Question regarding German forum

[stunsworth]

The fact that we now have easy access to German forum is fantastic and I'm sure I'll be looking at many of the photographs there.

However my German is very limited so I was wondering if it would be considered bad manners to respond to images in English? I could always just reply with a simple 'sehr gut', but I don't see the point in that.

Any thoughts?

Steve

[starwatcher]

Steve,

speaking for myself I have absolutely no issue with this.
I only see advantages and benefits as it will train our english. Vice versa I am sure you will also try to improve your German skills.... so simply win-win for all

best - Klaus

[stunsworth]

Thanks Klaus, it can't be worse than when I was in a restaurant by the Bodensee last year and ordered what I thought was meat, it was a bit of a suprise when some fish arrived :-)

Oddly enough I had no problems with the beer ;-)

[admin]

Originally Posted by stunsworth

...I was wondering if it would be considered bad manners to respond to images in English? I could always just reply with a simple 'sehr gut', but I don't see the point in that.

No problems with that - but please keep an eye on that the German forum keeps mostly German speaking: There are some folks that don't understand or talk english and I don't want to give them a feeling that they are excluded.

OK?

Andreas

[stunsworth]

Andreas, that feeling of being taken over by the English speaking members was precisely what I was wanting to avoid - hence the initial question.

Steve

[abrewer]

My only thought on this (and I have been guilty myself) is that it is dismaying to me when a German comment is posted to something I've done, as I don't speak (to my loss) the language.

I think henceforth my comments on the German side will be along the lines of Danke, Wunderbahr, Sehr Gut etc. unless I'm certain the original poster (Ron for instance) also speaks English.

Thanks.

Allan

[andybarton]

Maybe responses on each side of the fence should be in the native language.

i.e. German on the German side and any one of 4 million other languages on the International side



People used to post in Spanish on the old forum - I just used to ignore an pass by, since I don't speak or read Spanish.

There is little point in making a response to a post in a language that the poster cannot understand, IMHO (although, I did it too earlier this week..)

I am sure it will all settle down when the excitement dies down.

[abrewer]

Originally Posted by andybarton

There is little point in making a response to a post in a language that the poster cannot understand, IMHO (although, I did it too earlier this week..)

Agreed.

I found it amusing when you attempted to Google the German language. Apparently the Google interpretation loses something in translation!



Thanks.

Allan

[mhanke]

Even in the old Geman forum, I never felt offended or anything like that when a picture was posted with an English title, or an English comment was added. However, I deliberately replied to this in German, since otherwise, the difference between Geman and International fora would loose its sense. The same thing in the International (read. English) forum. When someone chooses to add a German comment, why not. But replies to these should be made in English, IMHO.

Regards,
Marcus

[wilyum]

I see nothing wrong with using your limited mastery of German here, Steve. After all, are we not all "Benutzers" here? Best regards, Bill

[robert_parker]

Last time I spoke German I got 2 fried eggs and a glass of drinking chocolate....still I'll tune in to Sat 1, MDR or Pro 7 and work on it !

Regards
Robert

[ozdoba]

Originally Posted by robert_parker

Last time I spoke German I got 2 fried eggs and a glass of drinking chocolate....still I'll tune in to Sat 1, MDR or Pro 7 and work on it !

MDR is OK, but on Sat 1 and Pro 7 you will most likely see Jean-Claude van Damme,
Steven Seagal or Bruce Willis with a pumpgun in each hand and a submachine gun
between his teeth blasting away hundreds of bad guys uttering intellectual comments like
"Take this, buddy" - I'm not sure that this will actually improve your social and communication
skills in Germany

Chris

[wbesz]

Perhaps one good point about this mixed forum is that I can ask a question that google could not translate for me.

Does anyone know what the word DOKU mean? (As in Neofin Doku)

[starwatcher]

DOKU stands for "Dokument" (document) - contrast developer for documentary purposes (negatives have utmost sharpness and scale-up ability)

rgds - Klaus

[wbesz]

Thanks Klaus, for my first (new) German word. I can now see I should use the other developer (Neofin Blau) as my general purpose low iso film developer.

[cbretteville]

Originally Posted by wilyum

I see nothing wrong with using your limited mastery of German here, Steve. After all, are we not all "Benutzers" here? Best regards, Bill

There is allways Google's language tools. We can't use the abreviations and slang, but writing 'properly' helps. An example:

English: This text was translated by Google: "I really enjoyed your photograph. Great tonality and a lovely depth of field. Which film and developer was used?"

German (Deutch): Dieser Text wurde von Google übersetzt: „Ich genoß wirklich deine Fotographie. Große Tonalität und eine reizende Schärfentiefe. Welcher Film und Entwickler wurde benutzt?“

I remember enough of my high shcool German to say that the translation is good enough. Don't expect finer points like irony to come across though.

Cheers,
- Carl

Originally Posted by andybarton

Maybe responses on each side of the fence should be in the native language.

i.e. German on the German side and any one of 4 million other languages on the International side

Well, at least we are neighbours now sharing a fence and able to look across (not like the transatlantic distance as before). Anyway time will tell and fences usually have a rather short shelf life.

[starwatcher]

Originally Posted by wbesz

Thanks Klaus, for my first (new) German word. I can now see I should use the other developer (Neofin Blau) as my general purpose low iso film developer.

William,

one word seems having gone lost in my post... should read:

...low contrast developer for documentary purposes... (just to be precise)

best -Klaus

[stnami]

Using Babel Fish could be hilarious

[Bernd Banken]

Hi,

as Klaus explained the postings in the Int'l Forum is some kind of brain jogging for me too.
Even there are some expressions unknown, that doesn't matter, I think.
And pictures tell more than words :-)


Regards
Bernd