2y ago

As a German visiting the US

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.

89 comments

"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.
  
  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
  
  Well you have basically three options in my bubble.
  Handy
  Wischkästla (translates roughly to swipe box)
  Mobiltelefon (mobile phone) this one needs to be pronounced very precisely in order to get the sarkasm of using the old correct German word.
  
  Weird. Everyone I know calls it Handy. I do not think that is ever going to change.
We still call them so.
- Using "so"instead of "that". This guy germans.
  
  As a German. The way you phrase sentences is so similar in both languages at times that it becomes so damn easy to create a sentence which might sound reasonable at first glance, yet doesn't make any sense if you think about it and/or have a "deep" understanding of thr English language.
  
  Yup, slipup.
- 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?
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
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.
  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.
  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.
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.
- I'm into some of that Gay SM as well.
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
What is a handy in the US?
- A handjob. Better don't ask anyone for a handy.
  
  Py peer review:
It's like people are trolling, everyone calls it a handy because that is what it is called.
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 found this out as a visitor when a local told me I could get a handy at the T-Mobile store. I was like "for real? I only saw kids working in there. That's kinda gross."
Ich geb dir nicht mein Mobiles Telefon, kauf selber eins!!!elf
I think he meant Natel.
(I hope anyone here gets this...)
Duolingo says it's handy, and I have no reasons to doubt my green master
Er... I mean teacher!
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.
Our German family also calls them handys.

89 comments