Explanation: Germans used to (apparently only in my bubble) call cellphones “Handy” and many people still do that. My friends from america found that quite hilarious.
“Used to call”? No?!
Most people in my bubble stopped saying that. They usually just say “smartphone” now.
With my peers it’s mostly just “phone” nowadays. Likely because landline phones are really rare now.
I also do that but I think „Handy“ is still the most common term. When there is any need for clarification for what you mean by „phone“, „handy“ will clear it up for everyone.
Definitely still the most widely used word. I guess it is changing because the younger generations speak better English in general and prefer using correct words.
I feel that mostly older folks still use the term? Maybe it’s just my friends and I. Ever since I realized what it means in english-speaking countries, I stopped saying it.
Maybe, I’m wrong. But again, I rarely hear the term “Handy” any more.
Im old aparently, :(
Ever since I realized what it means in english-speaking countries, I stopped saying it.
Why? Why would it matter what a word means if interpreted via another language? I mean, you go ahead and do what you want, I don’t care, but I’d like to understand the reasoning behind that.
Because I use english during most of the day. Many of my friends are from abroad and only speak english. I consume a lot of content in english, etc.
And in German, I’d even prefer Mobiltelefon over Handy. Ever since I know that “Handy” could be interpreted as “Handjob” in the US, it feels really stupid to use this word. To me, the word now feels like a “boomer invention” and even though it’s in the Duden, I don’t consider it to be correct any more. At least for my own language. There are several words in the German and English languages that fit better.
I don’t understand why it’d be hard to understand that.
It’s not “hard to understand”, I was just interested in your reasons because I thought it was curious. I still don’t agree that it’s a big deal - I also consume mostly English-language media and most of my communication online is in English but I’m still typing this on my Handybildschirm. But you do you.
Sent from my Handy.
FWIW, “handy” in the sense of “handjob” isn’t that common (U.S., over 25). I mostly hear it and use it in the sense of “useful, good to have or know.” That’s pretty handy, that could come in handy.
Plus, I can’t imagine I would ever interpret Handy as a handjob if you pronounced it the German way (Hendy). I would just go “huh” because that doesn’t register as a word in English. I’ve been told that the vowels in the German Handy and the English handy sound really similar to native German speakers. But as a native English speaker, they’re worlds apart.
Not trying to change your mind or anything. Just thought I’d give you a different perspective.
phone
You mean, your German peers literally use the English word ‘phone’ or do they say ‘Telefon’?
They say “Telefon”.
But fax is still relevant
would you use the german equivalent of the work handy or the actual english word handy? and if so whats that word, could you use it in a sentence lol
“Ich habe mein Handy verloren.” “I lost my cellphone.”
Well you have basically three options in my bubble.
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Handy
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Wischkästla (translates roughly to swipe box)
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Mobiltelefon (mobile phone) this one needs to be pronounced very precisely in order to get the sarkasm of using the old correct German word.
Wischkästla
What kind of demonic incantation is this?
Kind regards,
- Someone from Schleswig-HolsteinWe frankonians just like to call things differently.
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Weird. Everyone I know calls it Handy. I do not think that is ever going to change.
Maybe. Again, most people (except old people) in my friends circle has stopped calling it like that. Why? I don’t know. But I definitely noticed it.
We still call them so.
Using "so"instead of “that”. This guy germans.
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Thus so is so or deshalb and also is auch. Yep, it gets confusing.
Yes. Or even composition of words. I remember during a class discussion translating “Thanksgiving” as “Danksgebung” on the fly. At least I greatly entertained my professor—and I’ll never forget “Erntedankfest”.
When I was doing my exchange year in sweden I had a german teach us swedish in english. It took me while until I realised that instead dictonary she kept saying wordbook.
Yup, slipup.
Naja. So ist es wenn man eine Fremdsprache spricht. Ich genieße nur diese Momenten wenn ich sie identifizieren kann. 😁
My German family still does too
Its not your bubble, when I learnt German Handy was the word for phone they taught me
I may be wrong regarding that it isn’t widely used any more.
And yes, it was the first word I learned for mobile phone, too.
It is still very common
Oh whats most commonly used now?
idk what circles you guys live in but I grew up in rural south and been living a decade in Berlin. If a German talks to a German and they are not doing nerd talk and are just commoners having a chat they have been and still are using the word “handy”. It still is the most commonly used word to describe a mobile phone in German language
Ok good I was afraid my vocabulary was out of date
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That’s quite funny because over here in Czechia we call them mobil
i can confirm that in (the german-speaking parts of) switzerland “handy” is the only word i’ve ever heard used to describe a smartphone
In my friend circle, it’s usually just “phone”.
