I'm so happy there are multiple languages with this exact same problem.

Works only to a limited extent in Russian, since virtually the only way to ask for permission is "Можно {insert verb here}?"=may I...=darf ich..., The only way to make this joke work is too ask "могу я {insert verb here}" which can be interpreted both as "may I..." and "can I", which is curious since both "можно" (a modal world) and "могу" (a verb) both have the same root unlike can\may and kann\darf.

In Polish may and can are the same verb ;(

@T. Of course they do. They have to drive home the fact that they are the authority in the class =P

@Jordan Pruett In Germany it's usually like in the Video up there.

​@T. In the US it's usually "I dunno CAN you?" and then you must repeat your question with may.

I had a Russian math teacher, and every time someone misbehaved in class, she'd say calmly: "Get out of the class now" and he'd say: "What?! but I didn't do anything!" Teacher: "Exactly, this is the problem, you didn't do anything since the beginning of the class"

I think more teacher should take exemple on her, I was in a class where the teacher couldn't do his class because the students misbehaved too much during all the year, and yet, he did nothing 😢

As a Dutch person, this is very relatable as well 😂😂

In Germany we don't say "Bye kids have a nice day, see you tomorrow" We say "ICH BEENDE DIE STUNDE, NICHT DIE KLINGEL!"

Same in Poland

​@dragan176 In my country we say "The Bell is non existent, and I dismiss you after having you write one page of my lecture."

Was ist 10 packen minus 9 packen? Einpacken

DANN BEGINNT DIE STUNDE ABER WANN ICH DAS SAGE

Why did I read that in my head as yelling?

Most of our teachers told us to just leave quietly and not interrupt class by asking for permission. Actually happy they didn't treat us like children.

@naphackDT I never referenced university or any school system you'd visit once you were an adult.

@None of your business Hahahaha There is that, but young kids go to school because it's mandatory to get a basic education. Once you are there of your own will, like in trade schools or university, nobody gives a crap if you just up and leave in the middle of the class.

Thing is they are responsible for kids safety for the duration of their class that period. So with younger ones it makes sense. It's a matter of insurance.

i said to my class: When you are leaving the room, just say "i go to the toillet." Don't ask for permission i have to give it anyways.

It's not like they have the right to forbid you from going 🤔 anyway

At my German school, a friend of mine went to the toilet with his girlfriend at the same time. After that, the girlfriend was the first to come back. When he came back, the teacher turned to him and asked, smiling, "So how was it?" 😅👍

lmao wtf that is an epic teacher

My favourite conversation I observed in Germany was: Tourist: Excuse me sir, would you know where the train station is? Local: Yes *Local walks away*

English: Excuse me sir, I'm so terribly sorry for bothering you but I was wondering, if it isn't too much of an inconvenience, if it were at all possible, that perhaps you might see your way to pointing me in the direction of the train station. German: Where is the train station!!

I knew it 🤣 It's just so obvious. They just asked if he knew, not to tell them. Even if it was implied by their asking.

When you understand this semantics of a sentence but not the pragmatics.

🗿

Y’all’s waiters must be atrocious 😱😱😱

I live in the US and that's what my elementary school always said. I was kind of expecting the German teacher telling the student to hold it in until the end of class. 😅

The teacher being so happy with himself is too real.

In german schools it's more like "DU HATTEST DOCH DIE GANZE PAUSE ZEIT!!!!!"

Auch in Thailand. 😂 Ich denke, das ist überall auf der Welt so

@Viis Do it once, and they will let you go next time hahaha.

FR Du hÄtTeSt iN dEr pAuSe geHen sOlLen Es ist so nervig ich hasse wenn sie das sagen die denken auch ich kann in der pause gehen obwohl ich nicht muss man kann ja nicht entscheiden wann man muss und wann nicht

Gleich in Mexiko

Same

In AU, we get teachers who should have retired long ago asking ‘I don’t know, CAN you?’ Too loudly

We say that too.

I worked at a primary school once. I said the same thing to a 3rd grader. Next day her parents complained, that I did not allow her daughter to go to the toilet (although she went, after she asked)

In English lessons: "Kann ich auf die Toilette gehen?" "SAY IT IN ENGLISH, PLEASE"

„MAY i go to the toilett, pLeAsE?!?!“

Same in France

​​@mrSquid100 XD Oh my gosh

mein Englisch lehrer letztes jahr: what is zat _strange_ language youre speaking?"

