"How German sounds compared to other Languages"
I love Germany and Germans in general. I was born there and hope to live there again someday. Still, some of these are hilarious, especially because of the amusing exaggerations of the "German"!
= new reply since forum marked as read
"Schrei nach Liebe" (scream for love)
An Anti-Nazi-song by the band "Die Ärzte", a legendary punk-band and self-proclaimed (and quite possibly actually) "best band in the world".
Please note that the refrain ends with "Arschloch!" (Asshole!). It is custom to sing along and to shout "asshole" as loud as you can.
"Die Banane" (the banana)
A kinda-love-song by "Die Ärzte", recorded during an MTV Unplugged session. The song is about a date gone wrong when she starts eating a banana.
"Mit Haut und Haar" (with skin and hair, a metaphor for "completely"
An album by the band "Jennifer Rostock".
I can recommend "Lügen haben schöne Beine" (lies have pretty legs), a song about self-deception. And "Mach dich aus dem Staub" (a complicated metaphor for "running away from something"
, a song about breaking out of your life if it chokes you.
Swedish is probably THE easiest language for an English mother tongue person to learn due to the many similarities and its simple grammar. German retains a lot of older and arcane grammar forms, along with article declension. It is not a practical language to learn, or else it would be the first choice of every school-age kid in the States
That having been said, it does have a certain logic to it, and can easily be gotten used to. A plus is the large number of friendly natives, one of whom was so beautiful she took my breath away the moment I laid eyes on her, and nearsighted enough not to blow me off the moment I expressed some (understatement of the year) interest.
My wife and I have always spoken German with each other since we met (now almost 43 years ago), and our children are fully bi-lingual, since we have always spoken to them in our own respective languages since they were born. My wife comes from an area of Germany where standard ("high" German is not the first language of most of the locals, and so they speak German with a particular clarity and precision.
Careful about "false friends," too. "Tafel" only means "table" in the context of "roundtable," or "Time table." A physical table where you sit down to eat in "der Tisch." But a leg of that table is "das Bein."
Words ending in "-heit," "-keit," and "-ung" are always feminine, and diminutives ("-lein," "-chen" are always neuter.
...is masculine. 
Is bra feminine? Never learned that one.
"Bay Hah" is the correct pronunciation. "Brustenhalter," or Breast Holder" is the full word. Europeans LOVE their abbreviations. Since a holder ("Halter" is masculine, and the word at the end of a combined word is the one that determines the gender, the word for bra is indeed masculine. Although, come to think of it, being a male of the species, I do see a certain logic in a breast holder being male 
It is purposefully exaggerated. If you watched the entire video, you would see that the other nationalities represented, including the American, were ridiculous parodies of the average person from those countries.
I was born there-- I have six children, all of whom have substantial German heritage.
One of my daughters is moving there next year to study, and my son. Maxwell*, intends to follow her the next year.
*(Although originally believed to be Scottish in origin, the name Maxwell is in fact bastardised German. The name dates back to the 10th century. A local lord of Eil near Koln was ousted by his people and recieving no help from his leige lord he fled to England. On which was promised in return for calming a local war he would recieve the land which would now be Dumfries and Galloway. In succeeding in their task they were justly rewarded with he land as a feif. Wanting to localise themselves they took the name eil of where they were from and instead what would be used to day as in von they toook sons of or son of Mac. And so from it is Gealic Mac Eill.
-- Anonymous User 1/13/2006)
I truly meant no malice to anybody, not Germans, not Italians, not Japanese, not French, not even Americans.
I believe I even stated in the opening post: "Still, some of these are hilarious, especially because pf the amusing exaggerations of the "German"!
If you want to criticize people for being mean, maybe start with the very few people around here who seem to at times enjoy tearing fellow DU members down.
As I said, I have German family members and friends, and any of them who have seen this have thought it was funny.
You have the right to not find it funny.
I have German friends who actually like the stereotype of the hard-drinking intense German.
Just remember that the most beautiful music, classical, opera, was written by Mozart, in German.
I am originally from Germany. People have sometimes asked me what I think about the German language, and while I like it in general I also think it can be harsh sounding. I have used the butterfly example myself; it is a delicate insect and you can say "butterfly" very softly in English, but there is always some harshness to "Schmetterling." Maybe it is also because "schmetter" makes me think of "zerschmettern," to bash something. 
...the scene where there is a discussion about what language Mozart should write his opera in? Of course the Italians thought it should be in Italian, but Emperor Joseph gave Mozart the go-ahead to write the opera in German. Who knows if this is true or not, but the Italians' argument was that German was too harsh a language for opera. Somehow Mozart made it work.
My Mom used a few choice German epithets towards my dad, our dogs, and her children when I was growing up that I would love to learn the meaning of, now that I can handle it I think she might have made them up, because I've never heard them any where else!
