Don't let your German let you down
It’s in my psyche. I can’t help it. Yes, as a Brit, I’ve got to have my house. I’m not talking renting from some dodgy landlord here, but buying. Somewhere to call my own, where I can fit an open fire (and no doubt breach German laws on the amount of smoke you’re allowed to emit), paint whatever color I like (not just various shades of white) and even, God forbid, lay a comfy carpet or two. You see, for us island dwellers, property is one of life’s essentials. My home is my castle, sort of thing. Put two Brits together, and it’ll not be five minutes before they’re talking house prices.
So, having decided I’m staying put in Europe for at least the near future, I decided to look into it. The first thing potential house-hunters need to be aware of is the fact that you’re going to be treated like a freak. Only around 40 percent of Germans own property—the lowest rate in Europe—so for someone under the age of 50 even to think about buying is utterly bizarre. What’s more, people tend to assume that once you’ve bought somewhere, that’s it for life. The idea of buying, raking in a profit when prices boom, then selling is alien to most Germans. In fact, it seems it’s not easy to get them to part with their property, even when they’re trying to. Seriously. We made an offer on one place, only for the owner to come back and actually up the original asking price by € 60,000. Hello? I may be British, but I’m not daft.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that as soon as you start house-hunting in Munich, you’ll encounter an entire new chunk of vocabulary. They don’t teach you at A-level, for example, that verkehrsgünstig actually means closely sandwiched between major road and railway and, if you’re lucky, directly under the flight path, too. Nor do they warn you that, when it comes to apartments, the word interessant can have only negative connotations. Grosszügige Räume means it’ll cost you an arm and a leg to heat and gemütlich can be translated as “you’ll want to rip out the interior before you set foot in the place.”
Not that gemütlich is an easy word to translate at the best of times. No, it’s one of these German words that take a whole sentence to get across in English. Take a look at our “Letters” page (p. 6), which features a new section on the anomalies of German. Indeed, there’s little doubt that an understanding of German will greatly enrich any expat’s time here. If you’ve always been meaning to knuckle down and learn it, check out “Red Tape” (p. 15). Sometimes though, even natives get their tongues in a twist—read about Edmund Stoiber’s hilarious gaffes in the “Last Word” (p. 50). Whatever you do, take note of what is the most important word doing the rounds this month—Starkbierzeit. Find out about Munich’s fifth season on page 20 and remember—one sup of this potent brew will have the German tripping off the tongue.
Finally, we’d like to thank everyone who went to the trouble of filling out the “Reader Survey” in the February issue. Your opinions and suggestions are, as ever, greatly appreciated!
