“Word sausages”

Wortwuerste

I have to admit I’ve never quite understood the look of sheer horror on most British people’s faces when they first encounter a seemingly endless German compound word and try to make sense of it.

As a German and a linguist these words make total sense to me – all you need is a bit of time to break them down into their individual components ­­and off you go. I’ve seen it many times when teaching German – that look of exasperation tinged with a certain degree of admiration – “How can you even begin to read this?” I’ve always maintained it makes perfect sense and is perfectly logical once you understand the individual components (and, yes, have maybe a certain amount of familiarity and experience with the whole concept of sticking words together).

In addition to artificially inflated compound words such as the world famous – and fabulous – Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänskajüte (does it really exist?) there are also the ones that we actually use, particularly favoured by the legal, banking and insurance industries, which as Germans we never bat an eyelid about. Examples include the widely publicised “Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften” (definition: insurance companies providing legal protection) – a mere 39 characters – or even common ones in everyday use such as “Höchstgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung” (definition: maximum speed limit) – a dinker of a word with only 32 characters!

This recent letter from my own bank, however, made me do a double, triple and quadruple take. Apart from the two whoppers (which my linguist friend Marion calls “Wortwürste” = “word sausages”), the whole thing is littered with what I would describe as medium length words like “Abbuchungslastschriften”, “Lastschriftverkehr”, “Einzugsermächtigungen” etc. But it is “Abbuchungsauftragslastschriftverfahren” (standing order advice mandate) – 38 characters – and “Einzugsermächtigungslastschriftverfahren” (direct debit advice mandate) – 40 characters – that really take the biscuit.

Don’t you just love the German language for being able to express in one word what other languages can take nearly a sentence over – you just need so many more letters in Scrabble!

Valued customers

Valued customers

Don’t you just love customers who appreciate and value your work?!

“You are a very valued supplier to us and we really appreciate your excellent work. Therefore, I would hate for you to be unaware of the delayed project and turning down possible work in the meantime, as your livelihood is extremely important. It is always a pleasure working with you.”

(Quoted from an email of one of my favourite customers recently, 29.10.15)

Die castings close to extinction?

Die castings close to extinction?

I recently came across this Chinese supplier of die castings and their website (http://de.china-lema.com/tag/Cast-Filter-Produkt-sterben.html) and could not help thinking that a professional translator would have done a better job than Google Translate and might have even helped secure the business of a new German client …

Some captions for your delectation

• Kundenspezifische Aluminium sterben Cast-Automobil-Komponente
• Sterben von Gussteilen Automobil Zylinder Abdeckung

And my absolute favourite:

• Sterben Sie, Casting-Fahrzeug und Motor-Gehäuse

If only …

If only …

It really pays to double check … (Copied from the “i” newspaper, 7 October 2104, p. 3)

Welcome to Bärbel’s blog!

Welcome to Baerbel’s blog!

Welcome to the new year (well, almost …), my first ever blog and my brand new website which I hope you will enjoy. I am planning on blogging occasionally on anything that springs to mind, in particular on a whole raft of German/English issues and pieces of interest.

Not only have I launched my new website, I am also embarking on a promising career as a bread maker. The photo shows the sourdough bread I made this afternoon courtesy of a Paul Hollywood recipe and in true German style. I was very impressed with my own result and I found it only right that it should have pride of place in my first blog. A whopping 1.6 kg minus the bite.

Guten Appetit und bis bald!