Ig Nobel prize for study showing that drunk Germans speak Dutch better than sober ones

https://nltimes.nl/2025/09/19/ig-nobel-prize-study-showing-drunk-germans-speak-dutch-better-sober-ones

by ByGollie

34 comments

  2. Finally it’s been proven that I was right. The last time I put forward this thesis in a Dutch pub in Utrecht with my German accent I got some nasty looks. Well, I did more or less phrase it along the lines of Dutch being basically drunk German.. but still.

  5. I wonder if it’s just the confidence boost from being drunk that makes it easier to speak

  6. Just like Dutch people speak better German when they are angry

  8. As an Italian I can confirm I can speak better German when drunk

  9. A Swedish woman used to tell me she specifically spoke better German when drunk. I thought she was joking up until now, my mind is blown.

  13. Sober German: WO IST DER BAHNHOF VERDAMTE HOLLANDER

    Drunk German: pardon kunt U mij de weg naar het station wijzen?

  14. Further proof to my theory that dutch is just drunk german that stuck around after sobering up!

  15. I’m Bulgarian and I speak German much better when drunk, English about the same, and Bulgarian starts getting real hard after about 1.5 bottles of wine.

  16. At first I understood it as “Drunk Germans speak Dutch better than sober Dutch”.

  18. In Mallorca (at least in my area) we call Dutch people “Dollar Store Germans” (alemanes de los chinos).

    They look German, sound somewhat like German but they are not and spend way less. Also way ruder towards service.

  19. When I was in language classes, my teachers would always joke about giving everyone a shot before taking a speaking test to help scores so this is very believable.

  20. Purely anecdotal, but, as a french having studied German at school (30 years ago), I can testify that I am much more eloquent in German when drunk or half drunk than when sober.

  23. Reminds me of when they used to sell English lesson cds with vodka in Poland, apparently it helped with pronunciation.

  25. I grew up stateside speaking an old dialect of German at home & have said for years that the dutch language sounded like drunk Germans and that always pissed people off. I’m glad to finally be somewhat validated lol

  28. Are they saying drunk Germans speak better Dutch than the Dutch?

  29. Because it’s often misunderstood, the Ig Nobel is not for bad science, it’s for good science that on the face of it might seem absurd, but underneath that absurdity it tells us very interesting things.

    And yes, I know this is in the article, but because people will often stop at a headline I thought it worth reiterating to avoid my reirritation at this perennial misunderstanding.

  30. I always felt like I spoke different languages better while drunk.

  31. Dutch Courage can help you speak a foreign language, according to a study by Dutch, English, and German researchers that was awarded an [Ig Nobel prize](https://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2025) on Thursday. They showed that alcohol consumption sometimes improves a person’s ability to speak a foreign language. “We made an important discovery. Drunk Germans usually pronounce Dutch better than sober Germans.”

    “It started with colleagues from different countries speaking different languages and sometimes joking, ‘I swear I speak better Dutch after a glass of wine.’ Rather than leaving it at that, we decided to test it properly,” the researchers said in their acceptance speech, read on their behalf by Svante Pääbo, a Swedish genetic scientist who won the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

    The study won the Ig Nobel Peace Prize. Researchers Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, and Jessica Werthmann had 50 German students who also spoke Dutch converse with a native Dutch speaker. Some had drunk water, and the others had a glass of vodka and soda. The researchers found that “a low dose” of alcohol, in this case, less than what is found in a pint of beer, made people believe that their own spoken Dutch was improved. And the independent reviewers agreed that pronunciation was indeed clearer.

    According to the researchers, increased self-confidence after drinking alcohol, often called Dutch Courage, played a role here. But it is also that the alcohol reduced the speaker’s anxiety of sounding silly when speaking a foreign language. The benefits stopped with the lower dose, the researchers stressed. “In short, a small sip seemed to boost confidence without making the words fall apart,” said Nobel Prize winner Robert Merton, who also read the Maastricht researchers’ speech.

    “Now, before anyone rushes to claim language lessons as tax-deductible bar bills, let us stress we do not recommend alcohol as a tool to learn a new language. At higher doses, it seriously impairs memory, attention, and behavior, the very skills you need to learn a language and frankly to function in everyday life.”

    The Ig Nobel prizes are awarded every year to studies that may seem silly, but address a serious issue – research that “first makes people laugh, and then makes them think.” [Last year, Dutch researchers won](https://nltimes.nl/2024/09/13/dutch-scientists-win-ig-nobels-350757-coin-flips-drunk-worm-study) Ig Nobel prizes for proving that a coin flip wasn’t 50-50 and for racing drunk and sober worms to study the separation of active polymers.

    Other winners this year include Japanese researchers who won the Biology Prize by showing that cows painted with zebra stripes had fewer biting flies bothering them. And researchers from Nigeria, Togo, Italy, and France won the Nutrition prize for a study showing that rainbow lizards prefer four-cheese pizza.

  32. Well yeah. Dutch IS just drunk German with some Drunk English sprinkled on top.

  33. Why the F#*& is this ig nobel

    If anything this merits serious follow up investigation….

    Can anyone elaborate here?

  34. At a certain level, I even understand Mandarin 🤪

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