WTF moment

Slate is running a travelog about an American's trip through Germany's “eco-empire.”  I have to say that TPTM got there first.

Anyway, as I was reading it, I came across two moments that startled me.  The first was when our protagonist's Dutch-Bolivian travelling companion praised Mein Kampf.  This doesn't surprise me at all from the Bolivian side.  Mexicans aren't Bolivians, but I've heard middle class Mexicans say “At least he organized the youth,” in praise of Hitler, and I've seen young female middle class Mexicans reading and speaking well of Mein Kampf in upscale bars.  But ... the woman in the Slate piece was half-Dutch, and the author gave the impression that she had been raised in the Netherlands.  So either I'm in denial about Dutch culture, or the author should have specified that his female friend was much more Bolivian than Dutch.

But that wasn't the WTF moment.  The WTF moment came here:

It was time to leave Bremen. Mymza had to get back to Amsterdam, and I was going to head deeper into Germany in a hybrid. We arrived at the Eurocar rental agency, and the attendant said, “Guten Morgen. Le puedo ayudar with something, s'il vous plaît?”

I knew this E.U. custom: Jam all your languages into a sentence and let the other person answer according to their preference.

I have never come across this.  Now, admittedly, most of my E.U. experience has been in the Romance zone, which may be different.  But is this really an E.U. custom?  Information wanted, please. 

Comments

[Leticia]

Reporting from Scandinavia, never heard of such practice (sample = Finland, Sweden, and Denmark).

[Doug M.]

No.

Informal conversation sometimes wobbles between two languages. But that's not an EU thing. Certainly I've never encountered anything like what the author describes here.

The closest -- and it's not very close -- is that sometimes there'll be a little dance, lasting a sentence or two, as two speakers starting a conversation try to figure out which language is best. So, speaking to a clerk, I might say "Guten tag. English ist OK?" and might get an answer "Oh, I'm sorry -- mein English ist not so good". But that's not really the same thing.

Doug M.

[Andrew R.]

Okay, Noel, you have to elaborate on the whole middle-class Mexicans and Hitler thing.