Truuuue

In primary school in Singapore the teacher would say the opposite like, "You can, but you may not" and the poor kid would have to hold it in just for asking wrongly. But a side effect is that this made me very good at modal logic during my philosophy degree at uni. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I pursued mathematical logic. :D Thanks teachers!

​@A rougue Burrito whoa. My ND brain does NOT compute this. I mean, I agree with you in principle, I think? But... What? 🤯 😂

Also I'm pretty sure that violates human rights.

​@A rougue Burrito yea. Linguistics student is probably mad at the teacher.

this makes no sense though. speech isn't about being correct, it's about being understood.

crazy Asians 🤪

Lmao I used to go to a fancy school full of rich ass persons and we had to do whole damn SPEECH to go to the toilets, it was something like "may I be excused to the bathrooms sir" and when made the mistake of saying "can" instead of "may" they would just say "I don't know, can you?" And leave us to die 💀

"Kann ich auf Toilette gehen?" "Ich weiß nicht ob du kannst" "Darf ich auf Toilette gehen?" "Nein, WARUM MACHST DU DAS NICHT IN DER PAUSE???!???!!???" "

Savage. Even barely understanding German, I got it 🤣

Die Toilette auf der Pause: Jeder Schüler und seinen Familie.

@Lukas L. Nonetheless it's agains our constitutional rights in germany, because it is considered degrading and against human dignity to have to ask permission for such a intimate basic biological need, let alone accept a denial of it. There is a decision on this, as far as I remember, even from our highest constitutional court.

​@Lorenz Jahn Still you may go to the toilet in the break. What's the matter?

Same in America

Oh gods, I had a teacher who'd respond with "can you?" in a very sarcastic tone. We all learned very quickly to say "*may* I go the bathroom?" instead. 👀😭😬

I asked a lady in broken German : "do you speak English, I'm sorry I don't speak German" She responded : "no I don't" and kept speaking in German. Sighhhh

That smug on the teachers face at the end of the video. Gosh, how happy they are inside, when they bring this bullshit into a conversation :)

Gotta own the kids somehow lol

German teachers are insisting that you had all break to go to the toilet. 😂

Every teacher in Germany ever.

It's been 18 years since I graduated from school, sick and tired of hearing that damn joke. Almost two decades later and teachers still think it's the funniest thing ever.

Guess how many lame jokes and annoying pranks teachers have to endure teaching hundreds of kids during their puberty over decades. Show some empathy.

Well, for teachers, it probably is the funniest joke ever: their audience changes out every seven years, so they are constantly getting pupils for whom it's the first time.

Dad jokes 😄

At the Uni we don’t say „Excuse me professor, can I go the the toilet?“ Instead:

This hits different if you are a teacher/coach or anybody with children to look after

That one little modal verb makes all the difference 😂 and people who learnt German as a foreign language know it better than the natives 🤣

Thats the sad true…

I took all four years of german classes in high school (although cant say I'm fluent) and was actually taught to say "darf ich die toillete benutzen" before I even learned German modal verbs. It made a lot more sense after I did though.

@Tabbi888 Yeah, language evolves and there are many similar words which aren't used in their "correct" context :)

​​@Misted Mind've noticed that only the upper class still hold a distinction between the two in English speaking societies. My English grandmother who was very formal was constantly correcting me if I chose the wrong one. My doctor for instance will use the correct ones yet everyone else I've met in an everyday setting don't distinguish between the two and should you use may I they will look at you like you're being pompous.

​@šurānumītuthey are both very different queries, can I or may I, as my formally raised English grandmother would constantly point out.

I think it's so great that he has such an English accent. And it's 10 times better that he tries to speak German ✨️

all of these are so on point, it's incredible

One of my teacher will say “I don’t know if you can.” “Can you?” No matter what you reply he has something else to just annoy the crap out of you (I’m from England)

@The 19th Fighter the object used as a pass was in most cases indeed given to students who went to the loo. There were lots of places you could put a relatively small object to free your hands, a pocket, hand dryer, etc. Come to think of it, the floors in our school bathrooms (and everywhere else as well) were always squeaky clean.

@Ogaitnas900 "Break was 10 minutes ago. Why didn't you go then? You'll have to wait." "xxx is still on the toilet, wait for him to come back, first."

@The 19th Fighter in my experience, they were usually laminated papers/cards so if they didn’t go in my pocket id leave it on the sink lol

just raise your hand and say "I'm going to the bathroom" haha

VIE SAY ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ and the last smirk ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

the funniest part is when they stop after "ich weiß nicht ob du kannst" and you still don't know if you're allowed to go

This is exactly the same in the UK I swear it happens to me every week.

