Sigh, we Germans are not to be envied when learning English. At school we are being taught British English. Now this is what happened to me when talking to a friend from the U.S.:
He asked:
“What did you have for lunch, Karin?”
“A takeaway meal.”
“A takeaway?”
“Yes. I did not cook, but instead went to a Thai takeaway.”
“Oh.” I heard him chuckle through the phone.
“Why are you laughing?” I asked, “Don`t you call it a takeaway?”
“No we don`t. It sounds a little as if you had taken away food without paying for it.”
“So you think I am a thief?”
“No, of course not.” He chuckled again. “But here in the U.S. we call it takeout food, not takeaway.”
And I had been so proud having remembered all this vocabulary! Sigh. Did I ever say English was easy to learn? If even when you actually get it all right in a British sense, your American friends might think you`re a thief?
But there is still hope. After all it is Whit Sunday today. The day the Holy Ghost descended among the gathered believers, allowing them to speak to each other even though they did not know each others languages ;-)
Quote from Collins Dictionary of the English Language 1979:
Takeaway (Brit.)
1. sold for consumption away from the premises on which it is prepared: a takeaway meal
2. preparing and selling food for consumption away from the premises: a takeaway Indian restaurant
3. shop or restaurant that sells such food: let`s go to the Chinese takeaway
~ U.S. word: takeout
Oh and in German we call that: “Essen zum Mitnehmen” (far more complicated, of course ;-) would did you expect? Or we use partly English vocabulary and say: Kaffee/Coffee to go, Pizza to go …
It is ironical that Angela Merkel should receive the Medal of Freedom today. A few years ago I would have been enthused, not any more.
I thought she would promote freedom and market-economy in Germany. That is one of the reasons why I voted for her. And during her first term a lot was forgiven because after all she had been forced into a grand coalition. But no such excuses available for her second term. Now she is governing with FDP, the most pro-market economy party you can get in Germany. And do we have more freedom? No! On the contrary: We have more regulations, and, especially in the environmental and energy sector, it comes close to planned economy.
In an earlier post I mentioned the similarities I see between Lena, our Eurovision Song Contest candidate, and Angela Merkel. Lena who won the contest in 2010 was chosen to represent Germany in 2011. She did not have to compete with other German singers. Only the song was to be chosen by the public. So in several shows Lena sang different songs and the viewers decided which one she should sing in the contest. “Taken by a stranger” won and well, the ESC title was “taken by a stranger”. Belated congratulations to Aserbaijan! What a beautiful love song!
So where is the similarity you might ask? Well it is obvious: First Angela Merkel abolished competition. She made sure there were no inner-party rivals left within CDU, which means no new ideas coming up, no discussion, no vision, devoted followers only. How boring. And dangerous.
Second, as I said, Lena sung the song chosen by the public. And that is exactly what Angela Merkel is doing: She sings the song that most Germans want to hear. And at the moment this seems to be the “flip-flop song”. No chance to win the next elections. Her title will be “taken by a stranger”. Hopefully someone who does not only talk about the importance of the Western Alliance, but also acts accordingly.
Oh and please, if you ever wanted to award this Medal of Freedom to a German again – and I`d understand if you were hesitating – but if you should consider it, would you think about awarding it to Joachim Gauck? He`d keep it in honor I am sure.
I am learning every week reading James McCabe`s column in DIE WELT (May 31, 2011, page 3, “Bismarck`s Fact”). This week he tells us:
English shares 80 percent of its spoken vocabulary with German … . This familiarity and relative simplicity leads to the typical over-confidence of German-speaking managers when communicating in cyberspace. They are unaware that direct translation form German to English all too often turns a polite request into a brusque command: “Please send the document asap “ and “Could you send the document asap please?” are two different messages.
He goes on explaining:
The word “please” can generate three altogether different meanings dependent on its place within an English sentence. “Please could you …?”, “Could you please …?” and “Could you … please?” respectively indicate a command, an urgent request and a normal polite question.
Sigh. Did I ever say English was easy to learn? But I have to defend us Barbarian Germans a little. Of course using the subjunctive sounds more polite in German as well and if I wanted somebody to come to see me I would not say:
“Bitte kommen Sie her!” and not “Kommen Sie bitte her!” either. I`d say: „Könnten Sie bitte herkommen?“ or „Würden Sie bitte herkommen?“
„Komm her!“ (Come here!) I`d only use if I knew this somebody VERY well ;-)
“Merkels Tipping-Point” is a great article written by Dirk Maxeiner and Michael Miersch about Angela Merkel`s chancellorship in DIE WELT, May 27, 2011, page 3. Excerpts:
In ihrer Amtszeit sägte sie an sämtlichen politischen Eckpfeilern, die die Bundesrepublik über Jahrzehnte so erfolgreich gemacht hatten. Da wäre zunächst die freie Marktwirtschaft, die auf immer mehr Feldern ausgehebelt und auf dem Energie- und Umweltsektor Schritt für Schritt in eine staatlich gelenkte Planwirtschaft überführt wird. (…)
Ein weiterer Eckpfeiler aus dem guten Erbe der Bundesrepublik wackelt bedenklich: die Westbindung. Bis vor kurzem wäre es undenkbar gewesen, dass Deutschland Seit an Seit mit Russland und China gegen die eigenen Verbündeten Politik macht (wie im Falle der Intervention gegen Gaddafi).
