Germans Can Not Understand Our Pronunciation

Ah, Calvin!

I and Dr. Haug were in a streetcar in Stuttgart (see Interesting Experience in Germany Part 2). We discussed about the church reformation. I was confused why Dr. Haug didn't know whom I was talking about. I spoke about Johannes Calvin, the church reformer from Switzerland. Dr. Haug is theologian, he must know who Johannes Calvin is. I tried to describe more clearly. Then Dr. Haug understood. He said: "ah, Calvin!" The pronunciation is [kalvin] like the English words "very", "verb", "value". Do you know how I pronounced the reformer's name before? I pronounced it in Indonesian way [kalfin], like the English words "full", "father". That was why Dr. Haug didn't understand at the beginning, whom I was talking about. :-(

Garuda's German Speaking Announcer

I was on a Garuda Indonesia plane, on my way back from Germany to Indonesia. As the plane stopped in Bangkok there were new passengers, who want to go to Jakarta. Two German women sat beside me.

During the flight we heard several announcements which were spoken in three languages: Indonesian, English and German. Every time the announcement was spoken I asked the German women how the German announcement was. I hope they would be proud of it. I was surprised as they said that they didn't understand the German. According to them the announcer's pronunciation was not so clear. The announcer was an Indonesian woman. Those two German women told me that they understood the English announcement better.

Tip: Please practice the right German pronunciation well.

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