Bavaria is a fascinating part of Germany. It is the largest of the 16 German states, and also the most independent state of Germany from a cultural perspective. Due to their long running independence until the year 1871, Bavarians have always had a strong sense of their own identity and their own culture and dialects. It is a common perception among other people from Germany that the Bavarian population see their state as being the most important part of Germany. Whether this supposedly superior attitude has any basis in fact is another question. One thing that is for certain is that the Bavarian culture is markedly different from the dominant German culture in a number of ways. Because of this strong sense of identity, the way that Bavarian people relate to English people and the English language is very interesting.

Bavarian people are commonly of Catholic religious beliefs, and religion is very important in the area. They also have a strong relationship to their language and traditions, with three separate dialects being spoken in Bavaria. Bavaria is in the situation of wanting to preserve its identity and its local dialects, but of still wanting to have a tourism industry that invites English speaking people into the area. Any Bavarian tourism website is going to need to be available in English as well as German to have maximum international impact. These issues of translation and localization are integral to international communications between nations.

A holiday in Germany (Urlaub in Deutschland) at a Bavarian venue may be a little different from a holiday in another part of the country. The hotels in Bavaria may be a little more reluctant to translate in-house text such as menus and tourist information into English. Three German dialects are spoken in Bavaria; Austo-Bavarian, Swabian German and East Franconian German, and the Bavarian people are very proud of their marked dialects. Because of this the Bavarian people present themselves with the use of the English language in a different fashion. While they may realise the necessity of having something like a web page translated into English, if it is not essential to translate a text then they may not choose to do so.

The globalisation of the English language is having a large impact all across the world. Smaller languages have to almost fight for survival against the torrent of English speaking people and international cultural communications in English. While German is by no means a small language, the many different dialects in places like Bavaria are threatened due to issues of cultural globalisation. Because of this a stay in a Hotel Potsdam may be very different from a stay in a Bavarian guest house for an English speaking guest; the different regions and their relationship to the English language will ensure of that.