Fische haben Knochen

"Kippers for breakfast?No I don't think so, they have too many bones. " This was my reply to a German lady who had recently been to Scotland and wanted to know if I also eat fish for breakfast.
We were having dinner at Carmen's, a German friend , who naturally had mostly German friends seated at the table.
"Was, Fisch haben Knochen?" Fritz, the husband then yelled out in amazement" Kein Wunder wir kommen nicht weiter in der EU. Aber ehrlich , haben englische Fische Knochen?" I had never really thought about this before . As far as I know this is what we say in English and from across the table , Andy an English guy , with Scottish roots, was nodding in agreement ." Yes, that's right " he confirmed, "We say bones. " Our German friends wanted to know why we don't have a word for "Gräte", which is the German word to describe "fish bones." After, this Fritz went on enlightened."No wonder the English can't become fully integrated with the EU. They would never be able to comply with the "Fisch grät " regulations. "After thinking about this I can see that the German language really is descriptive, and sees bones as part of an animal( mammal?) . Perhaps here we English really have to say our language isn't always as descriptive as we like to think, despite being known as an international language. Now learning from our friends, we could decide on a new word here to add to the dictionary, We would be stretching out the hand of friendship and just think how many German speaking tourists the world over would be able to enquire about the fish menu. No way do German fish ever have bones and I expect Fritz and his wife Thea, as well as all the others must have been having the wildest visions of these English fish which live in the same North Sea but being much sturdier because of their strong bone structure .