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Comment by kleiba | Hacker News Reader

What do you mean?

What do I mean? Where to start. Interact with some people from the region and you will find out. As most learners of German know, the hard part of German isn't der die das, it's the exclusive culture. I have C1 in German and have been told "You sound unnatural like a Turk" (I am not a Turk) and "Children sound more natural than you" (of course - they are native speakers). You can get every case, every article, and every syllable correct and they will still find a way to laugh at you. Ask for help in Germany and you will be ignored. Or better yet, "I don't want to help you." Then they wonder why people fail to learn their language. Frankly I wish I could unlearn the language.

> You can get every case, every article, and every syllable correct

For articles, natives say sentences with wrong articles in them too. Seldomly because they don't know it (still happens), but because they change what they want to say mid-sentence. Cases are always a fight between the pendants and people who don't care.

Plain incorrect grammar will of course be noticeable, but grammar isn't everything.

That's not what I meant, and I too switch words mid-sentence.

And even if my word choice, register, or what have you is wrong, I don't understand the attitude. Because when they make mistakes in English I don't even comment.

I think this really depends on the people you surround yourself with. I'm a native German and I get "complaints" that I do not correct enough, because I just try to have a conversation instead of being a language tutor.

I've never had an experience like this, but my only practice in-country has been in Österreich, and majority in Wien.

Where was that? Berlin by any chance? That's not representative for Germany.

I’ve had similar experiences in other, smaller cities. Luckily they are the exception rather than the rule.

Ah yeah, north Germans. I do agree south Germans act differently.

That's a sample size of 1.

When we moved to a German speaking country from the US some years ago, we didn't have that same experience at all.

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