Posting in the German Forum

[mikemgb]

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I read quite a lot of the German forum using Google Chrome's translate feature. Unfortunately the translations are often terrible and you have to read carefully to work out what some posts are about.

 

For this reason I have never commented in that forum as I would have to use the same translation software and I know just how bad I would sound! Does anyone post there using translation software?

[andybarton]

I have tried to share One Challenge information via Google translate in years gone by, but it really struggles with a language that has a structure opposite to that of English.

[mikemgb]

I have tried to share One Challenge information via Google translate in years gone by, but it really struggles with a language that has a structure opposite to that of English.

 

That's what I'm noticing, you would think that most other languages, that I know of, are opposite to English someone would have figured out a decent algorithm by now.

[Guest]

I read quite a lot of the German forum using Google Chrome's translate feature. Unfortunately the translations are often terrible and you have to read carefully to work out what some posts are about.

 

For this reason I have never commented in that forum as I would have to use the same translation software and I know just how bad I would sound! Does anyone post there using translation software?

 

@mikemgb,

although I'm no English native speaker, sometimes I risk writing also in the English LUF section.

I think, mostly German nowadays are able to understand English written comments and would give a translation - if requested - better than Google might do.

Also feel free to ask for an English translation or summary if some German comments you're interested in will remain incomprehensible.

You're welcome.

[mikemgb]

 

@mikemgb,

although I'm no English native speaker, sometimes I risk writing also in the English LUF section.

I think, mostly German nowadays are able to understand English written comments and would give a translation - if requested - better than Google might do.

Also feel free to ask for an English translation or summary if some German comments you're interested in will remain incomprehensible.

You're welcome.

 

 

Your English is far better than my German! Unfortunately German was a language I never learned. In the 1970's, when I was going to school, the British didn't feel it necessary to learn other languages, we expected everyone to understand ours.

 

I have tried to correct this in later years, I can get by in France, I lived with a girl from Belgium for a while and gained a rudimentary understanding of Dutch and also some Afrikaans but I have never had the opportunity to learn German.

[Wonzo]

Don't hesitate to write in English in the German Forum, as many Germans, Swiss and Austrian people are familiar with the English language. Most of them have learned your language at school, many even use it in their business. Those, who don't understand, won't answer

[andybarton]

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Thanks

 

I will post a link to the Lisbon One Challenge information in the Treffen section on the German side.

[mikemgb]

Don't hesitate to write in English in the German Forum, as many Germans, Swiss and Austrian people are familiar with the English language. Most of them have learned your language at school, many even use it in their business. Those, who don't understand, won't answer

 

I wish British Schools were the same, I didn't start learning French until I was 12, then I only had to do 2 years of it. I did do 4 years of Welsh but that doesn't do you much good when traveling. The Belgian girl I lived with could speak Dutch and French before she started school, she learned English from age 5 and by the time I met her she was also learning Spanish and Italian.

[earleygallery]

I wish British Schools were the same, I didn't start learning French until I was 12, then I only had to do 2 years of it. I did do 4 years of Welsh but that doesn't do you much good when traveling. The Belgian girl I lived with could speak Dutch and French before she started school, she learned English from age 5 and by the time I met her she was also learning Spanish and Italian.

 

To be fair, when you think about it there is an awful lot of pop culture in English (and American English) which people of all other nations are familiar with and helps with their understanding of the language.

 

I think songs are a main factor - probably starting with the global success of The Beatles and carried through with almost every other successful English speaking singer/band since!

 

That's not to say that 'we' are generally pretty dreadful as a nation when it comes to a basic knowledge of other languages.

[Guest]

To be fair, when you think about it there is an awful lot of pop culture in English (and American English) which people of all other nations are familiar with and helps with their understanding of the language.

 

I think songs are a main factor - probably starting with the global success of The Beatles and carried through with almost every other successful English speaking singer/band since!

 

That's not to say that 'we' are generally pretty dreadful as a nation when it comes to a basic knowledge of other languages.

 

Yes, singing is always a very good supportive method to learn a foreign language.

On her guitar our English teacher accompanied us for songs by Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and other song-writers.

