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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 16th, 2023

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  • Well, yes. I can write a series of sentences in English without building in references to explain exactly how they relate to each other, but German writing explicates their relationship to each other.

    Thus there’s technically more vagueness in written English, though the reader makes the leap (if the writer is an effective communicator).

    As a small example, I went back and forth about including “thus” in the above sentence. I don’t think it’s necessary even in formal, written English, but it would be in German.


  • Written German is incredibly precise, IMO (I have C2 German, teach it as a second language at a university in Germany, and am currently getting a masters degree in German instruction). I came from a background in legal writing in English, and the amount of references that each sentence after the first in a text needs to the sentence before it was still staggering. The grade on my first thesis paper was an unwelcome surprise, but it can be learned.



  • I’ve worked in an office and as a waiter. I was regularly working for less than a quarter of the day in the office job (and I ended up getting the fastest promotion in the history of the department), whereas I would be scolded if I looked at my phone for less than a minute in the back of the restaurant, even if I didn’t have any tables.

    The first time I told my boss in the office that I was going to the bathroom he asked if I needed help finding it, then got really uncomfortable when he realized that I was essentially asking permission.