In my last post, I talked about how German authorities have a “somewhat difficult” relationship with foreign words. This is also true for other areas: In technology, for example, only German laypeople talk about a ‘Computer’ when they mean the calculating machine or a ‘Box’ when they have a HiFi speaker in mind. Experts prefer […]
ABSCHRIFT FROM THE URSCHRIFT II Read More »
German official language always has a somewhat complicated relationship with foreign words. Take, for example, the strange terms that buzz around a German notary’s office: Of course you can say ‘Original’ for an original and call the sheets that come out of the copying machine a ‘Kopie’. But it sounds much more official when an
ABSCHRIFT FROM AN URSCHRIFT? Read More »
I’m sure you remember the conversation between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Selenskyi in the Oval Office. The Ukrainian president appeared without an interpreter, although English is not his mother tongue. Could the scandal have been avoided if an interpreter had been present, perhaps to act as a buffer? Not necessarily, and for a very simple
WOULD IT HAVE BEEN ANY DIFFERENT WITH AN INTERPRETER? PART 2 Read More »
We’ve probably all seen the recent catastrophic meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Selenskyi. Even though the Ukrainian president isn’t a native speaker of English, he didn’t make use of an interpreter, so the two weren’t playing on a level field from the very start. Would the conversation have gone differently if President Selenskyi had
Would things have gone differently with an interpreter? Read More »
You may recall that last year, our January donations went towards protecting young savages – or oak trees – in a new forested area under the Wohlleben Urwaldprojekt. Even at the tender age of 120, these oaks – by primeval forest standards – are still rather green, so to speak. Which is why it makes sense to protect them starting
YOUNG SAVAGES KEEP DOING GOOD Read More »
“I never said that English was an easy language” – these words by Mr Webster, a lecturer at the Institute for Translation and Interpreting at Heidelberg University, are etched in my memory for eternity and beyond. He would go on to recite typical pitfalls like “clocks and watches, scholars and scientists”, etc. But Mr Webster
I NEVER SAID THAT ENGLISH WAS AN EASY LANGUAGE Read More »
The swedes know it too. In Swedish, tår is a cup of coffee. If you are on your second cup of coffee, you say påtår. And because Swedish people love coffee so much, there is also the tretår – meaning the third cup of coffee, for when your 5-minute coffee break is not so short
THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM Read More »
Let’s be honest: how many times have your short-distance flights been on time? And if you’ve ever flown from Frankfurt, you probably know what it’s like at the check-in booths and how the lines are there, and have maybe even missed a flight because of them. Being late is always bothersome. It’s even worse if
3 BIRDS WITH ONE STONE Read More »
Translating is unfortunately not as easy as painting by numbers. The reason being, in a language pair, the one language may only have one expression for something, while the other could have two or more. One example for such a case is the English word “wall”, which in German can be either Mauer or Wand
WHY THE CHINESE WALL IS NOT A “CHINESISCHE WAND” Read More »
Interpreting and translating is often more complicated than you would think. Especially so when one language has a single expression for a certain circumstance or object while another has two or more. Everyone who has been to Germany and gone castle-hopping will know – because in German, castle can be either “Burg” or “Schloss”, whereas
MY HOME IS MY LOCK Read More »
