Language

[rienvanham]

I'm wondering how many people in the world can read and talk German. I live in the Netherlands and can read and talk German but I think most people in the world can't. The last time I see that many items are posted in German. Is it possible to "forbid" that so that everyone in the world knows what's going on?

Thanks in advance!

Rien.

[sinus]

I'm wondering how many people in the world can read and talk German. I live in the Netherlands and can read and talk German but I think most people in the world can't. The last time I see that many items are posted in German. Is it possible to "forbid" that so that everyone in the world knows what's going on?

Thanks in advance!

Rien.

You want "forbid" a language?! 
I find such a question hard to believe.

[rienvanham]

I just wanted to ask nicely if everyone can speak English here so that everyone in the world can get what's going on.

Off course we can't forbid a language. I'm speaking quit fluently German (part of my family lives in Germany) and I find it a beautiful language. But I'm wondering how many people in the world can understand it. But perhaps they use Google translate....

[sinus]

I use deepL quite often.
And how many people in the world speaks German, can tell Google very quickly.
I am from Switzerland and speak also "High-German".

How many users in this forum speaks German, I do not know,  I guess, a minority.

[Mario]

Since this community existed, I offered support in English and German. That will not change.

Posts in German are usually indicated with [GERMAN] in the subject line so non-German speakers can just ignore them.

[thrinn]

In fact, most users in this forum already post in English, even the non-native speakers (like me). I follow the forum quite closely, and my feeling is that German posts are an exception (quantity-wise). But sometimes a specific problem might be easier do describe in German (for a German user), so we also try to help in these cases.

This said, there is always the option to use one of the online translation services. In the end, these are not restricted to e.g. translating the IMatch Help from English into your native language, but may also be used to translate an interesting thread or post from German into English or whatever language you prefer.

[rienvanham]

Oke, it was worth a try.

Thanks guys!

[Jingo]

I can't read a bit of German.. but can often just figure out the gist of a post from scanning the German.. and of course, it doesn't take more than a few clicks to get a very accurate translation online.  Plus, I often learn quite a few tricks from the German posts... would not want to see anyone not be able to post directly in their own language here.

[Mario]

... would not want to see anyone not be able to post directly in their own language here.

For legal reasons, I can only allow posts in German and English. I'm legally responsible for this community and I need to understand what people are talking about.

The search finds less than 1,000 threads with [GERMAN] or [DEUTSCH] in the subject, out of almost 65,000 posts in total.

[jch2103]

As pointed out in posts above, online translation services are very helpful in understanding posts in a language one doesn't speak. I personally use Google Translate most of the time; usually it will automatically offer to translate posts into English. Very helpful.

[loweskid]

I learnt some German way back in the distant past but I've forgotten most of it now.  I still have the vinyl LPs and books from a BBC radio German language course which was broadcast in 1967 - google 'Komm Mit! Wir sprechen Deutsch'.  Of course we brits are notorious for being hopeless at other languages..!

[hannes_hab]

I am Austrian and try to ask my questions in English Language - simple because I think not only Mario but also many other experienced users that dont speak german maybe can help me.
But its good to know that for some difficult questions I can also ask in German. My English is far away from being good or perfect, but its good enough for most of my questions and for reading the answers - but for a great and powerful but also quite difficult to learn program like Imatch its fine to have also German support. Especially for German speaking People with poor English ...

[sinus]

I am Austrian and try to ask my questions in English Language - simple because I think not only Mario but also many other experienced users that dont speak german maybe can help me.
But its good to know that for some difficult questions I can also ask in German. My English is far away from being good or perfect, but its good enough for most of my questions and for reading the answers - but for a great and powerful but also quite difficult to learn program like Imatch its fine to have also German support. Especially for German speaking People with poor English ...

Yep, that make sense.
It is logical, because simply a LOT more people does speak english than german. 
That is why I search mostly also for computer-problems (at the moment software "bender"-stuff) with english terms, because there are much more answers then in german.

German-speaking people are from Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Belgium.
And I am sure, I forgot some parts of countries ... hmm, like Italia, where in "south tirol" Italian speaks also German.
(of course there are variations of German).

That are maybe, say, 150 millions people in the world, roughly!?

And ahem, how many people lives in England, USA, Ireland, Australia and so on? 

[Carlo Didier]

And ahem, how many people lives in England, USA, Ireland, Australia and so on? 

China, India, etc? 

[stephock]

A bit xenophobic!

If you don't read German, don't try to read the posts. Seems simple to me.