I still don’t know what ich_iel is and at this point I’m too afraid to ask

It’s the German version of me_irl. Stands for “Ich _ im echten Leben” and is a direct translation of the English

Aww, thanks! Consider me slightly more educated than when I awoke this morning :)

it is only me_irl in name though, it is a general meme / conversational community with the obnoxious (and over used to death) in joke that is zangendeutsch.

Dutchie who speaks German here, I hadn’t heard of the word ‘Zangendeutsch’ before. I get what it means, but why ‘Zangen’? Does it come from tongs or does it have another meaning? Tongs-German makes no sense to me