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Issue 16/2006, September 21 2006 (No. 222)
German version
Finds (16)
Fundsachen (16) German version 
        
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Learn a new language and get a new soul.
  
Czech proverb

 I have noticed for the last months that a lot of small companies have replace isolated German words by English words on their advertisements. A few weeks ago I did a walking through a neighbouring quarter where many young people, artists and graduates live. Within twenty minutes I found five examples.
 
 
 In front of a tobacconist's I saw an advertising sign with the writing 'Kaffee to go Becher 1,-' (A tub of coffee to go 1,- Euro) The aptest translation of the English phrase 'to go' is 'zum Mitnehmen'. The German phrase has a lot of letters in comparision with 'to go' and it may not sound jauntily .
 
 
 Next door there was a baker's shop. In the window was note saying that the baker offered a 'Schüler-Lunch-Paket' (Packed lunch for pupils) which cost 2.05 Euro. This packed lunch contained a filled roll and a cocoa drink. The translation of 'lunch' is 'Mittagessen'. Once more a lot of letters.
 
 
 Some 100 metres away from the baker's shop was a chain restaurant. In the window of the chain restaurant was a poster saying 'Hol dir ein Sub des Tages' (Get the Sub of the day).
 
 The English word 'sub' is part of the name of the chain restaurant. The sentence 'Get the Sub of the day' didn't make sense.
 
It was only when I took a look at the picture on the lower part of the poster that I understood the meaning of the sentence and especially of the word 'sub'. A special filled French stick was assigned to each day of the week. So each French stick was the 'Sub' of the respective day.
 

 
 Some 100 metres away from the chain restaurant I saw an advertising sign in front of an unconspicouos litte arts and crafts shop. Among other words in German there was the English word 'open' in large handwriting. The owner of the shop obviously wanted to point out that his shop was open.
 
 
 Above the entrance of a clothes shop I saw a large sign with the writing 'smart shopping ... bis zu 70 % günstiger ... Ihr Markenoutlet' ( 'smart shopping ... discount up to 70%...a branded articles outlet for you'). I suppose that this slogans were designed to appeal to young people who jump at English insertions.
(My wife Christine helped me to translate the text. Thanks.)
(to be continued)

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Finds (2)

I have often been linking to 'Daily Live in Cambodia'. The author of that website, Charlie Dittmeier, does a lot of work for deaf people in Cambodia and especially for the development of a sign language in Cambodia .
You can find further information about American sign language in

an ASL dictionary
or
an ASL browser.


Next issue 'The Daily Groove'
Thursday, October 5 2006

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We would like to point out that we translated articles from German into English for the purpose of service. We would like to make it clear that the German translations are deciding, because the articles are directed to users who live in Germany.

Wir möchten darauf hinweisen, dass wir zu Servicezwecken englische Übersetzungen vorgenommen haben. Klarstellen möchten wir, dass maßgeblich die deutsche Übersetzung ist. Grund dessen ist, dass wir uns an in Deutschland ansässige Nutzer wenden.



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