Töggeli Kasten
Swiss German: Töggeli Kasten
High German: Tischfussball
English: table soccer
Posts Tagged ‘German’
Swiss German: Töggeli Kasten
15
Jan
Language Revolution: Press 4 For English
17
Nov
About two years ago I decided to go through the pain of calling Swisscom, the local mobile phone provider, to setup internet access to my voicemail. I used to use a web interface to check my voicemail in the U.S and find it to be much quicker and easier than waiting for the automated voice to remind me of all 12 menu options every time I would connect to voice mail with my phone.
When coming to Switzerland I had not been quick to set up web access. Firstly there was of course the entire language incompetence so I didn’t even know it was available until I could read enough German, and secondly to set up access you had to ‘call the service center’ to start the service. At the time I dreaded speaking German over the phone so it took a lot of courage to get over it.
Of course after going through the pain and torment of setting things up at some point I forgot my web password after a vacation and I hadn’t written in down. Not wanting to deal with a German phone call again I did not call to reset my password.
Today, I got over it. I decided that I needed to belly up to the bar, and make the call. Yes even in German.
Imagine when I dialed in and started listening to the menu. “Duetsch druken sie Eins, Par le France touche duex, per italiana stamp tre.” Just as I was about to press 1 a new voice came on. ‘For English Press 5′ What!? English?! The clouds parted and a light from heaven came down and shined direclty on my desk phone. ‘Thanks be to Swisscom I though to myself as I pressed 4 and made the sign of the cross.
Is this a new trend in Switzerland. Have businesses finally realized that with 20% of the population coming from abroad there may be an under served market of non native Italian, German or French speakers that would prefer to do business in Globish (International English).
I sense a change coming and I am sure those Swiss based service businesses that incorporate English language services will see an increase in their market share of the expat population.
Are you longing for service in English? If you could pick one service to provide service/support in English what would it be?
Learning the Dirty Words
24
Oct
Peeing On The Church Organ
It seems like whatever language you learn the first words are always the raunchy ones. I don’t know if that his because the words are common, or because it is somehow just fun to learn curse words in another language.
It’s not just curse words that make for fun, it is the random idiotic phrases that a person reads or hears and seem to stick with you.
One early example for me was a quote from one of my favorite movies, The Big Lebowski. The quote had the words carpet, teppich, and peed, gepisst it in. I’ll save you the details.
I found another great headline in the pop culture reader Blick Am Abend yesterday. The headline reads Über die Orgel uriniert. I probably don’t need to translate that for most of you except maybe to say that an Orgel is a Church Organ.
Somehow I don’t think I’ll forget that headline anytime soon.
Sunday Hike Through The Woods
10
Oct
Sunday afternoon we did a section of the Aargauer trail between Wildegg and Aarau. The relatively flat hike runs along the banks of the Aare river. Most sections of the trail are wide and flat and this hike is not strenuous at all.
We left just before lunch and had packed small lunches to eat along the trail. We found a nice bench along the river and plopped ourselves down about an hour and a half into the hike. As we started to eat I was just waiting for someone to hike by and say “en Guete” (Bon Appetite). Of course not too long into my first course of a ham and cheese sandwich a group of hikers uttered the obligatory phrase and I final felt like I was enjoying a properly blessed Swiss lunch.
As we finished our meals and went on our way we stumbled along a few other groups snacking on lunch, and of course I returned the “en Guete” favor. Some how the longer you are here you develop a knee jerk “en Guete” response. When food is in sight one must utter those magic words.
Globish, Hand Shoes and Other Compound Words
29
Aug
When learning German one of the fun things you come across are strange sounding compound words. One of my favorites that has graced the pages of my blog before is Handshuhe which translates directly to Hand Shoe (a.k.a. Glove).
The other day I was speaking English, as I often do and came across an English compound word that I am sure has the same kind of strange sound to non-native speakers. Headphones. If you think about this the word headphones is not really descriptive as its pure components. Headphones are made up of neither a head nor a phone.
For all those non-native speakers, or speakers of Globish, I would like to suggest a more descriptive and accurate word. Earspeakers.
If you aren’t familiar with Globish maybe you are familiar with Esperanto. Globish is the new Esperanto. Here is a short video to give you some amusing background on the world’s next global language.
So what are your favorite foreign words? Leave a comment.
Swiss Volunteer Fire Department
02
Jun
Liestal Fasnacht Parade
I had a friend who received a letter in the mail in German. Not really an all together exciting occurrence I suppose considering all the junk mail I get. As his German is not very good, he ignored it. A few weeks later he received a similar letter and decided it was time to maybe figure out what it was all about.
He brought the letter to the office and learned that the letter was informing him that since he did not respond to the first letter asking him to join the volunteer fire department he would be assessed a 80 Swiss Franc fee, unless he responded to the letter.
He then took the letter to the city hall to ask what was up. The confused city employee told him he’d have to trek over the fire house and ask what was the issue and to resolve the matter there.
A few words with the guy at the fire house resulted in the fire chief calling the city again, where he had just been, to ask what the problem was. Returning to my friend a short conversation with the fire chief found a clear ‘Swiss’ solution to the problem. Since my friend does not speak fluent German he could either volunteer for one of the many other tasks as a volunteer fireman that do not require German language skills, or he could pay the 80 Franc fine.
To me this seems like it isn’t really a ‘Volunteer Fire Squad.” To me it sound a bit more like conscription, slavery, forced labor, call it what you want. But, having lived here for almost 4 years I am not longer surprised at such bizarre behaviour.
That reminds me, I really need to ask my friend what he decided to do about the situation.
Swiss German: Putschibahn
08
May
I was talking to a Swiss coworker this week and learned a great new Swiss German word.
Putschibahn
What a fantastic word!
Putschibahn is the word for bumper cars in English.
Guten Morgen Sonnenschein
03
Feb
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BrkEFe_1oM&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Any fan fan of German reality TV will undoubtedly be familiar with the song Guten Morgen Sonnenschein. It has become the anthem of early morning cranky wake-ups.
The song is extremely catchy and after some looking on youtube I found the version I was looking for by Nana Mouskouri
Do you have any songs in German or another foreign language that stick with you despite the language barrier? leave a comment.
My New Lieblings TV Show: Bauer Sucht Frau
01
Feb
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atr0yEh-muU&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
I am addicted to Bauer Sucht Frau. Yes for those of you that know German it is ‘Farmer Seeks Woman (wife).’ The show is two weeks into the 2010 season and it is one of the best reality shows I have seen in a long time.
The premise of the show is quite simple. They find a bunch of mostly middle aged single farmers. Give them a couple of women to pick from, and then let the women stay with the farmers for one week on their farm. All the time they get to feed the pigs, shovel muck, and bond with the farmers.
The video clip above is from a previous season but it gives you a good idea of what the show is about. It is great because all of the dialog is basic conversational high German. It is a great way for me to practice the language.
This season I am really rooting for Farmer Bruno and his Frau Anja. They seem like a fantastic pair. Last weeks episode they pulled Bruno aside for one of those classic one-to-one interviews where the reality star speaks directly to the camera. He goes on to say something like ‘She fills the emptiness I have had on this Farm, she cleans the entire house.’ I love that line.
I give Bauer Bruno a lot of credit, he knew his farmhouse was a mess, so he rented an RV for Anja during her stay so she wouldn’t have to be subject for his old musty ole farmhouse. For those of you watching the series who don’t want a spoiler make sure not to do a search for Bruno & Anja, it looks like the final outcome of their relationship is already out there in public.
Show times on station RTL, 16:45 on Sunday evenings.