26 October! I hope the Austrians among you are celebrating the Staatsfeiertag properly?

I will. As a welcome coincident on Thursdays both the university's Scandinavian and the German club always meet in the campus pub Powerplant (for some reason on separate tables both recognisable by the flags of the various nations). For the first weeks I always mingled with the Scandinavians, because I know a couple of people from the Faculty club and furthermore I didn't really feel the urge to hang out with Germans. But two weeks ago I thought I should just say "Hi" - and it turned out that apart from two students from Munich all are actually Canadians studying German and conversations are predominantly in English.

As I've already pointed out earlier I don't like to be surrounded by too much German language when being abroad, I' generally prefer having always non-German speakers around as well so we're forced to speak English. But of course it is nice to talk to Austrian colleagues from time to time without thinking about how to express things. But the point is - they're Austrians, so I just talk the way I'd talk at home. Naturally. Mother tongue.

But frankly speaking, one thing I really detest is talking German German abroad. German German, or standard german or written german or whatever. Hochdeutsch. I'd say I'm a native writer but not a native speaker. Talking Hochdeutsch for me is something in between talking Austrian and English; it's my language and it isn't my language. Of course the vocabulary and grammar is there. Yet, it also takes some effort. It's nothing that comes natural. I have to think about pronunciation and to some extent about sentence structure and vocabulary. Actually it was very funny when I joined the German club for the first time. They were talking Hochdeutsch with me and I was so not used to talking Hochdeutsch that in the beginning I unconsciously switched back to English a couple of times.

I guess my main objection is the way I feel about it. Speaking Hochdeutsch is predominantly formal, it's a role, but it's not me. It just isn't the right thing. If I meet Germans I'd usually adjust my language a little bit - actually I should analyse one time what exactly I change - I guess I talk a bit slower, omit the expressions which might be too far away from written German and therefore cause misunderstandings - but I don't see the point of talking German as I write it. I mean I'm not talking some incomprehensible weird mountain village dialect, it's mainly about pronunciation. Why should I say "Mir geht es gut. Und dir?" instead of "Mia gehts guad, und dia?" just because it's easier for German Germans? If I meet English speaking people I have to get used to their accent, be it American, English or Canadian. It's not one standard English. Likewise I expect Germans - who want to hang out with me - to get used to my language (but of course that won't work that easily with Canadian German students).

Just two weeks ago in Faculty club I was introduced to a visiting teacher and it was pointed out she's from Germany so we could talk German.
I joked: "Well I'm Austrian, so I can only try to speak German." Someone asked: "But you speak German in Austria?"
That teacher answered: "Well. Sort of."
I replied with a smile: "Yeah, sort of. It's a bit like with Spanish and French."
Her smile was rather chilly.

For a long time I found it quite offending when Germans told me dismissively that we Austrians don't speak proper German. Now I'm fine with that. It's true. I don't speak German German - and I like it. After all I'm not German but Austrian. I like the sound and melody of our language. I like the varieties of our dialects. It's home. In my opinion Austrians should develop a healthy degree of confidence about our language. The Swiss have TV and radio programmes, even political discussions, in Schweizerdeutsch - why don't we have the same? Is it really necessary that all radio and TV programmes have to be in Hochdeutsch? Why is spoken Austrian considered uneducated or informal? We're Austrians. That's the way we talk, that's what we are. Amen.

Now I'm going to have my Staatsfeiertagsbier!