That's right, fellahs, we're talking about you! (Flickr: HamburgerJung)

One thing that’s pretty clear is that humans, no matter who they are and where they come from, have relatively similar wants, needs and desires. We all like food, protection from the elements and the company of other humans. Yet despite what you might be tempted to think, there are very few things common to all human languages. Even the most basic things – like a word for “I”, for example – might exist in the vast majority of tongues, but by no means in every one.

"Don't you du me, matey!" (Photo: Iris Jungels)

As I’m writing, it’s visibly holiday-time in Germany. The road past my house is being pounded by cars laden with luggage, bicycles, and screaming children, followed by camper vans in convoy and, every now and then, one of those really cool mobile beer-vending doo-hickeys (Bierausschankwagen) that set up near parks, lakes, museums… well, anywhere exasperated, overheated parents (or thirsty journalists) might be in need of alcohol.

And if you too are off work enjoying the sun and a cool beer at one of these things, who knows, you might just run into your boss from work, perhaps being ordered around by his or her children: “No silly, I wanted to make the dolly swim, not you. Why did you have to fall in trying to get it back out? You’re so embarrassing! And where’s my ice-cream?”

Lego Brick. Photo: Flickr (cc) Windell H. Oskay, www.evilmadscientist.com

The stereotype that Germans are particularly efficient might be mostly myth, but what truth there is to the stereotype is evident in the language.

In German you can string any number of words together to make new words.  Why make up a whole new word when you can put two words together to articulate the same point?  While English grammar is obsessed with communicating things in extreme detail, with a new word for every object or concept or idea, German grammar saves time with a plethora of compound words that make learning German all the easier for the newbie.  Less vocabulary to learn.  More time to drink frothy beer.