AMD 5 Anna Schwiebert

Guten Abend!

I hope that everyone is managing to stay warm inside out of der Schnee :)
I choose to read the Wikipedia article about English words that are making there way into the German language. As a native English speaker learning German, I have to admit that there are times when I am happy to see a word that I recognize. We have a lot of vocabulary to learn so when I come across a word like "downloaden" it's nice not to have to work so hard to memorize it. Still when I think about what it is doing to the language itself I'm not sure that I think that it is a good thing.

Every language has a very unique way of expressing ideas. There are words in German that a combine several words in ways that English would never do. There are also elements of language that I think express the culture in some ways. Even the fact that there are feminine and masculine words and the word order in general can say things about the culture and the way the people of Germany think. If things languages become so messed together I wonder what could be lost in the culture of the country.

I also think it is interesting that just because a English word is used by German people that does not mean that an English speaker will automatically know what the word means in German. The use of the word Handy for example. In English "handy" acts as an adjective and describes how useful something is. I would never, without being told, know that it is used in German to refer to a cell phone. So maybe even though the word being used is from another culture, it still takes on new meaning within the culture that has adopted it.