Radio Series – German Community in Guernsey

Welcome back to our interview series on BBC Radio Guernsey! Accent has teamed up with BBC Radio Guernsey to discuss Guernsey’s rich international community and chat all things language, migration and culture.

This week, BBC Radio Guernsey’s Claire Cathcart interviews Accent’s German teacher, Ulrike Maische, and her husband Richard Friedrich, to find out about German culture and community on the island. It seems that Guernsey has a very active German community which has monthly meet-ups, making it perhaps the most organised out of all the communities in Guernsey!

Ulrike and Richard have been here for 6 and a half years, and in the interview they talk about what they thought/ think of Guernsey, what their family and friends back home thought of their move, and how Covid has affected them. They also talk about their kids: how they adapted to life in Guernsey and how they learnt English as a second language whilst keeping up their German.

Listen to the interview to hear Ulrike and Richard’s recommendations for holiday destinations in Germany, including lesser heard of spots outside of the bigger cities. Find out if the stereotype is true that Germans are early to everything…

Ulrike teaches us some basic German phrases, including hello, goodbye (informal and formal), and, the crucial question: how to ask for beer. We are also taught some amusing idiomatic phrases – listen to find out what it means if you say that you think your pig whistles.

Ulrike talks about her students, why German makes a good second language and why people choose to learn it.

Tune in next week to listen to Accent’s director, Anna Lisa Detassis, and Italian teacher Francesca Graziani discuss Italian community in Guernsey and teach us some more phrases.

Feel free to email us if you have any comments, questions or, if you are part of one of these communities, anything to add for the upcoming interviews!