August 02, 2004

A joint study by the British Council and the Goethe Institute has discovered that most Brits accociate Germans with three things: Hitler, Beer and Soccer. Rhetorical question to self: What's wrong with Beer and Soccer?
posted by pyrrthon1 20 years ago
  • 22 percent of Britons surveyed spoke any German I wonder how low the bar is on that "any"?
  • Don't mention the war!
  • I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it.
  • I know that modern Germans bear no responsibility for the atrocities of the second World War. That said, I would be suspicious of someone whose grandfather tried to burn my house down. Maybe the Goethe Institute's campaign is just lame and that's why it doesn't work. Has anyone seen it? I'll bet they use some mustachioed, beer-bellied Tueton in lederhosen, but with a backwards baseball cap. "Komm to Chermany! Ve are much exciting und hip, nicht?"
  • modern Germans bear no responsibility They sure do get guilt-tripped plenty for it anyhow, don't they? Try mentioning the name of a concentration camp near one. Knew one girl, who had a class that had a professor that swallowed the fly, and in this class this one professor of mine, Eva Brann, would get mentioned a lot, and this girl would physically flinch each time, because she'd always hear Eva Braun.
  • They sure do get guilt-tripped plenty for it anyhow, don't they? Well, they made some PR mistakes that are now only going to be erased by time. Or maybe not even, because the north and south United States still hate each other and that's even longer past. Unfortunately for Germany, they took the correct route and apologized profusely for what they did and said "we're going to make sure that we can never do something like this again." While that's admirable to me, it's condemned them in the court of public opinion because they admitted their guilt. If they'd gone the way of Italy and Japan and said "That? Oh, no. That wasn't us. Some bad guys got carried away but we're not like that," then everyone else would have played along with it. Who even remembers who Tojo is anymore?
  • I was in a nightclub shortly after England beat Germany 5-1 and the DJ kept dimming the music to shout things like 'Stand up if you hate the Krauts' Sadly the place went crazy. My friend wanted to remonstrate with the DJ but I felt that would only lead to violence so we left instead. My girlfriend's half-German and her German relatives seem pretty much like any other bunch or Europeans ... And interesting that Kerensky mentions correctness - it seems like a very Germanic quality from what I've seen of my GF's family and their friends.
  • Who even remembers who Tojo is anymore? WTDF?
  • ----------- the DJ kept dimming the music to shout things like 'Stand up if you hate the Krauts' Sadly the place went crazy. ---------- Sounds like American attitude toward the French.
  • I wonder what Americans would say they think of Germans - I've found most Germans to be pretty cool - especially the young people who all speak english, are really nice, and know how to have a good time. If the Brits don't appreciate that, their loss.
  • Unfortunately, it appears that the English hate everyone. Its a nice national inferiority complex, I suspect.
  • Q: what do you call someone who speaks two languages? A: bi-lingual. Q: what do you call someone who speaks one language? A: American. Germans love that joke. Or so David Hasslehoff says.
  • Two. World. Wars. Possibly the thinkling goes something like this: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
  • And one world cup. (had to be said - and pete_best, you can change that joke to be any Anglophone, and it's still accurate. It's our greatest shame.)
  • Or so David Hasslehoff says. Fun with the quidnunc kid (haven't done this for a while): Hasselhoff is a semiliterate, tone-deaf bitch. And his car is totally fake. *dives into quidnunc blind, ducks down and giggles with anticipation*
  • WHAT THE FUCK YOU SAY ABOUT THE HASSELHOFF YOU GODDAM PIECE OF - erk! *has heart attack in midst of apoplectic rage*
  • Scorpions = Rolling Stones
  • Great. Now he's dead again. Anyone got jumper cables?
  • Wow, shortest pro-Hasselhoff quidnunc rant ever, yet equal in volume of bile and venom. Which means greater density, of course. How sad that he was cut down in his prime...
  • *hands pete cables and new Die-Hard battery*
  • Pete, be careful how you hook that up. Remember, it's negative to negative, positive to right nut.
  • Lessee, I have a book here on the subject .... Here it is. Wie zu den Schlechtleuten des elektrischen Schlages On second thought, never mind.
  • No, his right, HIS right!
  • in my experience, most americans equate germany with oktoberfest and the autobahn. well, at least weird urban myths about there being ABSOLUTELY NO SPEED LIMITS on the autobahn so everyone goes 500 MILES PER HOUR, that type of stuff.
  • I once made the mistake of thinking a German would appreciate the humour of the German episode of Faulty Towers. I was wrong. He never spoke to me again, and I don't blame him.
  • What's it about?
  • you NEED to see it. Don't mention the war ... need I say more?
  • pete - here It was positive lead to left nut, by the way.
  • ahhh - right. thanks!
  • LEFT! I SAID LEFT, YOU HASSELHOFF-HATING MICROCEPHALIC SLI - oh sorry I see what you mean. Umm ... no probs.