Before... maybe fled WWI, I can't recall the familial details at the moment.
They owned and operated a hotel in a German family name.
but definitely pre-WWII
my German heritage grandfather was a doctor in WWII, fighting with the Americans
couldn't be that long ago, or they mingled with other Germans, then it's almost impossible to find out
if you know the family name I might know the region, but some names are everywhere
@December Flower someone once told me that modern English and German languages, at their root, are supposedly very similar, at least grammatically. I don't know how true that is, but thought you might know?
I was tripping in Amsterdam once and the Dutch road signs were literally an alien language. Some very kind stranger who spoke English got me back to my hotel room. Otherwise, I may have been lost forever in that trip... might have just frozen to death it was like -403c with wind chill. Amsterdam in the winter...
Well, Old-High-German is to German & English what Latin is to Spanish & Italian.
So yeah, we have the same origin, since the Anglo-Saxons were just a tribe of vagabonds banished from Germany,
but still Germans.
This however does not help English-speaking natives to learn our language faster or something.
You're still screwed sadly, because the English language got rid of all the complex grammar.
I wouldn't say the Grammar is similar, since yours is non-existent, and ours is an Oxford dictionary kind of thick book full of weird and very specific rules.
The fact alone that you don't gender nouns is a big blow, and sadly I have never met an English native who would
ever grasp this concept,
even after 30+ years of learning German. French or Spanish speakers have a much higher chance here, that's just the sad truth.
It does however help us learn
your language easily. Learning English, wow, I've never had a language come so easily and naturally to me,
and that's how most Germans feel. It's like super simplified German with a bit of French and Latin mixed in, and super tacky pronounciation.
Hm, yeah Netherlandsk(which is the name of the language btw, Dutch is just a region) you don't even have to learn as a German,
it honestly just sounds like a German accent. Same with Swedish, Norwegian, Dansk, and Flamish, you just understand them by default. At least we get the gist
For an English speaker, I don't know.. it's probably super hard to understand..
