this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
365 points (94.0% liked)

Memes

45753 readers
2146 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
365
As a German visiting the US (social.fossware.space)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its not your bubble, when I learnt German Handy was the word for phone they taught me

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

It is still very common

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Oh whats most commonly used now?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ok good I was afraid my vocabulary was out of date

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

In my friend circle, it's usually just "phone".