A quick lesson in German and Austrian dialect here. And also some little embarrassing mistakes we’ve made along the way! First of all, there are loads of different greetings. The official greeting and the most formal is Gruss Gott, which you would definitely say to an elderly person, and I think it actually means ‘greetings from God’ which is to say you’ve been to God’s place and he’s said “oh by the way when you see so and so, give him my greetings would you?”. A less formal version of this is Gruss Dich, or Gruss Dir, which I think means ‘greetings to you’, but if there’s two of you the person would say something which sounds like ‘Gruss Tyke’, or ‘Gruss Dink’, don’t know how to spell either of those, never seen them written down, that’s just what they sound like. You could also say ‘Servus’ to a person your own age or a friend. And then when you say goodbye, the main saying here is ‘Pfirti’ (sounds like Pfee-tee) but then if there’s two or more of you they might say ‘Pfir-tyk’, again apologies about all the spelling, I’m just trying to write it how it sounds! Formally, people say Auf Wiedersehen, or without the ‘Auf’, or often shop assistants say Wiederschauen which means the same thing but in a less formal way. Or ‘Tchuss’. Some might also say Ciao. I like that one. Nice and easy.
So as you can imagine, going for a walk, you can pass quite a number of people, all of whom will greet you in one of the above ways, and often in a way you’re not quite expecting, so it can throw you off and many times we’ve responded the wrong way or even not at all as we’re too flustered! If in doubt though, you could always just say ‘Hallo’ which sounds like ‘Halloo’. The kids know the difference between an English Hello and a German Hallo. Sometimes I’ve said “Gruss Dir” to someone after they’ve said “Pfirti” to me, and then I’ve realized and tried to shout the correct response after them but it’s all too late. On a mountain climb Maciek passed an old lady walking down the hill, and as he was in the zone and could see the top, wasn’t thinking about formalities and yelled out ‘Servus!’ Gasp!! He could have been hanged for that! Confused? Don’t worry, so are we! If all else fails, you could just do what my friend Sam did not long after she moved here and didn’t know the language. Greeted by a friendly lady on a walk along the river, she responded with the first German word that came to her head, which was Scheisse!! True.
In German ‘I am’ is ‘Ich bin’, but here they only pronounce the first syllables (this is true for many words so you can imagine how difficult it is to pick it up!) so they say ‘I bi’. In German ‘me too’ is ‘Ich auch’, but here they say ‘Ee ar’. Like a donkey. ‘Fast’ in German is ‘schnell’, but here they say something like ‘schnoi’. They also pronounce ‘A’s’ as ‘O’ in its short vowel sound. So ‘Tag’ (day) is ‘Tog’, ‘Bad’ (bath/pool) is ‘Bod’, and in German if you want to say ‘a little’ the word is ‘bisschen’, but here they say ‘bisl’. Still confused? Just so you know, as it’s been mentioned a fair bit in this blog, ‘see’ is lake, and ‘ride/drive’ is ‘FAHRT’!
Three words I always got mixed up with is Kuche (kitchen) (with the dots over the U, called an umlaut!), Kuchen (cake) and Kuken (chick, they fluffy yellow kind),(with an umlaut over the U). I know for a fact that a few times in the kindergarten I asked a child to “go to the chick and bring me a glass”, or “Happy Birthday, is this your kitchen?”, or “Can you go to the cake and help Angelika bake the chick?”. And another thing, when there is an ‘st’ together, or an ‘sp’ together, it’s pronounced ‘sht’ or ‘shp’, for example ‘Stein’ (stone) or ‘Spargel’ (asparagus). I got so used to speaking with the kids in the kindergarten as much as I could in German, mostly yelling out ‘SHTOP!!’, which is what I had to do when all else failed, that this one time, I was alone with the kids at lunch time, and I wanted a child to sit down. I’d asked him a few times and he was completely ignoring me, so I raised my voice a bit and said very sternly “WILL YOU SHIT PLEASE!” I had a bit of a giggle, luckily none of them understood me, and the teacher wasn’t there. But at least the said child sat down!
You can’t get a sense of what people are like, as you can’t understand them. The person in the queue behind you chatting to their friend, could be a complete and utter idiot, or really intelligent with interesting opinions! The old lady who is having something to say to your children as they pass you in the supermarket, could be saying how cute they are, or could be telling them to behave themselves and stop being little brats! You wouldn’t know. You just nod and smile. It’s been quite nice being in our little bubble not having to overhear everyone else conversation in the café, or in the queue in the bank. It will be interesting to find out how that feels again once we get home.
So, on to Maths…
Australians, complain no longer about the price of petrol. We pay here on average Euro1.58 per L, and in Italy we paid Eur2.00 per L!! And consider the difference in wages, here and in Oz. I think Oz is probably one of the cheapest in the world. Don’t quote me on it. But having travelled around here a bit, it’s certainly much more expensive.
It might be a bit boring but I’m interested in comparisons to Perth, so I know what to expect when I get home and don’t faint in the supermarket aisles! So if anyone cares to let me know how these prices compare (remember to convert!)…..
Huggies nappies are E10.00 for a pack of 58. Kids face wipes pack of 40, E1.00. 1L of fresh milk, E1.00. Pack of 10 fresh from the bakery white bread rolls, E1.00. Loaf of freshly baked white bread, sliced, E1.19. Bananas, E1.99 kg. Carton 10 Xlarge free range eggs, E3.49. Kg of organic potatoes E1.59. 250g punnet mushrooms, E1.00. 550g pack of turkey E4.64, or chicken breast E6.38. Pack of Cevups, E1.99. Packet of Gouda cheese slices, E1.98. Breakfast cereal is expensive, at about E3.50 for a 500g box (and all of them have chocolate bits in, good luck with your diet!)
Speaking of diets, a bottle of Yellow Tail Australian wine (I think this is quite expensive at home) E5.99 for one bottle, but you can buy two for E10.00. Bottle of Baileys Irish Cream, 700ml, E10.00. Equivalent of a carton of beer is between E10-15. Bottle of Jack Daniels, E15.00. We’ve recently been enjoying a whiskey that tastes just like Canadian Club, for E7.00 a bottle! And you can bung it all into your trolley with your apples and biscuits, same checkout. BTW, you don’t get your bags packed at the checkout, and it’s like a race against time, your groceries get pushed along and if your trolley isn’t lined up to catch it it ends up on the floor, your problem! Hofer is the worst, MPries a bit more relaxed. The next person doesn’t wait till you’re all finished either, and neither does the checkout chick, she’ll start serving the next person even if all your groceries are still on the counter while you’re madly trying to get it all into your trolley without smashing your eggs!
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