You haven't figured it out by now? 🤣

I would much rather have "I dont know if you can, but you may". While they're being annoying at least they're also letting you go at the same time. Rather than sit there and force you to say it the way they want.

You've never had a teacher say "I don't know, CAN you? But you MAY go if you can."

After a few years I just stood up and walked away "where are you going??" - "Toilet."

In my last two school years a lot of teachers told us to do it like that because nobody cared and they didnt want us to interrupt the lesson

This just sortof happens in last year high school

That's the best way to do it. I sometimes say " be right back " as I exit the room 😁

Looking back i should have just gotten up and went every time without asking. Cuz that smug sarcasm i got for asking everytime they didnt deserve my courtesy of asking

As a german i can relate this

That smirk is irresistible ❤

My teacher wasn't German but she was teaching it and that's how it worked with her which the less advanced group didn't know so when their teacher got sick and they had the class with us they were confused as fuck and didn't go until my dear and dumb friend just repeated the inital question in our first language with a proud smile and then adding: "this way we'll both be clear about this" and my teacher laughed so fucking hard at that 😂

Sooo true!!! this made me remember my student days rofl 😂 didn't expact that, made my day, thank you👌

In Germany we say "Es war doch vor 15 Minuten noch Pause!"

I was brought up with this in UK. And yes, I'm part German. I was never allowed to ask "can I have ..." Or "can I go". If I ever I said that, my parents would say "I'm sure you can" and ignore the question further or told me that "Good grammar promotes logical thought". I soon learnt. My wife (not German) was brought up similarly in UK. I have often wondered whether our quirky grammatical upbringing was one of the reasons we got together.

Damn thats so true, nearly every teacher in germany. I hate people who are like that

Daaaamm, in my primary school a certain teacher would always answer it in thay same way, "I don't know, can you?" And honestly I can't believe I didn't give myself permanent eye damage at the drastic eye rolling I would do

I don't know about England English, but the "I don't know, *can* you?" response is a trope in America as well, where teachers want you to say "may" instead of "can". But nobody actually speaking American English ever actually says "may" anymore and haven't for a good few decades. Which is why it's so painfully frustrating when teachers do this lol

In Italy it's different, when I was at school and someone would ask to go there was an huge chance of the professor saying "do you have to? - well, if you can't really hold it then go - Can't you wait for the pause or the urge of going for a nice walk is too strong?

In russian school we learned "May I go to the toilet?", because our teacher said that we cant use "can" in this situation, because of such reason like in this video.

well in English, this is called "permisial can." it goes back to the 13th century. it's basically more indirect. if I say "can I be of assistance?" the response isn't "I don't know, CAN you?" but more like "perhaps you can, if you can do this thing for me"

But what if you have to go to the "can"? :P

that smile at the end was personal

Lmaooo i love this for me its not in germany but in austria this is so relatable and many memories came back 😂😂

I am German and my English teacher has taught us to say: may I go to the toilet please? If we asked if we CAN she wouldn't let us go until we said it " the correct way"

At least she didn't let you do push ups. My English teacher was also the sports teacher. Whenever we forgot to say the s in 3th person singular (he makes), he told us to do that. I learned from my mistakes quickly.

I don't even ask, I just go

So true!!! Everybody sooner or later get THAT answer 😂😂

The Dutch have the exact same thing. Kan ik naar de wc? Weet ik niet, kan je dat? Can I go to the toilet? I dont know, can you?

Every teacher in germany is exactly like this

Growing up in Alberta, Canada I got “I don’t know, can you?” To the question can I …(whatever was being asked here), a lot. But that could have just been my messed up family. 😂

Ich kenn es als: "ich weiß nicht ob du kannst, probier einfach"

Hah, thats a good one

@huanschman ne

Ostdeutschland?

Haha!😂👍Accurate! Sorry to say though...depending on where you went to school...they would make a huge fuzz about that up to 10te Klasse. Kids are 15-16 years old by then. Totally crazy! I stopped asking and just giving the teacher a silent sign that I would be right back when I was like 12-13. So no one would interrupt the class and it wasn't so embarrising.

Our English teacher back in my high school was actually the only one saying this. And it was always like "can I go to the toilet" and he said "idk can you?" "Ok, may I go to the toilet?" "Yes you may and I hope you can".

"Wieso bist du nicht in der Pause gegangen ?"