Duolingo is insistent on calling it a handy. It does my head in.
It is the correct term. I would just like to know who came up with that?
The term ‘Handy’ for mobile phones started to become common around 1992. There are various different theories about the origin of the term but none of them has been conclusively proven.
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In WW2 Motorola produced a Handie-Talkie (SCR-536) that could actually be hold in your hand (the famous Walkie-Talkie was strapped to your back). There have been plenty of successors with the same name but researchers doubt that this was really that widely known at the beginning of the 90s. Yet, one of the first GSM phones by Loewe was subsequently named HandyTel 100.
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German-speaking CB radio circles used the term already before 1992 for hand-held transceivers. There are actually magazines and other things from as early as 1986 where the term is used.
It must have spilled over from these circles to maybe a marketing department (Telekom claims it was theirs, without prove though) to public consciousness.
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My parents recently got a hummingbird feeder and my dad was bragging about how many “Hummers” he was getting in the yard.
His feeder brings all the Hummers to the yard.
If he gets his handy from your mother, he can tell the internet about all the hummers he’s getting.
Very sweet
In Switzerland we also say Natel.
To add a few more details: Natel is short for “Nationales Autotelefon”, which means national car phone. And existed as a brand since the 1970s.
I didn’t know that.
I’m sure this is where the joke about Germans being overly friendly came from.
That word will never not remind me of this hilarious Stephen Fry bit from QI 😂
I can’t not hear him say it in the camp German accent impression he does
Me neither 😂
Hallo und welcome to the BAHftas!
Beat me to it.
Beat meat to it haha gottem
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I’m into some of that Gay SM as well.
What is a handy in the US?
A handjob. Better don’t ask anyone for a handy.
Py peer review:
I have a bro in the US @Zengen@social.fossware.space. He visited me a couple times in Germany (even for my wedding) and I visited him in the US two times. Last time with my wife and my kids, in April. When we explained to his family what a Handy is in Germany, they all laughed and this is what ultimately led me to the creation of this meme.
Also, he and I frequently make jokes about it.
this is xool, best usage for the word i know of ^^
It’s like people are trolling, everyone calls it a handy because that is what it is called.
Duolingo says it’s handy, and I have no reasons to doubt my green master
Er… I mean teacher!
Ich, ein Auslander: “Wie sagst Man ‘Hand’ auf Deutsch? … Ach, ja.”
Reminds me of my first day studying abroad in Germany and trying to ask a random guy at the train station to borrow his lighter.
Me, miming lighting a cigarette: “Wie sagt man—” Him: “Man sagt FEUER!”
In Lebanon, “Handy” means a cordless landline.
In the US, it’s apparently a handjob.
Duolingo is insistent on calling it a handy. It does my head in.
I already noticed that Duolingo isn’t very good for learning languages after taking a glance at it’s Japanese course. I need to take a look at the German one, as well.
It’s not that bad. The problem is that as you reach the later stages it often wants one particular (sometimes incorrect) answer, when multiple alternatives are correct or better.
So, for example, I’m a dutch native speaker, and sailed through the duolingo course until the later stages. Then it gets pretty bad and I got bored of trying to complete it.
Use duolingo for the basic stuff, but it’s not the same as a language course.
Oh that’s interesting. Do you mind sharing why you scorn the Japanese course? It was my initial course and then I switched to German and have been doing it for a couple of years
Duolingo in general isn’t very good for learning a language. Their approach doesn’t work because what explanation there is is sparse and not in depth enough. They expect the user to recognise patterns on their own but that frequently causes people to see patterns that aren’t there and to misunderstand grammar points. It might be an okay-ish tool to practice what you already know.
If you were successful with Duolingo, congrats, you were lucky.
Duolingo leans very heavily into memory based learning. I would love to see us do away with this model, but it’s what they do in schools.
That said, I have basic reading and writing comprehension after two years, so it’s not all bad. I still believe a toddler would best me though.
The Japanese is just very unnatural and sometimes even wrong.
It I pick it back up, maybe I’ll opt for an alternative server then 😂
Listen, guys. I lived in Germany for my entire life and even though I know that “Handy” is common, I’m trying to say that I personally don’t hear it nearly as often as I used to a couple years ago.
So what do Germans use nowadays?
Apparently, “handy”. In my group, it’s usually “smartphone”.
