At last. It was about time! - English-Thread #1

[Glannaragh]

When I read Lord of the Rings in german, I thought it's hard to read(well I was pretty young then).
So I don't want to know how difficult the english version is^^'
A friend of mine watched the movies in english in preperation for his english abitur.

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Not that hard in English. But I've always had a love for the English language that not even several bad teachers could spoil (yes, I've never had a good English teacher, though the last one was the worst. Luckily, teachers in literally all other subjects were at least all right and planted a a kind of interest in what they taught in my mind). I should have read a couple of other novels for English classes, but, to be honest, I never completed one of them. Turned out it wasn't necessary to do that to pass tests well .
Second novel I read in English (or American English) was 'Hannibal' by Thomas Harris. You know, Hannibal the cannibal. At least, I think you know the movie "Silence of the lambs" with Anthony Hopkins. They made a movie off the Hannibal novel too, but I didn't like that. But I remember, it was a big deal and nearly scandalous when it was shown across cinemas... I think more than ten years ago .
Anyways, that was tough to read in the beginning. Concerning language, definitely not what one learns at school .

[Auratus]

When I read Lord of the Rings in german, I thought it's hard to read(well I was pretty young then).
So I don't want to know how difficult the english version is^^'

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Same happened to me with Harry Potter. German version was quite smooth to read, then I got english version from my cousin and found some adjectives I have never seen before >_< Thank god I got some years ago a dictionary, "over 55 000 words and sayings". That really saved my butt.

[Ave]

I think it is good and necessary to read books in english, but I would never start with Harry Potter or something like that. I really hate it to it to look up every second word in the dict. It destroys the feeling and you can't follow the plot. The last book I've read in english was "Thirteen Reasons Why". A book about a girl who commited suicide and left some cassette tapes, talking about the 13 people who destroyed her life. The protagonist is one of those people. It's really a great book and everybody should have read it once in his life! - At the moment I'm reading " The Kite Runner" a very difficult book to read. The vocab is very hard and you need knowledge about the background in afghanistan. My english teacher forced me to read it, what a lucky fellow I am. /:

[Auratus]

Well, my cousins thought was "You know the story already, so now you can improve your english a little bit." Well, after 20 pages, I had definitively enough.

And my condolence, Aventor. You should ask him why he chose this book.

[Turgon]

Good Morning Vietnam!
Well, it's me again ressurecting this thread
Tonight is a party, but I dont know if I should go. Why? The problem is, I know just one person, who goes to the party, and this person knows many others. So I'm pretty sure most of the time I'm going to be either alone and drinking or standing by many people I don't know and drinking^^"
So what would you do? Go to the party or stay at home?

[kate@net]

That depends on the party. What are you doing there? Is it only drinking and talking? Is there a motto? Or anything intresting...
And you can always meet new people. You don't have to be shy, because you don't know anybody there yet.

[Turgon]

It's a public party. So it's all about talking, drinking and dancing, I think.
It's true that I don't have to be shy, but I'm shy, don't matter what I do Up to this time I couldn't get rid of being shy, although I try^^

[Turgon]

Hello again!
Right now I have to go a lecture, which is in english.
And sometimes I wonder, because the professor says something odd, like "so far so good" or "and so on and sofort".
To me it sound too german to be a real english phrase.
What do you think? Are these phrases common in the english language?

[La Cipolla]

"so far so good" definitely, the other one definitely NOT.

MEIN GOTT.

[Glannaragh]

Sure the second one isn't "so on and so forth"? Still sounds very 'german' to me, but would make more sense .

[BDraw]

"So on and so forth" may seem weird, but it's definitely an english idiom. Especially idiomatic stuff can sound really strange, but I guess that's due to a common origin.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" still sounds absolutely stupid to me.

[fedprod]

And don't forget as the Benedictine Monk Bede wrote (freely circumscribed):

"The English Folk are the descendants of the following Germanic Tribes an kin: The Angles (area of modern Schleswig-Holstein) who migrated their whole nation to Britain, hence its archaic name Ængla land; the Saxons, originating from Lower Saxony (in modern German: Niedersachsen) and the Low Countries (Netherlands); and finally the Jutes, possibly from the Jutland peninsula (in modern Danish: Jylland)."

There is a lot archaic german old english and even some still in modern (britisch) englisch.
Everywhere migrants are bringing their language with them. Some other more recent german examples (in this case mostly american english) are:
rucksack, kindergarten, angst, zeitgeit, blitz, alpenglow, gemütlichkeit, gestalt, gesundheit, realpolitik, etc.

[BDraw]

Hey, if you take a look at Middle or (even worse) Old English, most English have a much harder time understanding stuff than us Germans, simply because half of it (literally) sounds like German. Or even Kölsch.

I mean, hey, "cutlass" used to be "panade" in Middle English, I don't know if the word is still used today. Some schnitzel, anyone?

[fedprod]

Some schnitzel, anyone?

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That reminds me of a funny anecdote a friend once told me. He was on a trip to Israel, if I remember correctly on a short time student exchange,
and one time the guest mother prepared Schnitzel with some roasted Potatoes and veggies for dinner.
My friend wanted to express that he liked the meal very much, especially the Schnitzel, and racked his head for a proper english word for Schnitzel,
and at least, after of some short funny discussion and word grasping, and not even coming up with something like "sliced and crumbed pan fried pork meat",
he just pointed at one said slices and the guest mother said just dryly: "I don't know how you call it, but we here call it Schnitzel"

[Turgon]

Sure the second one isn't "so on and so forth"?

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After listening closer to my professor, I think this is, what he said. But it really sounds like "so on and sofort"

It seems like there are many german words in english, I didnt know. Thanks for the information fedprod and funny anecdote btw

[Ave]

After listening closer to my professor, I think this is, what he said. But it really sounds like "so on and sofort"

It seems like there are many german words in english, I didnt know. Thanks for the information fedprod and funny anecdote btw

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The first time I heard, that ''kindergarten'' is used in english kind of surprised me.

[Turgon]

What really suprised me is that there is no word for Schadenfreude in english. One of my favourite shows(Community) made a joke about this and i didn't understand it until I heard that there is no word for this

[Ave]

What really suprised me is that there is no word for Schadenfreude in english. One of my favourite shows(Community) made a joke about this and i didn't understand it until I heard that there is no word for this

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So how did they explain the word? Or tell me the joke, if you remember. ^^

[Turgon]

One of the main characters lost a game of foosball against some bad germans and then one of the germans says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGd56epac5c

[Liferipper]

What really suprised me is that there is no word for Schadenfreude in english. One of my favourite shows(Community) made a joke about this and i didn't understand it until I heard that there is no word for this

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Lisa: Dad, do you know what Schadenfreude is?
Homer: No, I do not know what shaden-frawde is.
[sarcasm] Please tell me, because I'm dying to know.
Lisa: It's a German term for `shameful joy', taking pleasure in the suffering of others.
Homer: Oh, come on Lisa. I'm just glad to see him fall flat on his butt!
[getting mad] He's usually all happy and comfortable, and surrounded by loved ones, and it makes me feel... What's the opposite of that shameful joy thing of yours?
Lisa: [nastily] Sour grapes.
Homer: Boy, those Germans have a word for everything!