Und schließlich: Die Stabilität unserer Währung zeigt ebenfalls furchterregende Risse. Mit dem Euroschutzschirm wurde eine verfehlte Umverteilungspolitik und die damit verbundene Lizenz zum Nichtstun auf ganz Europa übertragen. (…)
In short: During Angela Merkel`s chancellorship market economy was weakened (energy, environment), the Western Alliance called in question (Libyia) and our currency threatened.
And I`d like to add: With Schröder at least we were in a camp with Russia and France, now it is Russia and China. That IS worse!
Maxeiner and Miersch ask the crucial question I have been asking myself: Does Angela Merkel really want to be more left-wing, greener or more social-democrat than the originals?
At the moment it seems so. And that is why she is loosing many of her original voters. Including me. If SPD now chose a rather right-wing social-democrat he`d have my vote. But not Sigmar Gabriel. No. In that case I`d just have to stay at home. Unless the “Axis of Good” is running for Chancellorship – how about that?
I could need some help with this blog. A native speaker to correct my posts that would be really nice.
But when I asked friend No. 1 to tell me if I had made any mistakes in my post about Angela Merkel, he wrote back: “You never make mistakes, Karin!”
Well, that was extremely nice of him to say, but unfortunately untrue. Of course I do make mistakes!
Friend No. 2 I did not even ask because it took him 3 years to tell me that I mispronounced Michigan, yeah, I used to say “Mitchigan” (haha). When I asked him why he had not corrected me earlier he said: “It sounds so cute.”
My approach was totally different. I felt that being a friend meant helping him to improve his German and correcting him when he made mistakes. Which I did! What a huge cultural difference! He must have thought I am the most impolite person in the world!!!
But I am able to learn: Next time I`ll just enjoy his cute accent when he tries to say Würzburg or Eichhörnchen ;-)
I must admit, ignorant me, I did not know the perp walk was legal in the US. So I was totally shocked when seeing the pictures of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs flanked by four police officers. Then I learnt on CNN that this was a time-honored American tradition. A tradition that, in my view, undermines the presumption of innocence. DSK like any other suspect should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. If that is true how can you parade him before the courts in such a humiliating way? And by calling this “perpetrator walk” you, already in words, destroy the presumption of innocence. Totally. Completely.
I guess that is something I will have to add to the – very short (!) – list of things I do not like about the US.
Who said there was no alternative? I had just finished my last post, switched on the news and heard that social-democrat Peer Steinbrück might be running for Chancellor in 2 years time. Great! He has my vote! That will be the first time that I vote social-democrat, I thought I never would, but he is definitely the ALTERNATIVE. If only he could make Roland Koch his minister of finance and economics – but I am afraid his own party will not allow him to do so. Sigh.
Two hours left until the Eurovision Song Contest starts. Last year was great, German Lena won with her song “Satellite”. She was so refreshing, charming, cheeky. But what happened later? Instead of having a competition like every year to decide who was going to sing for Germany this year it was decided that Lena would go for it again. No vote, no competition, nothing. That is boring! And we are not going to win a second time, but at least a new face could have been given a chance, but no.
That reminds me of Angela Merkel`s policies, all inner-party rivals have gone, either they left, or they were silenced or they became Bundespräsident. The result is boring, uncreative, inefficient politics, no discussion, no open minds, the most used argument being the “there is no alternative” argument.
But there always is an alternative. There would have been an alternative to Lena this year, and there will be one to Angela Merkel in two years time.
I am so glad I never had to learn German, it must be such a complicated language to learn! In contrast I found English quite easy to learn, at least the basics. But since I am reading James McCabe`s column in Die WELT I am not so sure. He writes in English and shows us Germans all the little mistakes we are making when speaking English. Even worse! In one of his columms he said: If English people tell you, your English is very good, don`t believe them, they are just being polite! Sigh … it seems as if I had to say good-bye to all these nice compliments, I got over the years, …
McCabe also teaches us about the immense cultural differences between Germans and English/Americans. Too bad they don`t teach you this at school! He writes:
“In the words of William Shakespeare, “Germans are honest men.” While this reputation for straight talk may earn you brownie points for reliability among other cultures, speaking your mind is not always the best move. Above all, direct disagreement in English can carry a more forceful charge than you realize. Both English and Americans, for example, share a penchant for wrapping up the truth in attractive packing.” (…)
“In English we agree to disagree. We sandwich soft criticisms between standard expressions of praise. We say things like “I hear you” and “I quite understand” when we have no interest in listening and couldn`t disagree more. (…) Listening to your English-speaking counterparts, therefore requires a level of interpretation utterly unnecessary in your own language.” *
Did I ever say English is easy to learn? I take everything back! And I`d like to redo some of the conversations I had in English - you bet ;-)
* James McCabe: “Agree to Disagree”, S. 3, Die WELT, 10. Mai 2011
Henryk M. Broder in der WELT: “Die Deutschen: Faul, feige und passiv-aggressiv”
(…) Die Hysterie der vergangenen Tage hat nebenbei auch ein tot geglaubtes Gespenst wiederbelebt, den guten alten Antiamerikanismus. Eben erst war Barack Obama das Gesicht des neuen Amerika, eine Stimme der Vernunft, ein Mann des Ausgleichs. Heute ist er „nicht besser als Bush“ – ja, wenn die Deutschen etwas nicht abkönnen, dann dies: von einem Führer, dem sie vertraut haben, enttäuscht zu werden. Sie nehmen übel, und zwar nachhaltig. (…)