Gastarbeiter-Deutsch

[jumichlo]

In what kind do people in your country communicate with foreigners with no or just little knowledge of your language?

In Austria we have the “Gastarbeiter Deutsch” (well, there is a less polite expression for it too: “Tschuschen-Deutsch” ).
When the first immigrants from Turkey and Yugoslavia came to Austria about 20 years ago they spoke certainly no German. Austrians spoke to them in a very simple way, like “Du gehen da” instead of “Gehen Sie dorthin”.

Some basic rules for Gastarbeiter-Deutsch:
+Use of only infinitive verb forms.
+Use of the informal “Du” instead of the formal “Sie”.
+Repeating of the sentence for several times if the foreigner seems not to understand
+Rising of the voice each time the sentence has to be repeated to increase the chance of understanding.

In combination with the fact that many migrants never attended a German course many had great difficulties to learn our language.
Since I was a child I remember that many Austrian stick to that kind of language when they communicate with (Non-Western) foreigners.
But meanwhile I believe that Austrians with higher education now use more the Standard German, while people with less education stick to the “Gastarbeiter-Deutsch”.

[T0MINH0]

well, I don't find “Du gehen da” more easy to understand than ''Gehen Sie dorthin”.

[Nukalurk]

That's the way Creole-languages have develloped in history.

T0MINH0, of course you don't; it reveals the idiocy of those who use it when addressing to them.

[Car]

I always thought Gastarbeiter-Deutsch was used for the German spoken by "Gastarbeiter", that's at least how I understand the term.

[jumichlo]

I always thought Gastarbeiter-Deutsch was used for the German spoken by "Gastarbeiter", that's at least how I understand the term.

Well, you're certainly right.
But I observed very often that Austrians used it without checking first if the foreigner adressed is able to speak a better German anyway.

[Car]

Yes, that phenomen is unfortunately not unknown here either, so I know what you mean.

[Nukalurk]

There are even persons who talk that way to Germans of foreign ancestry who speak German very well.

[duko]

my Hausmeister speaks that way to me. At first I thought that he was foreign. I can actualy understand Hoch-Deutsch pretty well, so he shouldn't
trouble speaking pidgin. Too bad my speaking skills are still behind, nämlich the active vocabulary.