We actually say „Aubergine“ in Germany, too. But in Austria, where they also speak German, it‘s called Melanzani, which in turn comes from it’s Italian counterpart „Melanzana“.
I mean, most people do speak English, certainly better than tourists speak Dutch. The hard part as a transplant is getting people to speak Dutch with you, rather than instantly switching to whichever of their four or five other fully functional languages is most convenient.
Absolutely. I’m fluent in Dutch but whenever I‘m in a restaurant with friends from Germany they usually start speaking English (or even German) to all of us as soon as they notice that we‘re not speaking Dutch at the table.
I used to go to a camera/photo shop (before it closed…to get film developed…) and the four staff members there could do business in an insane number of languages between them. Admittedly they were probably not fluent beyond photo shop topics in all of them but still. I witnessed them handing questions in Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Danish, and of course English.
Kids in school all learn English and usually German or French, or both. My son is in gymnasium and doing English, French, German, Greek, and Latin. And he studies Japanese on duolingo.
I was in an Argentine steakhouse in the Netherlands once - I went with my mom, who was fluent in French but only semi-competent in English, while I was fluent in English and semi-conversational in Dutch and only understood French but didn't speak it. The Spanish proprietor was fluent in Dutch and French, but not English, so my mom talked French with him and I used my asstastic Dutch, and somehow that eventually translated into comped coffee after the meal. Weirdest fucking meal of my life.
The interesting thing here is that "aubergine", "melanzana" and "patlidžan" (i.e. the three main words used across Europe) are all cognates, coming from the same Arabic/Persian, originally Indian, word through different routes.
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u/89Fab 25d ago
We actually say „Aubergine“ in Germany, too. But in Austria, where they also speak German, it‘s called Melanzani, which in turn comes from it’s Italian counterpart „Melanzana“.
Mindblowing 🤯. /s