German for Tourists: 10 Words Every Tourist Should Know

Guten Tag! Whenever you visit a country it is important to know a few words. Here we go through some basic German that tourists should know so they can enjoy their German vacation whether it is to Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, or Hamburg.
Basic German for Tourists
German to know as a tourist
Filmed in Freiburg, Germany

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Copyright Mark Wolters 2022

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[peterschutzek]

For northern Germany you can use "moin" as a greeting. 24 h a day. It is always right.

[frednich]

I found German to be rather easy to understand in context. Didn't help me speak it, but I didn't have too difficult a time understanding it when it was printed

[--Yooh-]

Moin, this will work evertime in the north of germany.

[aiedle]

Well, I like that I will not need my two years of German, aber ich möchte ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen. I still remember when I went to Italy and I got complimented on speaking Italian as an obvious American as well as I did. That is kind of my high, learning languages that will impress native speakers. Italian was easy after two years of high school Latin und Deutsch für mir war immer einfach and next Japanese so I can take my Fiancée there once we are married.

[larryolson]

I still use my 3 years of high school German when traveling abroad. It goes a long way to making people feel comfortable and does a good job of removing certain stereotypes of Americans.

[AmaleeWilson]

Currently traveling in Germany, and I am so grateful for all of your awesome videos!!

[karimedinburgh]

Enjoyed your video, thanks for sharing, stay connected !

[cynthiahaller]

Hey mark Im traveling to Germany in a few weeks, and it’s my first time traveling abroad, I’m so nervous! I appreciate the germany videos, I’m watching all of your videos to prepare😀🇩🇪

[TheMrPushy]

I was preparing for some bad pronunciations and was very surprised about how good it all sounded, well done! :D

[racsoleerf]

Come and see the Czech countryside! sleeping in a Czech inn in the middle of nowhere and being woken up by the chickens or geese is lovely!

[ello]

After “hello”, I find that the question “do you speak English?” is incredibly important, whether in German or in English, because it just comes across as incredibly arrogant when it is simply assumed that everyone understands you.

[NorthernLibrarian]

My husband's first language is German but he has grown up in North America. Wherever we went throughout Germany the minute they heard him speak about 4 German words with his North American accent they would switch completely to English. He was quite surprised how quickly they knew he was a tourist and how well the English language is known there.

[dfrederking]

I traveled to a rather small town in Germany where many people didn't speak English so I wish I'd learned a few of these. I'd studied German on Duolingo for a few months before going but I found myself struggling. It didn't wreck my trip and my experience was amazing as a German-American whose family spent hundreds of years in that town, it just would have helped to know more of the language. Especially numbers and how to ask simple questions and some understanding of the response.

[ll-vtol]

Hi Mark, I love your videos BTW, they are really helpful for travelers on where you're going. I was in germany last month and used some of these phrases as mentioned in the video. I was wondering if you please could do travel video about Istanbul or Turkey soon. That'll be great 👍

[Ingrid]

Guten tag Wolter💜 its so funny here in California ive had so many folks ask me if im German, i say no im Swedish lol great video again Wolter👍👍👍 oh gosh all those side dishes look yummy beyond belief👍👍

[NiVi]

Ah, you're back in Germany! 😍 And you've put together a great little language guide with a lot of emotional intelligence, as always. 👍🏻 Us Germans _secretly_ enjoy being called Sir and Ma'am, by the way. 😉 Feel free to add that to German phrases ("Danke, Ma'am!", "Wie viel, Sir?").

...Slightly off-topic: I feel like most Americans stick a little to the Western parts of the country (except for Berlin as the capital). Make sure to also explore the east at some point, e.g. Dresden, Leipzig, Weimar; the mines in the Ore Mountains and the vineyards of the Saale-Unstrut region. Everything's a little less cosmopolitan, but so rich in culture and nature! ...plus, not too expensive and very down-to-earth. 😍

[yaowsers]

so helpful! i love these basics videos.

[Billylohr]

This would have been super helpful when my wife and I went to Germany for our honeymoon...well, guess we have to go back now to use it 😅

[rickylein]

As a person from cologne I don’t agree with every point you mentioned 😅 of course these are generalizations anyway - but THANK YOU for pointing out the n*zi Joke thing!! I have watched a lot of videos in the style of yours but this point has never been made and it is soooo crucial!! I can’t tell you the amount of times I went to other countries, even as far away as Australia, and the n*zi jokes kept coming - or the times people came here and joked about it! Not only is it an immediate turn off but also in my case, as my grandpa was a resistant fighter (Edelweisspirat) and used his time of life to go to schools and podiums etc. and talk about the time back then - I grew up hearing all of these terrible stories (which I am sure a lot of Germans have) making me feel super super anxious when I even just see any type of symbolism anywhere today (like in movies and museums etc.) etc. let alone being associated with these inhumane crimes that have happened! It’s a very dark and traumatizing part of german history - and this is me saying that, without even being Jewish or anything so I can’t even imagine how it must be for them - and it has resulted in Germany in general having a very weird relationship with national pride. It would be unimaginable here to have a german flag in every classroom, every house outside on the street - this immediately would give off n*zi vibes and I feel like people over here (who are not ‘rechts’) try really hard to be open minded and not to step on anyones toes or anything because of our history in worry that It might repeat itself!
Millions of people lost their lives and if left more than a whole generation traumatized which is still reflected in generational trauma in the younger generations today. So yeah…not funny at all 🙈

[jimbuck]

If you're meeting a German for the first time, it's better to use the formal "Wie geht's Ihnen" rather than the informal "Wie geht's dir".