But singing was forbidden by the school principal, as we disturbed the neighboring classes for loud singing of "The animals went in two by two".

And when a few years later 'Emerson, Lake & Palmer' published its Classical-Rock version of "Jerusalem - And did those feet in ancient time ...", I stunned my English teacher with a voluntarily translation of this very flowery poetic language of Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.

[Wonzo]

 

I think songs are a main factor - probably starting with the global success of The Beatles and carried through with almost every other successful English speaking singer/band since!

 

 

If Germans would always understand the content of a song, many of them would be less successful .... there are lots of other components, which make them a hit !

[gyoung]

I wish British Schools were the same, I didn't start learning French until I was 12, then I only had to do 2 years of it. I did do 4 years of Welsh but that doesn't do you much good when traveling. The Belgian girl I lived with could speak Dutch and French before she started school, she learned English from age 5 and by the time I met her she was also learning Spanish and Italian.

I spent 5 years 'learning' French at an English grammar school in the late 50s, it was taught the same as Latin, conjugating verbs etc. A few years later I went to live in Montreal and found I couldn't really even put sentence together. So I went to evening classes run by the city and learnt by example, as a child does, the teacher never used English. 'Cette un table' she says pointing at the table. That way, with use in life in general as well, I learnt a fair bit in two winters, at least in spoken form and reading, although my written stuff is not so good. And we had to fend off a fair bit of Quebecois patois of course.

I also worked for a company run by German speakers (a Leica dealer) so it was quite an intensive 'immersion'

English schools had no idea how to teach foreign languages for every day use in those days, treated them like 'classical' languages for academic life.

 

Gerry

[mikemgb]

It was the same in the 70s, we were taught basically to pass the exam, not to be able to converse in France. I currently deal with a lot of people from Quebec, fortunately our company translator is also from there so I can go yell at her when I need something! 

[Gibbo]

Hearing a language helps the learning process far quicker than reading. For me, subtitling films is far more helpful than dubbing them when trying to learn a language. We seem, or at least our broadcast media seem to have tried to stop us hearing other languages and keep us as a one language nation. It hasn't helped us when trying to create a multicultural country. Too many don't want to try to understand those for whom English is not their first language. For many English as the sole language is seen as superior to those who are multi lingual! Refusal to even attempt pronunciation of the simplest non-English words is a sad indictment of out insular nation! Far too many are proud to be unable to pronounce buongiorno!

AT the same time, we have a lot of people who are very proud to be unable to do maths!

[Manoleica]

It was the same in the 70s, we were taught basically to pass the exam, not to be able to converse in France. I currently deal with a lot of people from Quebec, fortunately our company translator is also from there so I can go yell at her when I need something! 

A rather belittling phrase "yell at her" - L

[jaapv]

Hearing a language helps the learning process far quicker than reading. For me, subtitling films is far more helpful than dubbing them when trying to learn a language. We seem, or at least our broadcast media seem to have tried to stop us hearing other languages and keep us as a one language nation. It hasn't helped us when trying to create a multicultural country. Too many don't want to try to understand those for whom English is not their first language. For many English as the sole language is seen as superior to those who are multi lingual! Refusal to even attempt pronunciation of the simplest non-English words is a sad indictment of out insular nation! Far too many are proud to be unable to pronounce buongiorno!

AT the same time, we have a lot of people who are very proud to be unable to do maths!

That pronunciation thing still exists. For some reason I find it easy to have my car navigation in English. The way Jane pronounces non-British town names has everybody in stitches.

[gyoung]

It was the same in the 70s, we were taught basically to pass the exam, not to be able to converse in France. I currently deal with a lot of people from Quebec, fortunately our company translator is also from there so I can go yell at her when I need something!

Most amusing local idiom in Quebecois at that time (late 60s) was that a camera was 'un Kodak', so conversations would go:-

Bonjour Monseur

Je veuux acheter un Kodak alors

Oui, quelle Kodak?

Un Kodak Leica alors

 

Gerry

[mikemgb]

A rather belittling phrase "yell at her" - L

 

Apologies if it seems that way, but not at all, we have a very good working relationship, she would appreciate that term and would respond in kind - in French.