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Jurgen Flach, a native German who became a U.S. citizen while serving as general manager for an international pharmaceutical company in the States, says most Germans learn English in high school as a second language in a nation where 90 percent of the music is in English.26 Now retired in Germany, Flach adds that there are many areas in large German cities where only English is spoken.

Dorothea Baerthlein, writing for TOPICS Online Magazine, says that in Germany she does aerobics classes, warms up, cools down, goes jogging and shopping for a T-shirt, sweater, and shorts—using all those English words before going to a meeting. It’s all part of a long sharing process.

Among German words imported earlier into English are frankfurter, hamburger, kaput, kindergarten, rucksack, schadenfreude, wanderlust, and zeitgeist.

IS THERE A LIMIT?

However, there is a growing backlash against using English and Denglish, the linguistic marriage of Deutsch and English. Some Germans feel that the constant injection of English into their society is threatening the existence of German itself.

One leader of the resistance is conservative politician Erika Steinbach, who has said, “Without English or the parody of it that is Denglish, it no longer is possible to get by in daily life in Germany. Millions of Germans are at a loss . . . because so many products and ads are presented to them in a foreign language.”27 Steinbach and others have tried to enact laws restricting ads in foreign languages.

There have also been complaints about the dominance of English in science and research, where Germans have always been internationally prominent. Other subjects allegedly under siege include economics, mathematics, natural sciences, and technology.

The German Language Association has also been trying to stop the proliferation of Denglish. A sauerkraut named Walter Kraemer, the organization’s director, calls the German use of English “pseudo-cosmopolitan exhibitionism.” Yet he accepts words like sex appeal that have become part of the German language. What riles him most are words for which there are perfectly good German substitutes.28

ALL LANGUAGE IN THE MIXER

English is not the only language in the Cuisinart. French and Japanese have merged in part into what is called “Franponais.” It is essentially the misuse of French words in Japan. Other terms for it are “Flanponais” and “Flançais,” with optional pronunciations.

The mixture comes from the fact that many Japanese think it is stylish to spout French terms in the fields of fashion, cuisine, and hairstyles. But few Japanese can actually speak French fluently.

As a result of such complaints, the country’s railroad, Deutsche Bahn, was forced to remove signs in English from station areas and to replace them with signs in German. So a sign saying Kiss-and-Ride turned into Kurzzeitparkzone, and a sign for Hotline was changed to Service Nummer. These changes have not stopped the company from selling tickets, giving out service points, and boasting of a washroom known as McClean.

Lufthansa, the German airline, took the hint several years ago when it switched from its slogan “There’s No Better Way to Fly” to a German equivalent. And the German Transport Minister announced at the end of 2010 a list of 150 English words and terms that were verboten. Claiming to have the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Peter Ramsauer said the move was taken to preserve the German language from words like babysitten, rebooten, and downloaden.

AUSSIES GET A GUTFUL

Europe is not the only place in linguistic turmoil. By 2003, Premier Peter Beattie of Australia said he had had “a gutful” of Americanisms and was not going to take it anymore. “America might control the world,” he said, “but we must control and keep our language. . . . We don’t need diapers, candy, ketchup, trash cans, and fries—we’ve got nappies, lollies, rubbish tins, and chips.”29 He added that his island nation doesn’t want to be the fifty-first state.

Objections to the American influx apparently went much deeper. According to Sidney J. Baker,