What's with all these German speaking NPCs?

[falloutgod13]

Seriously annoying if you don't know German, I don't sprechen the Duestch. Okay? Quit speaking to me in German. It's just irritating when they speak half-German and less than half-English and Henry somehow understands what they're saying from like 3 English words in 10 word sentence. LOL How? I have no idea what they're saying most of the time and at this point I just started skipping dialogue when I start hearing them talk in German. I don't know who thought this was a good idea to put in the game but it's terrible. The subtitles are also written in German which makes zero sense to me. I think the only person I've seen translated is Adder(he's turkish? I forget), which is oddly inconsistent with everything else.

It's irritating to me because it's not just a couple of quirky NPCs, no, I've run into over 20 of them now. Some are just random encounters, but regardless, most people don't talk like this. It's just weird. Why would you talk in your language to someone who doesn't understand it?

Part of me wishes I paid attention in my German classes more than I did. I came away only being able to say a few things. One of them being, "Ich bin ein obst kuchen."(I am a fruit cake.) Needless to say, I did not take the class seriously and lament that I could have and would have made use of that knowledge while playing this game. That aside, the writing of dialogue for NPCs in this this manner is still complete rubbish.

[Mörkö]

Kiender und Geld isst schoene Lebeyn

[Xan84]

I also did not like it. It would have been sufficient to add some accent or a word here or there in german.

[Firepaw]

I'm still not at the wedding yet but I encoutered some germans here and there. One of em told me a german tale "Wenn man keine Ahnung hat, einfach mal die Fresse halten". Here I am trying to figure out if he was talking about you?

[Baron01]

Escrito originalmente por Xan84:

I also did not like it. It would have been sufficient to add some accent or a word here or there in german.

This is one of the worst ways to convey the message and just show how lazy people are. So many AAA games that resort to stereo-typical Russian, French or any other non-English language, instead of using proper voice-over and provide sub-titles to ensure people get the message. It is fine not to speak foreign languages, it should not be a prerequisite to play games to be multi-lingual individual but people are just lazy to use subtitles because it is too much reading. /facepalm

Games like KCD2 or Stalker 2 are best enjoyed in their original voice-overs, appropriate for the time and place where the game is placed, and use subtitles to orient yourself in the game.

Again, the case in question here is different--German language is really used as a flavor text or bit of a joke, nothing relevant is conveyed in German language without translation in subtitles.

[Eisbär]

I like it, because it makes historical sense and being greeted with "servus" is something I experience in real life, which makes it funny. I assume someone who doesn't speak both English and German can deduce the meaning from context. I'm a Dutchman living in southern Germany, I speak four languages. I can't help but assume the OP is American, they often have a language allergy, but he has a coward's hidden profile.

[Appuleuss]

The developers want you to feel immersed in the world and make you feel what Henry feels. He's confused and so are you. I think it's designed perfectly and it makes sense, since there definitely were people from other parts of Europe who wouldn't speak Czech well enough if at all.
I don't speak German, but I understand everything I need to understand for the quests

[pascal.difolco]

Escrito originalmente por duncanjmcintyre:

I like it for flavour.

Me too
But many of our US friends are terribly illiterate, so...
Funniest thing is the Pole merc/drunkard, he's speaking so fast I can't read subtitles fast enough

[Snakekiller]

keine Ahnung watt für Problem der Typ damit hat? ....

[Hayes]

It's because you have the biggest tænder and the grimmest tøj ofcourse!

[Soondead]

It's very basic german -- I live in Norway and got the equivalent of a E- in german class some 35 years ago in school but I can still understand all of it -- but it's really just non-essential filler so if you don't understand it then that's perfectly fine.

[falloutgod13]

Escrito originalmente por Soondead:

It's very basic german -- I live in Norway and got the equivalent of a E- in german class some 35 years ago in school but I can still understand all of it -- but it's really just non-essential filler so if you don't understand it then that's perfectly fine.

I don't think someone who speaks a North Germanic language has a good grasp of what constitutes as basic German. It's kinda like an American saying that British English isn't that complicated, which is true given how it's basically the same thing with some spelling and pronunciation differences.

[Ulfkarl]

imagine only speaking one language LOL it would be very sad to be you

[Fitzy]

Escrito originalmente por falloutgod13:

Escrito originalmente por Soondead:

It's very basic german -- I live in Norway and got the equivalent of a E- in german class some 35 years ago in school but I can still understand all of it -- but it's really just non-essential filler so if you don't understand it then that's perfectly fine.

I don't think someone who speaks a North Germanic language has a good grasp of what constitutes as basic German. It's kinda like an American saying that British English isn't that complicated, which is true given how it's basically the same thing with some spelling and pronunciation differences.

There is no such thing as "British English" It's English from England and it has its roots in the Germanic language and "Basically the same thing" all that happened is Americans got the English language wrong even after it was written down for them.

English IS the "foreign language" in a game about Bohemia.

[Geeks On Hugs]

Escrito originalmente por ✿Sqüirrel✿:

I for one am glad they don't listen to people like you over things like this.

+1

[Hellsteeth30]

English has roots in nearly every nation that invaded England over the centuries.

Saxon (Germanic), Angles, Jutes, old French (Normans), Latin of course. With a hint of Viking influence.

Henry VIII eventually got fed up with the various dialects and started spreading a more unified English via the bible.

Later on French (more modern), Dutch, Afrikaans, which was itself a composite of colonial powers.

As to why English is the Lingua Franca, that's again tied to colonialism.

I speak Russian, Cantonese and some Spanish. Might move to Poland eventually as the UK sucks balls, so I'll have to learn Polish too.

Never got the hang of the Cyrillic alphabet though.