Yeah I recall they told everyone that during the culturial breifing they give out to all the folks who come in each week. Pretty useful info you any single men unless of course the girl is goth then like I said it may have a very positive reaction.
I guess I would talk in german better than type it I never really focused much on writting it.I found most germans if they realized you spoke a little german they gave you alot more respect becasue you showed the respect to at least speak a little german rather than be the "I speak English you kraut(insert insult for other nation jerk american might be) so I wont bother saying thank you or hello or know how to order food and drink in german."
By the way I once saw a drunken american solider call a german cop a stupid f...... kraut even though the two cops where actually being very nice to him and one said in english "Sir your nose is bleeding." and solider wiped his nose and it was not and he said "what are you talking about?"
the cop then punched him dead on the nose and said "Your nose is bleeding." The solider deserved it though he had been talking some big time crap and this was a DUI stop so he was endangering peoples lives. Some americans tried to rat the germans to the MPs but they where outnubmered by the americans who lied for the germans.And many MP felt that if flapped your mouth to a german cop you deserved the german responce.
Another thing they told us was not to turn down a german's who considers you a friend inviataion to a party or event (unless for very good reason) because it can be taken as an insult not to want to come.
I think it is a good idea to have a basic understanding of a nations language and culture if you are going to be there. In some cases something that would mean nothing to you could be an extreme insult in another culture. Some people stationed in Germany did not leave base much or they went to only places where mainly other americans went...boring. My friends and I went to the bars where the local germans went it was much more fun and you got to know people.What a shame for the ones who "stayed on the reservation" they missed out.
I liked the diffrent festivals that you could find from town to town and the weekend markets you dont see this kind of thing much in the US.Also while drinking with germans your fluency in german goes up notabily.I was in Kaiserslautern by the way Schroeder dont know where you are from I went to most parts of germany at some but not much along the coast.
At Darkfish yeah I did mess that one part up a bit though it would sound kind of funny to hear someone say it that way you would be pretty drunk to become a woman.I would assume that Dutch is largely simular to german or is more like Spanish to Portuguese? There was a guy in my unit who figured a good ice breaker for him when talking to a german woman would be say something funny so he came up with the line:My underwear smells like chocolate. I dont think it was a great success for him he usualy went to red light district in the end so much so that "Red Light" became his nickname maybe he gave out too many white flowers.