Bad translations
by Emma Burrows, 21st October, 2004
Emma Burrows covers bad translations in an article from the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Language experts reckon that the roughly 500,000 words that comprise the basic German vocabulary now include about 3,000 to 5,000 anglicisms. Admittedly, that is a lot less than the comparable number of words of Latin or Greek origin. But it's apparently still more than enough to get some Germans confused.
For one, there's the perennial question of which German article goes with which English word. Das Meeting is an easy one, as is der Job-Floater. But is it der, die or das Chicken Wing, Bagel, Search Engine?
And, of course, the growing usage of English or English-sounding words in Germany has also prompted some rather embarrassing and amusing incidents (depending on what side you're on).
Ever had a chuckle over the Big Willy, der Superspender (Big Willy, the super donor) toilet roll dispensers in public toilets? Frowned at the children's strip tickets (translated from the German for special discount tickets) available on Munich's subway? Or wondered what exactly the nightclub owner was smoking when he called his club's half-price cocktail promotion cock night? Not to forget the luckless German traveler who finds that no U.S. shop will sell him a handy when he needs to replace his mobile phone.
Serves them right, I should think. After all, us expatriates are constantly struggling with our half-German, half-English brainwaves that are driving our bilingual children mad - and their friends into hysterics, as when my son insisted on putting on his handshoes before he went snowploughing down the baby slope.
© Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)