English People...
<Guest: As an American you could always pretend that you were singing "My Country t'is of Thee! Sweet Land of Liberty!" The words may be different but the tune's the same! You simply got them confused.....as simple as that....... :-) >
LOL Strange I was singing part 'God Save the Queen' and 'My Country t'is of Thee' which I didn't know the words. ;-(
How ironic ain't it? LOL
<which I didn't know the words. ;-( > refering the 'God Save the Queen'
God Save the Queen sounds a bit of a dirge anyway! Many people here resent a national anthem that simply implores some unseen Deity to save the Monarch (just one single individual) from some unknown fate! Is that not weird or not????
<<Seriously I came across some 'Ugly Americans' while visiting Rome.>>
Loud-annoyingness when travelling isn't only reserved for Americans. I've come accross people from lots of different places who equally loud and ignorant as some Americans. I've also come accross Americans who very quiet, reserved and polite while travelling.
How about drunk as skunks Brits on the Costa Brava? Or in Ibiza...or Falaraki.....or Gran Canaria. Or any Brit town centre on a Saturday night. They take some beating.
No..Brit is not regarded as offensive by and large......many Brits are too pissed to care one way or the other anyway....... :-)
>I've also come accross Americans who very quiet, reserved and polite while travelling.
I sometimes see them moving their lips, but I'm usually talking so loud that I can't hear them.
The world's most arrogant national anthem is the German one.
>>The world's most arrogant national anthem is the German one.<<
I agree that the first (and now unofficial) verse can seem as arrogant since it's often misunderstood — Hitler exploited it for that purpose. However, it was written before the concept of German/Deutschland had been formed. The idea of Deutschland being 'über alles in der Welt' (above all in the world) was *not* meant to imply that Germany or the Germans were superior to everyone else; it was to promote the view that the German-speaking people should see themselves primarily as a part of a united Germany, rather than the collection on independent states which had existed before. Hence the lines 'von der Maas bis an die Memel, von der Etsch bis an den Belt' are included — not all of these places are in what we now call German (or Austria).
However, only the third verse is official now. It goes:
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Für das deutsche Vaterland!
Danach laßt uns alle streben
Brüderlich mit Hertz und Hand!
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Sind des Glükes Unterpfand.
Blüh' im Glanze dieses Glükes,
Blühe, deutsches Vaterland!
Which translates as:
Liberty and right and freedom
For the German fatherland!
This let us all persue
Brotherly with heart and hand!
Liberty and right and freedom
Are the pledge of happiness.
Flourish in this blessing's glory,
Flourish, German fatherland!
So not particularly arrogant at all.
It sounds much friendlier and less "scarier" in the English version.
Only because you are likely not accustomed to hearing German spoken on a regular basis. I used to think that German sounded unfriendly until I spent a number of days at a conference with a group of German people. Some of their pronunciation of English rubbed off on me as well — I ended up pronouncing English Ws and Vs for ages afterwards (e.g. welcome -> velcome).
Benjamin,
=>Only because you are likely not accustomed to hearing German spoken on a regular basis. <=
That BNP moron has never heard language outside of English, let alone German.
I find the German anthem to be very beautiful.All of it, not just the melody.
I like it as well — I can't stop myself from singing it for some reason, lol.
I spend all day, every day with German people (speaking English in lessons, though) and 99% of them are great.
=>I spend all day, every day with German people<=
You're a heroine ):D
Interesting post about the anthem, Benjamin. I agree that the context of the original composition is important in interpreting its meaning.