Tote Hose in Weilburg

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

Russ C. — Sun, 28 Dec 2003 21:06:00 GMT

I was just reading this and thought to throw another spanner into the works regarding Handy. I don't know if this is used anywhere else in the world, but in the UK, handy also means either Usefull ... "Has Anyone tried C# ? It's got some Handy features" or close ... "Do you have a screwdriver handy ?" Confused :)

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

Markus K — Sat, 27 Dec 2003 14:16:00 GMT

"herunterladen" is so long and complicated... and are we really moving data from "up" to "down" (the word implies a vertical movement)? I think "Windows" the product name wasn't translated but "window" the thing on the screen was. Since I work in China (last time I was in Germany is now almost a year ago) I tend not to see German ads. Whether that's a good thing...

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

Christoph Nahr — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:41:00 GMT

"Herunterladen" is a perfectly fine German translation for "to download" which was in widespread use for a while. But a few years ago it was dropped in favour of the terrible "downloaden". No idea why that happened, I guess "herunterladen" just wasn't English enough...

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

Moi — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 13:07:00 GMT

Markus, regard download - I guess since runterholen is already taken that couldn't really be used, huh? It actually might be accurate in a good number of downloading cases, however. Herunterholen is the closest I could come up with, but my German is not the best. As far as Fenster or Window is concerned, I knew that "Fenster" was used but can't see the logic when some words are directly translated and others are just bastardised English words, which was the point I was trying to get across. If I know the English and also know what the direct translation would be, but have not heard either used in a technical setting, which do I use? Usually I just "das Dings" in such cases (also when I can't remember the gender of whatever noun I should actually use :-) Oh, and have you seen the recent adverts for a certain perfume shop? Some-perfume-or-another "für men und women". Waddafu?

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

Markus K — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 11:39:00 GMT

"Shopping" is part of German for at least twenty years - my mum uses it. It does mean something slightly different than "einkaufen" - the latter means you go there to buy something, while the former means you go there to be at the shop - whether to look or to buy is not predetermined. Windowshopping (zusammengesetzt...) is I think "German," too. IMO, "shopping" is an addition to the language in that I (or the excellent translator at dict.leo.org that was mentioned above) can't think of a direct equivalent. I guess the, erm, alien addition could have been avoided if some new German word had been found, but I can't think of a suitable one right now. "Meeting", on the other hand, drives me up a tree. Whatever happened to "Besprechung"? ("Versammlung" is more like "assembly" - one would hope that the purpose of a meeting is to discuss something [please hold the jokes], while the purpose of a "Versammlung" is just to get the people together on the same spot, as in "Gesellschafterversammlung" for shareholder meeting [oups, these things mutate! A "Gesellschaftermeeting" would be different from a "Gesellschafterversammlung" - the latter is an official event with invitations and an agenda that can take binding decisions, the former is just a meeting]). On one side it is an instant black mark in my book if someone uses "meeting" in German. On the other hand, I am working in English for near enough a decade now and damn if I'm not struggling for words talking about anything business in German now. Try translating "cash flow". Advertising mass market products in foreign languages is stupid - but using individual foreign words is "cool", "trendy", ... I guess in the long term we will all speak English. How many Germans speak English today depends in no small part on what English you speak (and how fast) with whom, and on what you want to discuss. Directions are a lot less of a problem then Nietzsche (not that most would have heard of him in Germany...). Besides, more people speak English in China than in English, but nevertheless I wouldn't recommend coming here without a good dictionary... Windows 95 has Fenster. Whoever finds a good German word for "downloaded" deserves a medal. I tend to use "geholt" (from "holen", to fetch) rather than any closer but more awkward translation. Germans tend to be more reserved than Americans are used to, but less superficial. If they really did go to first names with you it means more than that they'll remember your face next month (and as you noticed, we tend to leave the office at the office and keep our private lives private, and separate).

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

Jeff Johnson — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 02:46:00 GMT

I rather like German; it would be sad to see it lose its uniqueness. My favorite German word is sort of recursive, and reminds me a little of the acronyms favored by projects like GNU - "wortzusammensetzungen". Roughly, words made by stringing smaller words together. Of course, it's an example of itself.

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

Chris Yu — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 00:43:00 GMT

PHS is actually personal handy-phone system so there's still a 'phone' in it to make it easier to figure out. My favorite japanese katakana word is probably "cleaning." If you say it (esp with a lisp) to enough women you'll get slapped or a treat. And just to say that it happens in America too aimed at the mainstream: yo quiero taco bell or living la vida loca (although you wonder why he changed his name to the less hispanic sounding Ricky Martin from Enrique Morales) feliz navidad everybody

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

MilesArcher — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 20:33:00 GMT

I've spent a total of about 6 months working in Germany. The (evil) European sales manager who arranged my initial visit told me that not to worry about no speaking German because everyone speaks English. Well, not exactly true. Everyone in the office where I worked could speak some English, but few cared to. The software product that I was helping them with was completely command driven using English words. Some of them would write a cheat sheet on a piece of paper and before they typed in a command they would look up the translation. Anyway, I found that it was pretty easy to start picking up the gist of conversations around me especially when they sprinkled in technical terms. (They used Fenster for a window on the screen, if I remember correctly.) Another thing that was a bit of shock was the work environment was much more formal that I (as a Californian) are used to. It took several months before I did any socializing outside the office with anyone and before I was invited to use someones first name.

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

Moi — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 13:59:00 GMT

Here is a link for the curious http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,255268,00.html (German)

RE: Tote Hose in Weilburg

Moi — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 13:56:00 GMT

Consider the poor mugs learning German whose first language is English. Particularly in IT a lot of English words are common, but use German grammatical forms - downgeloaded (or however it is spelt), for example. Now, Windows is Windows, but a window within Windows is... what? Window, or Fenster? And let's not even get started on what "body bag" means.