As I was learning German here in Germany, many Germans would say (when talking in English):
Uneducated people would do this.
referring to a somehow lower class of the population who can’t speak properly or do not have a refined manner. For my ears, uneducated really means just someone who hasn’t graduate from higher education and that doesn’t necessarily define the character or politeness of a person.
As this term makes me feel uncomfortable, I asked a German friend to tell me what uneducated is in German and he told me: ungebildet.
I’ve been a few years in Germany now, and I understand broadly what they mean, but I still struggle to understand who are the “ungebildet” people as many of the people that I hear saying that are not necessarily in the higher class of the society, but rather normal people. I see Germans using that term fairly often, and even though for me it is a bit offensive to use such a classification that often, they do seem to take it as a very normal fact of life.
I see that it is slightly better then asozial, but I can’t see who exactly would be asozial, ungebildet, and ausgebildet. So when Germans use ungebildet, what do they actually mean? Does it refer to someone’s social abilities or is it more about a bad behavior?