Friday, August 22, 2008
It Doesn't Translate
I recalled from my European trip a brief exchange I had with one of the Hungarians that was amusing. I should preface this by saying that in German when you say, "Danke schoen," the other person replies, "Bitte schoen." Sometimes you just say, "Danke," and they say, "Bitte." A few times I heard someone say, "Danke" and the reply was, "Schoen." It doesn't make sense in English, but that is what they say sometimes. One of the Hungarians, who spoke German well but not English very well, was offering everyone a piece of some candy she had bought. When I said, "Thank you," in English she replied in English, "pretty!"
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2 comments:
LOL! Things not translating exactly make for some funny situations. I can recall some funny instances at work (we have many folks for whom English is second language). There was one young lady (Chinese, I believe), who sent me an email, apologizing for not getting something to me on time, or something like that. Her statement was, "I am sorry for any incontinence this has caused." The only thing I can figure is that she typed an approximation of "inconvenience", and then used spell-check, and somehow ended up with "incontinence". I got a kick out of it, but of course I always give all these people credit for doing business in a non-native language, which is more than I could do.
Anne,
that's funny!
Kurt
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