h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i suppose you (the writer of this article) are from this strange island in the northwest of what we commonly call europe. the only reasons i accept
which can excuse your lack of ability to articulate in a proper manner is that you dont have something like history lessons and/or language courses
in your schools. i presume you have schools on your poor island. you better should start reading and learning and fianlly you will become an accepted
member of the worldcommunity. and by the way: ask for pardon for all the things the english people have done along hundreds of years to the citizens
of of the today so called third world and please pay back everything you have taken away from these countries.
or just shut up and and stay quiet until we all have forgotten about the bad things our ancestors have done.

Was the above an attempt at sarcasm? It never does translate well, does it?

Germans have no sense of humour. You could rant on at me for hours about the injustices of the advances of the British Empire, but 99 per cent of Britons wouldn't give a toss. Anyway, if we're getting historial about this, I could argue that although, yes, we did try and steal a few banana nations here and there, we didn't systematically try and exterminate a race of people.

Oops! Back to square one, aren't we?

Mind you, I like your cars and your beer. So there's 2 sides to every coin.

so actually you are just jealous.

No, just roundly appreciative. Don't be so superlative, that's what got you into this mess in the first place

dont´t you ever learn anything ?
being "superlative" is a british invention, you just call it "understatement".
maybe the germans (the right word for it is "deutsche", since the translation for germany is "germania" which is not longer the name for deutschland since about 150 years) have no sense of humor, but who took it away ?
look at the german people in the twenties they were completely different from people today, regarding their way or understanding of life. now more than fifty years after ww2 the germans slowly retrieve back the way of life they had before this nazi thing and that is why we don´t want to be remembered at every little occasion. we cannot bring the process to an end if there are always litte pinbricks from people who do not really know anything about the germans and how they want to live.
thats is why i´m upset when i read things like your little essay. you may call it lack of humor, but for me it´s a serious task. maybe in ten or twenty years when the process of working the nazi history off is finished i can share your sight of the things.

regards

joerg steinwagner

I think the point is that for germans the word "Hitler" is some kind of a signal for switching off the last remaining bits of humour they have.
The reason for this may be their education, at school they get so much information about what Hitler did and how he did it - they´re really sensitive about all that.
However, I want to point out that some of them have a very healthy humour. I have to know, I´ve been living in germany for 18 years

Hmmmm, Germans have no sense of humour, eh?
Well, so you are saying that more than 80 million people do not have any sense of humour?
Which means that you must know more than 80 million (German) people to say that, otherwise I would simply have to find
one German who has a sense of humour to prove that your statement is untrue...
Don't you think that generalisations are dangerous, especially if you want to prove a point?

I would be interested to know your definition of the term "sense of humour"...Is it, perhaps, insulting someone?
Do you say that "Germans" have no sense of humour because, if you insult them, they don't find it particularly funny?
Or maybe a sense of humour isn't that...well who knows?

sorry, my previous reply was not directed at Wutz, but at Grendel...well anyway...

Although I agree with some of your points, I think that you are getting a little bit to aggressive which makes a constructive discussion impossible...or maybe it's just your sense of humour, who knows?

i agree with you, i am getting much too aggressive. but this is just because i am not used to geting help when discussing a task like this. i will gear down

I absolutely share your feelings I am constantly depressed and embarrased by my
fellow countryman's ignorance of Germany. It is just not good enough to turn these insults around and blame it
on a lack of humour. Of course they don't understand german humour when hardly any bother to learn the language,
of course they only know about Hitler and ww2 when that's all they are taught in school - no mention of Beethoven,
Goethe, Luther ....

Wow, this is the most sensible thing I read in ages. Thanks

And no, I'm not being sarcastic, I mean it.

To the comment of "bothering" to learn a language. I am American, I speak German, completely of my own free will and effort. I get so annoyed when people go on about this "bothering" to learn a language stuff.

1st I agree that America should be more proactive in Language instruction but we have two main disadvantages

1a)English is rapidly becoming an "international" language, giving less incentive to learn the language. For example, I speak almost fluent German, I make mistakes but people can understan me and I them. But, even though I willingly and happily speak German as soon as I make a small mistake Germans (at least in the west) immediately want to practice their English and not give me a chance with my German. Eventually they get tired and we go back to german but you see the problem. Even the willing aren't given much chance

1b) My parent both for example took 4 years of French in high school, heck in most highschools foreign language is requirred. We can't take 3 or 4 because the scheduling system is different and there isn't time for it but still people learn it. But how many get to go to Europe but once in their life if they are lucky. Not a lot and then they've forgotten it all. Some may make small attemps but are intimidated by what they percieve as wonderful english on the part of hotel personel and others they meet and many stop trying. To Europeans another language is a short car trip away. To Americans its the trip of a life time.

Try and have a bit more understanding.

A German joke.
-Mein Hund hat keine Nase.
-Wie riecht er?
-Furchtbar

Er, whoops, I meant to reply here, but I didn't. It was some nasty comment about the pompous American bore above, but I put it in the wrong bit. Now I feel really stupid. Sorry.
Please note this is typical British bumbling and muddling through things that has culminated in the fine performances of our various athletes, such as the fine, upstanding cricket team, or the cocaine snorting rugby captain. I'm sure the Germans do have a sense of humour, but they insist on talking in that silly language that sounds like a virulent attack of whooping cough. That's enough of my bilge. Bye.

But how does English sound to other people speaking a different language? Okay, the English language is spreading, but that doesn't make it a perfect language. In fact, language is made up through years and years of usage, conforming to the situations it is used in. German is a much more functional language than English. English has lots of words to say the same thing. I've never learnt German myself, I studied French and Latin instead. It's not that I don't want to, I just don't have time.

Thats not a German joke

-My dog has no nose
-How does he smell?
-Terrible

its an international joke which also exists in French and God knows how many other languages

Well, i don't really see what the point was to this whole bloody German conversation, but i'm going to put in my pennies worth.
You see, from what i can gather, most of the postings on this subject are cross racial references as to which race is better, be that German, English, American, etc. etc. - Well, let me say this, there is no one race that is better than the other, they all have flaws, they all have good points too, the germans, had the whole Hitler/Nazi thing, but they have really good beer and a whole lot of friendly people in their country, the english, we had all the rubbish with the independancy of the americans, but now we help everyone else fight their wars for them (i see this as a good thing because it helps other countries that are unable to wage war themselves actually go out and kick some invaders arses), then the americans, well, suffice to say i wont go there. So cant we all just get along?

I agree, everybody should all get along. But that's not going to happen, ever. Everybody is always going to be against everybody else. It goes on scale. Your families the best, then your towns the best, then your county/region's the best, then your country's the best, etc, etc, etc. Probably there's some reason deep down somewhere in our genetic code that relates this to our tribal past, something to do with hunting instincts, or something like that. It's also a fear of something or someone different, probably, again, genetically built in for some reason. I don't think there's a lot we can do about it, except, perhaps, learn to laugh about it, find humour in what is an absurd, knee-jerk reaction. The stigma attached to Germans and the war will fade. Napoleon was demonized as much as Hitler, yet it faded into the past. Maybe it will take longer, because of the sheer scale of the Holocaust, but it will fade, long after we're dead, probably, but there'll be something else spring up, as yet unforeseen, to beat some other people with a big stick. If we can recognize our territorial/tribal attitude we can at least make allowances for it, even if we still laugh at the old stereotypes. We laugh cos they're funny as a stereotype. We all know they're not really true. I'm sure sure there are one or two nice Germans... Sorry, my little joke.