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Volkswagen is changing its official language from German to English

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Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 23:39
French to English
that sinking feeling! Jan 6, 2017

Christine Andersen wrote:

Ricki Farn wrote:

This is why Germans are dangerous even in times of peace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR0lWICH3rY


Reminds me of an episode in the first year after I came to Denmark.
My heading is Danish for 'The ship has been delayed' ...

I was waiting in a queue at the port of Esbjerg, hoping to board the ferry home to England. An announcement came over the loudspeakers, with an explanation I did not quite catch, and finally that crucial sentence.
The English family behind me were very upset: "Does that mean the ship has sunk?"
I had learnt enough Danish to know that no, it was just late. As the explanation in English came over the loudspeakers, the ship could be seen sailing into its berth, returning several hours late from its last voyage, but undamaged!

And then there is always the Danish word eventuelt, which does NOT mean eventually as in Eventually, we were allowed to board the ship.

False friends and traps abound, and it is often important to know whose version of the lingua franca a speaker is using - English is not just English!

That said, many non-natives speak impressively good, understandable English, and thank goodness for that.


trouble is, you can't be sure just how good their English is. I have a former colleague who speaks almost like a native, but every now and then I forget and use an idiomatic expression then get myself into terrible knots tryingg to explain it.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:39
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Eventualmente Jan 6, 2017

Christine Andersen wrote:
....returning several hours late from its last voyage, but undamaged!

And then there is always the Danish word eventuelt, which does NOT mean eventually as in Eventually, we were allowed to board the ship.



It could be misleading to say that a ship has set off on its "last voyage". In 1912 the Titanic set off on its...last voyage.

As for "eventuelt" the same thing happens in Italian/English: the Italian "eventualmente" does not mean what "eventually" means in English.

Even more dramatically, the word "egregio" in Italian means something like "most honourable/esteemed/excellent" whereas in English the word "egregious" means "unspeakably bad/unmentionable".

Returning to the topic, I'm still perplexed and troubled about the thought process, in the minds of VW executives, that led them to the conviction that forcing everyone to speak and write in English could be part of relaunching their fatally compromised brand. Even more so when we remember that the British advertising agent John Hegarty decided to adopt the German to advertise BMW in the UK with the phrase "Vorsprung durch Technik"; every English person has now learned that the German language + advanced technology = good (and don't mention the War any more).

[Edited at 2017-01-06 09:49 GMT]


 
Matthias Brombach
Matthias Brombach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 23:39
Member (2007)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Still absolutely necessary... Jan 6, 2017

Tom in London wrote: (and don't mention the War any more)

... because the generations responsible for the elections in 1932-1933 and for the decisions until ´45 still rejoice a good health (in their Luftschutzbunkers of Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, now keeping their English alive by reading the SUN).


 
Ricki Farn
Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 23:39
English to German
Das Schiff versinkt? Jan 6, 2017

Dang, another means of transportation off my list.

 
Peter Motte
Peter Motte  Identity Verified
Belgium
Local time: 23:39
Member (2009)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Looks like fake news Jan 26, 2017

Looks like fake news to me.

 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 23:39
French to English
éventuellement Jan 26, 2017

éventuellement in French means "perhaps", so there's quite some potential for comic misunderstanding there too.

I remember ads in German here too, although I wouldn't know which make of car it was for. I do remember the boss hiring a car and, when asked which make, simply answered "Deutsche qualität".


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:39
Member (2008)
Italian to English
No, it isn't Jan 26, 2017

Peter Motte wrote:

Looks like fake news to me.


No, it isn't. It's alternative facts.




 
Bryan Crumpler
Bryan Crumpler  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 18:39
Dutch to English
+ ...
Wise decision! Feb 19, 2017

Matthias Brombach wrote:

This allows Volkswagen to put their future scandals (those like the emissions scandal) on bad translations (English source texts, poorly translated from German into "English" by German engineers and then translated back from "best rate" Germans into German again).


BAaahahaha... killing me. This is hilarious.


 
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