Brain Teasers
Baker's Death
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
Wolfgang emigrated from East Germany and settled in London three years ago. He barely spoke English and was determined to earn enough money to send for his wife. He was a baker by profession, and after two years of working two jobs, seven days a week, he finally owned his own store. One morning a delivery man found Wolfgang lying on the floor of his bakery, dead. His right hand held a small gun. A letter and suicide note lay near by. The letter said that his wife was killed in an auto accident in Germany. The suicide note read, 'I had almost attained my goal of reunification with my wife. Now it will be sooner than I thought. I have lost my will to live.'
Detectives declared that this was not suicide but murder. How did they know?
Detectives declared that this was not suicide but murder. How did they know?
Answer
Wolfgang would not have been able to write, punctuate and express himself so clearly in English.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
how do you know? in 2 years a smart person would be able to speak a different language and maybe write a different language fluently if immersed in it.
Ok, true enough. BUT there are clues in the passage which point in the other direction. First of all it says that he barely spoke english. Second, he worked two jobs seven days a week, not much time to focus on learning english and socialise. And finally, he was a baker, which is not the most social job, all he would be doing is given prices etc. By contrast nothing in the passage points to him being smart.
"By contrast nothing in the passage points to him being smart." Are you stupid or what? In two years this guy owns his own bakery - and he's not "smart". Give your head a shake.
MOST people don't move into another country unless they have the money to support themselves. He probably made the money in Germany and with the money he had already made, bought a bakery.
Glenny - the way the puzzle's written implies that he only saved enough money to own his own bakery by working every day for two years. And if he'd had enough money to buy a bakery when he left Germany, why couldn't he afford to bring his wife with him at the time?
'I had almost ATTAINED my goal of REUNIFICATION with my wife. Now it will be sooner than I thought. I have LOST MY WILL TO LIVE.' Thats the type of stuff that would be said in a movie or written in a novel, not by a person starting to learn english (the most difficult language in the world to learn).
unless he spent all his time with other germans, working is a very good way to learn english. i have many family members who emigrated to the united states, unable to speak english, who learned how to speak from their constant interactions with english-speaking persons. it is also entirely possible that one can read, write and even comprehend a language, and not speak it very well. to sum up, i believe the solution to the teaser is based on a faulty assumption.
Gennyboy were you born in an english speaking country? or how do you know that English is the hardest language in the world?? i had to learn 3 languages starting from absolute zero, and english was the easiest of all [some of the hard launguages include: hungarian, Janpanese..., Russian] I can compare because i know Hungarian, Russian, English and a few other launguages. besides living in a n english speaking society how can he "start" learning english if hes been in London for 2 years?
"Posted by glennyboy02 Aug 03, 2002 .... not by a person starting to learn english (the most difficult language in the world to learn)." i agree that a dumb person wouldnt be able to own his own bakery in 2 years.
"Posted by glennyboy02 Aug 03, 2002 .... not by a person starting to learn english (the most difficult language in the world to learn)." i agree that a dumb person wouldnt be able to own his own bakery in 2 years.
sorry, didnt mean to misspell your name. I forgat the l
Good one.............................
In 3 years he would certainly have been able to speak English, it takes 6 months living in a foreign country 4 the average person to pick up the language. It says when he left East Germany he could speak little English, not that he still couldnt. Also, the movie/novel style language is the first kind to be learnt, set phrases etc. & if he was murdered surely it should say who killed him & why! Also, it doesnt say the suicide note was in English! it might have been in German, the delivery boy could obviously understand German as he could read the wifes letter! Good teaser though!!! ;)
megan - english is generally considered world wide to be considered the hardest language to learn. One of the main reasons for this is because we have an inconsistant grammar structure, and there's no real logic to the pronounciation of our words (compare words like comb, tomb, bomb - all spelt pretty much exactly the same, but all with such different pronounciations).
i admit that i got the answer, mainly because if he barely spoke english and was just translating from german to english, his sentences would have been written differently (eg, i have almost with my wife reunification reached), but i'm not sure that i agree that after two years in a foreign country he wouldn't have picked up enough english to be able to express himself fairly fluently
i admit that i got the answer, mainly because if he barely spoke english and was just translating from german to english, his sentences would have been written differently (eg, i have almost with my wife reunification reached), but i'm not sure that i agree that after two years in a foreign country he wouldn't have picked up enough english to be able to express himself fairly fluently
ok- i learned english in a couple of months (granted, i was 6.) I disagree with the anwer. Sorry, not one of your best teasers
Did you know that the Navajo language is harder than most? In order to speak it fluently you have to concentrate on the spacing between words, not just pronunciation.
pretty easy...
I thought it was going to be that the gun was in the wrong hand (left handed).
You have to be a bit long in the tooth to be familiar with East Germany now - people didn't exactly emigrate from it, they escaped. Th reference to "reunification" made me wonder if there was some political clue!
It's not impossible to learn perfect English that fast, if you are really talented, though I doubt most people could. Saying English is the hardest language to learn is dubious. For one thing the difficulty depends on your native language. German and English are related (Western Germanic) so it's not so hard for a German as for a speaker of Chinese or Zulu. In absolute terms English is probably about in the middle - easier than Chinese but harder than Afrikaans, say.
You have to be a bit long in the tooth to be familiar with East Germany now - people didn't exactly emigrate from it, they escaped. Th reference to "reunification" made me wonder if there was some political clue!
It's not impossible to learn perfect English that fast, if you are really talented, though I doubt most people could. Saying English is the hardest language to learn is dubious. For one thing the difficulty depends on your native language. German and English are related (Western Germanic) so it's not so hard for a German as for a speaker of Chinese or Zulu. In absolute terms English is probably about in the middle - easier than Chinese but harder than Afrikaans, say.
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