Do German people strictly speak German or do they speak other languages too?

Question

Need to know this for a project

Answer 1

If someone lives in Germany, I think that not only do they have to learn German, but they have to learn English and one other language as part of their school curriculum. There was some really good website I used a while ago for a school project on Germany but I can't remember what the site is anymore.

Answer 2

Within Germany the language is obviously German. There are different types of German spoken within Germany other than Hoch Deutsch (high German). Virtually every region has its own version of German typically known as Platt Deutsch e.g. Hamburger Platt or Düsseldorfer Platt etc. These different dialects vary from region to region and may not be understood by every German speaker. There is also Bayerish which is typically spoken in Bayern and again differs from high German.

Regarding other languages, it is not uncommon for Germans to speak another foreign language very well and have a smattering of one or two others. Typically, most Germans speak English but French and Spanish are also common.

Answer 3

German is the only official language in Germany. Germans amongst Germans will speak German.

In school Germans learn English, French, Spanish, etc. as foreign languages to be able to communicate with their neighbours.

Answer 4

Germans are very good linguists. They are particularly anxious to learn English as an academic tool (access to text books) and for travel (it is the language they use to communicate with the many people all over the world who are unable to speak German). I think it is true to say that every single person who goes on to higher education will have achieved a certain standard in English. They used to learn Latin to a high level, but I think that this is no longer the case. After English French is the most popular language to study.

Answer 5

Not like most US Americans only speak English. For Europeans the world is multilingual. In Germany you can't have university access without having studied and successfully learned at least 2 foreign languages.
A lot of the time English is one of them, because it is quite easy for Germans to learn (apart from the pronunciation ;-)), but in the south west the preferred language is French, in the east it's Russian. Lots of people still learn Greek and Latin, for some subjects it is still a precondition to being admitted to studying them, e.g. pharmacy or the jurisprudence.

Answer 6

Most Germans know more than one language from school study. Also, In Germany, different areas of the country speak different forms of German. I'm not sure if Germans use all of the languages they know, but they certainly know plenty of them.

Answer 7

Well in Germany, when you talk to Germans and you are a German yourself, you speak German. When you come from the same region, you speak the regional dialect. In my case, my dialect is nearly the same as the "llanguage" that in Luxembourg you call Luxemburgish, but it's liguistically a dialect, not a language (but polically it is a language). Germans like to switch to another language when there are people from other countries present in a group. But not for showing off, but becuase they find it polite. It depends on the region, which language you learn at school. I'm from the border to Belgium, France, Luxembourg, so mostly you learn French as first foreign language. I had English as first foreign language, because we had an American airbase in town. (My second was French, my third Latin, but that doesn't count). When you were living in socialist Eastern Germany, you studied Russian at school. Nowadays also in the East they learn English at school. But surely you can learn the languages of the countries you confine. (Polish, Czech)
I also studied Italian for passion and studied Roman languages at university, but that was my personal decision. In Germany at school you learn at least 1 language. But as you see, you have to be interested in it. I find my English crap, though I learned it for 8 years at school. I speak much better the languages I learned for fun.

Answer 8

For sure there are many dialects in Germany. There are also some other languages recognized, but they are minor groups and speak the following languages:

Danish, Low German, Sorbian, Romany and Frisian

Answer 9

In my experience in Germany, many Germans speak English, and often other languages as well. In the west, they are more apt to speak French, due to exposure to French neighbors.

Many in the north and east speak Polish and Russian.

Answer 10

Nearly all europeans are multilingual. Europe is a small land mass and in the era of the borderless EU it is important to be able to communicate with your neighbors.
Typically a german can speak english, french, italian, spanish and likely russian.