent ones might surprise you).
Also, pick one you can pronounce like a native speaker would, otherwise it does not work at all, because the one thing someone can pronounce perfectly is their name. If in doubt, consult a native speaker. :)
Language
Never use und, ich, du, ja, nein, numbers and other simple words because they are literally the first ones anyone learns and would not get wrong, either. Similarly, don't have them address English/American people with Herr/Frau. Basically, avoid replacing English words with any German words you might know or have picked up somewhere in an otherwise perfect English sentence.
What someone who isn't bilingual struggles with are complicated, archaic and technical terms and especially idioms. For example, you might hear a German person say they are holding their thumbs instead of crossing their fingers.
Obviously, these sort of replacements are tricky if your knowledge of German is limited so I suggest leaving them out entirely and concentrate on the accent.
Accent
Again, I suggest not to overdo it. The major thing Germans tend to struggle with is not the th (although that's still a bit of a hurdle) but the difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants as there are basically no voiced consonants in German and general intonation/diction.
Examples:
in German f, ph and v are pronounced the same, e.g Vater could as well be spelled Fater. Speaking from my own experience, it is very hard to get rid of this.
Many Germans wouldn't voice the th in “there” and “thing” differently
Sentence structure
After accent, this is the second most obvious indicator of a German native speaker using English. Unfortunately, it's also the one that is hardest to reproduce unless you actually know German (or are friends with English speaking Germans and hear them speak regularly. It's also not easy to describe or at least it would completely go beyond my intentions for this short guide
A good tip
Listen to native German actors in English media. Not Arnold Schwarzenegger because he has a strong regional Austrian accent and it's very obvious. A few suggestions: Franka Potente, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger (who recently impressed me in Atomic Blonde), Thomas Kretschmann as Baron Strucker in Age of Ultron, Udo Kier, Armin Müller-Stahl etc.
