When the food arrived, the presentation was marvelous. My eggs were beautiful. The sauce was on the side on a shiny plate. The waiter told us that Hollandaise contains lemon juice, which is highly corrosive, so the plate was made of chrome, not silver.

Which just goes to show, there is no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise!

Now I just let them talk in English but I continue on in German.

What is interesting to see is the “Speak English” feeling in the states is identical to the “Speak German” sentiment here. The roles of Hispanics are nearly identical to those of Turkish people here. Good food, live in the country for years and not speak the language, and are the butts of numerous jokes. For the most part are great hardworking people with a few bad apples that give all of them a bad name, and Illegal immigration is the staple pastime for many of them.

Oh, and in 50 years they will rule this place.

Having lots of kids tends to do that.

I know, I know Bush would never have gotten a pass. And living in Kehl it was really scary to see the Germans lining the streets with (figurative) palm fronds in hand to welcome Obama…

But maybe we should be nitpicking the “European Union is a success” line more than the Austrian one…..most Germans I speak with a very displeased with the EU and if it were up to them Germany would abandon it. That goes for most other Euros I speak with. When you ask, “are you a Euro” they always reply “No I am a ____ (Italian, Swede, ect)”.

Hell the EU jerks just passed a law that you can only have so much salt in Pretzel dough because the common man is to stupid to understand that eating a pretzel will give you a super dose of Sodium. The “I know, but you do not” bull is getting old real fast for those under control of the EU.

Having heard all three dialects spoken in rapid succession, I can tell you for a fact that Austrian German and German German aren’t much more than accents.

As an aside, Swiss German is actually a legitimately different dialect.

Let’s see if the late night comics have the guts to do something with this, too.

Any idea how much this blindingly ignorant post identifies you as a lickspittle?

And the Austrian dialect is not in fact dramatically different form the Bavarian German dialect, and in written form and in the form used in journalism and newsreporting referred to as “high german” it is in fact identical, both countries falling under the grammar and spelling determinations of the “Duden”

I still can’t believe the MSM gave him a pass on that one.

If anyone/everyone should be “encouraged” to learn a 2nd Language, why the bleep would it be so “outrageous” to ask people to learn English!?!?!?! There RACISM is so obvious and they are NEVER called on it!

1) If you go to that particular country (you could learn enough from a book on the plane to get you around). It’s rare to run into anyone in a foreign country that doesn’t speak English.

2) If you have relatives in this country who speak fluently and like conversing.

3) If you like eavesdropping on people when they try to speak another language so you won’t understand them

It’s difficult to retain a foreign language unless you get to practice it. Don’t count on the high school or college classes you had unless you know someone who is fluent to talk to.

My only real snobbish peeve about language is lawyers who try to use Latin and can’t pronounce it. You don’t need to use Latin these days but if you do, get it right; it isn’t rez jew dee ka ta, it is race you di ka ta. If you watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you know there is no “J” in Latin. It isn’t starry dee si ses, it’s staa ray day kee sis. Trying to pronounce Latin maxims in English sorta marks you. Whenever I was dealing with one of the real snobs, I’d use Latin and then footnote the translation in French. Had to look it all up or get help from experts, but it was fun and made the point.