I have found it quite surprising that even little utterances that barely qualify as words are different in German. For example, instead of a phone “beeping,” Germans say “peep.” Instead of “umm…” (i.e. while thinking of what to say), Germans say, “em…” Instead of “oops!” when making a mistake, Germans often say, “Ach so!” My assumption would have been that such utterances were universal, but actually, I was just projecting my English-centrism!
2 December 2008 at 3:23 am
absolutely! the same thing happens in spanish and portuguese and oddly (pretensiously, i fear) these little phrases somehow stick in my speech when i switch back to english. beware, it could happen to you!