Lehrer verstehen nicht, dass man in der Pause noch nicht das Bedürfnis hatte auf Toilette zu gehen 😭

I'm having fun with your videos, Liam. Your channel is fantastic!! Hugs from Brazil.🇧🇷

Same in America oh my goodness, they would make me wait three minutes to ask again so that I would say it properly, if they let me go at all after not speaking as they wanted

In Germany we say,ich muss zur Toilette 😐because if they say no,will u stay?so no questions 😂

i took german when i was in school and was told it was "darf ich auf die toilette” lol

If they say no it's actually a crime (Nötigung) and can get their tenure revoked. Only few students and parents know that but it's actually a fact.

Weeeelll....they say it in English speaking places too! I had an A-level teacher who liked to zing this one!

The small grin at the end is brilliant

Same in the Netherlands. I hated this response as a kid, then let us go if we want instead of us asking if you are going to give such answers. Anyways, this ties perfectly with some passive aggressive comments that are commonly given.

@sirBrouwer I got you. I perceived it the same in the Netherlands. However, be aware of this when you migrate to other countries. Passive aggressiveness can sink deep into your behavior that will not be understood outside the country. Even if you don’t mean it at all, just as a tip.

It's often not as aggressive mend. More people who make these jokes just enjoy the pun. Often they also enjoy it if you can return the joke. On a personal level I often enjoy them. Even if I am the target.

"passive agressive" is not a behaviour here, it's a *lifestyle* :P

Our German teacher is answering us the same! 😂

that smile at the end xD yep 100% true

They use that in the US too 😭😭😭 humbled every time

that one really killed me lol

too many things that this channel make is so accurate!

Das war der Lieblingsspruch von meinem Mathelehrer 🙄🙈🤣

Actually, “darf ich“ is something a kid would say. In Germany you just go and when the teacher asks you, you say— I went to the toilet because I spent the whole “pause” exercising.

Was told that in my American cafeteria in elementary school by a monitor. Learned the difference between may and can that day.

In my experience that's more common in German English lessons when the student asks if he can instead of may go to the toilet.

Oh gosshhh it gets more and more relatable

Are you really German man? :D you really make me laugh hard

I knew immediately, what we say in Germany 🤣

Bro, I’m trying my best to learn German I’m happy I can add humor to the mix now 😂

That annoyed head shake is so relatable 🤣

Always getting agression kicks qhen I hear that

I mean in German English class the teachers always have that smug smile when someone asks "Can I go to the toilet?" and they reply "I don't know if you can, but your may. :-))))"

“I don’t know CAN you” - That English teacher.

And in englisch lesson "In EnGLiScH pLeAsE"

@Scar Face hahaha

My reply to this was always "Kann ich auf die Toilette gehen in english?"

Lmao I think that's a little joy of a teacher 😂

The smirk. Gets me every time 😂

Ist wirklich so

man you are always make me laugh, even if i was very piessed from life thank you 🤣

That last smile :)

Lol I love this, because I'm part Native and manners are very important in Mi'kmaq. Unironically being a good host and guest is one of our traditions

I love this, we say that in Denmark too!

Oh yes indeed. Everyone of my teachers be like that :D

I hated that as a child. Now I do it all the time myself 🤣🤣🤣

Same 😂

Same for Russia but on foreign languages lessons, and I'm actually understand teachers saying that. They are annoyed with theese questions cuz some kid just decided to interrupt your lesson having time to do it on the pause..

Nah mate in germany they rant at you lile crazy for like 5 minutes befor they say that you schould wait till the end of the lesson and then they forget to give homework so they explain it all during the breake so there are like 30 seconds left of the breake and then you just hope that the next teacher lets you finaly go, which is mostly not the case...

Actually we say nothing at all, just get up and leave the room. Despite you're at shool.

Well not in my school

"I don't know, can you?"

Damn that smile at the end got me...

My teachers in America used to pull that shit too 🤣🤣.

The second version is also what is often said in England

I speak Yiddish and it's crazy to see this written in Latin orthography. It's interesting to see the differences too. For example, "darf" just means "need" in Yiddish, not "may" and hearing how the vowels are different is also fascinating, where it says "ob" for "if", we would say "oyb", and "kann" is "ken"

Naja, Yiddisch hat sich ja in der Diaspora in Deutschland entwickelt. Das Basis ist sicher Deutsch.

the little smirk at the end always cracks me up! I'm German and when I was younger, my teachers said that shit all the time xD