Years ago, I worked with a German guy who really took me under his wing when he found out I had taken three years of German in high school. Actually, I took one year of real German and then took two years independent study where I would goof off for an hour a day in the library and then occassionally cram for a test. I had the very sweet old German lady that taught the class completely snowed. Naturally my German was pretty week. Twenty-five years of neglect haven't done it much good either.When my German coworker quit, he gave me as a momento the November 1993 issue of German Playboy featuring Mimi Rogers (the first Mrs. Tom Cruise, in case you don't remember). This of course makes the "I read it for articles" excuse completely implausible. The good thing is that since the format of German Playboy is identical to the American version, you can pick up a lot through context. I would try to read the Playboy Advisor, but I think some of the more technical terms that might appear in Playboy would not be in the vocabulary lists from my high school texts.
Laughter is the universal language, so the Party Jokes page should be a little more accessible. Here is one of the ones I was able to decipher:
“Hören Sie mal, junger Mann, warum bringen Sie meine Tochter erst um fünf Uhr früh nach Hause?”
“Dumme Frage! Weil ich um sechs zur Arbeit muss.”
I loosely translated the joke to this:
“Listen up, young man, why are you bringing my daughter home at five in the morning?”
“What a stupid question! Because I have to go to work at six.”
I didn't say it was a good joke. Most jokes in Playboy aren't. To test my translation abilities, I went and typed the joke into Babelfish to see if I got the gist of it and I got this gibberish.
"hearing it times, young man, why you bring my daughter only at five to o'clock early home?"
"stupid question! Because I around six to the work must."
I would never recognize that as complete sentences let alone a fairly unfunny lame joke. Bablefish translates the sentences word for word, not even trying to adjust the grammar, let alone shift the prepositions or idioms to something a real English speaker would say. I pity anyone relying on Babelfish to do anything other than look up the harder words.
At least I know enough German to know how dreadful the translation is. Maybe my three years of high school German weren't completely wasted.
11 comments:
If you put it back into Babelfish, translate it back to German and THEN re-translate it into English again, you get this:
", times, young man hearing it, why you get my daughter only with five to the early house clock?" "stupid question! Because I around six to the work must."
Also.. I just spent the afternoon watching a friend's son at the AAU basketball tournament at Georgetown Univ. Boy, am I glad I'm a drama geek's mom and not an athlete's. I don't remember any drama or band event smelling that bad!
TBG
I spent 2 1/2 years living in a small German hamlet outside a US Air Base. I understood German much better than I ever spoke it, but only if the speaker spoke slowly. Our landlady was a lovely old German woman who spoke NO English; fortunately her son lived across the hall and her nephews next door, so translation help was always available.
The oddest moment was when our heater died, and she had what I think were a couple of family members bring up a new one. One of the men was wearing an army uniform and they were teasing him about it. Someone did a quick Nazi salute with the "Heil Hitler" and they burst out laughing. Freaky. I'd love to know what exactly they said. I think...
If your 3 years of high school German allows you to translate German Playboy jokes, then your time was very well spent my friend!
Can I just point out that Mimi is looking quite fetching on that cover?
Hey, I'm married, not dead...
I love the German language. Took only one year so now I know a little more than Kennedy's famous, "Ich bin Eine Berliner" Not much more but a little more.
Thanks for the info on the translator. I always wondered how that worked. We have a lot of Spanish speaking workers in my company. The girl that translates claims to be an expert. She is Cuban and does speak the language well, but I always catch her doing our memos with that translator you mention. I'll have to warn her. She may not like it, but I can't let it go.
I lived in Germany for a little less than a year in 1997, in two different towns. The first one (about five months) was pretty tiny, and one of the few watering holes in town was within 150 feet of my front door. I was always the only non-German-speaker, and usually (at least 75-85% of the time) the only English speaker. So I always took a phrase book and a larger dictionary, and made the effort to say something every now & then. I think that the effort was appreciated.
I was asked especially to stay for a private party held in honor of the birthday of the mayor. Then (a few weeks later) when I mentioned that it was my birthday, an impromptu party was put together, to which the mayor (who was NOT a regular) showed up.
A ready smile and a little effort go a long way, in my experience!
Postscript: I had a VERY, VERY difficult time navigating the 150 feet back to my house on the night of the impromptu birthday party. I used all limbs, and travelled a distance that must have wound it's way through several dimensions in addition to the usual three!
Update:
Google has their own translation engine and this is what it came up with:
"Listen to the times, young man, why bring my daughter is only five-clock home early?"
"Stupid question! Because I work at six. "
I'm not sure that's much better than Babelfish.
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