Language is weird. All it is is sounds. It is crazy to think that Europe is so
incredibly different than America. We
speak English as a whole and the majority of the American people do not know
how to speak any other languages fluently.
Europe on the other hand speaks more than their own language for the
most part, whether their first language is Irish or German they know some English as well because it is also taught
in schools. In Cologne, Germany was a
shock. I was expecting signs to be
bi-lingual. But… everything was in
German. It was rough ordering food
because I had no idea what the menu was telling me so I went off of pictures
instead. Kebabs were life in Germany
because I knew what exactly I was ordering, especially at 2am.
The second day we went on a free walking tour. Not very many people showed up but I met an
awesome American who spoke a little German.
His name is Dexter and I promise he is not a killer. After the tour he went out for lunch with my
friends and I. He helped us a lot with
communicating with the locals there.
Paying would have been such a struggle without him helping us communicating
with the server, because paying separately is definitely not a popular thing.
My friends and I also went to Sculpture Park and Rheinpark. Getting there was not easy. The ticket machines are all in German,
everyone spoke German for the most part.
Even the workers at the information desk were not helpful in trying to
figure out what ticket to purchase for public transportation. After 30 minutes we finally figured it
out. Asking strangers is necessary and having
the first thing that comes out of my mouth is “do you speak English?”. It is quite weird asking that question to
anyone who I speak too.
One thing that stood out to me is not every young German knows
English. I had to go to the pharmacy and grab medicine and every young worker I
asked did not speak English. Maybe a
little bit but not enough to understand what I was asking. Finally, I talked to an older lady who spoke
fairly good English. I thought it was
strange that out of all of the people working the oldest lady knew English. It was quite the adventure on figuring out
what was going on.
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