Those who grew up on standard TV fare in Germany knew Prague from Pan Tau, Yorkshire from All Creatures Great and Small, and the short hot summers on Småland from the Pippi Longstocking shows. Variety, talk and game shows used to take pride in having guests “from abroad”, who were effusively hailed as “world stars” if they’d ever sung at, say, the jazzfest in Montreux, Switzerland. Show hosts who, whilst descending the staircase on stage, were capable of welcoming the audience in several languages were considered pretty chic. Nowadays even a good command of standard German seems to be a career obstacle for many a compatriot.
***Read the full article on the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung site***
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