Töggeli Kasten
Swiss German: Töggeli Kasten
High German: Tischfussball
English: table soccer
Posts Tagged ‘language’
Swiss German: Töggeli Kasten
15
Jan
Wiener Chicken
06
Oct
The cafeteria at work is at it again. There was a great offer last week for a plate of Wiener Chicken. Mmmmm sounds good to me.
Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi
07
Jun
Some acronyms just don’t translate well to English. Here is a perfect example from Lucarno in the Italian speaking region of Switzerland.
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?
Google Translate Does Not Mean You Can Write In English
05
Nov
Bad English Translation
People sometimes become to reliant on technology. Lately I have seen several documents floating around the office that clearly had not been proofread or run through spell checker. Some coming for people I would expect to pay a little more attention to grammar and punctuation. This is an especially important point when English is not your first language.
Around the office, as one of only a handful of native speakers I am more than happy to proofread my co-workers writing and help them word things in a more ‘natural’ way. It is the least I can do in return for the opportunities they often provide me in return to practice my foreign language skills with them.
While I think sometimes it is very difficult to ask for help with writing or speaking in a foreign language, I think it shows a commitment to learn and improve. That is another reason I am always willing to help.
In the internet age however translation tools are become common place. Providing native speakers with completely incoherent messages or signs like the one that was posted by the elevator this morning.
Dear Guests,
Why by cold weather run if property to you comes. Immediately the Breakfast offer comes to you.
Starting from Monday 1 November 2010 of 7.30 – 9.30 o’clock if you can do various fresh Sandwiches, rolls fruits and beverages in the Cafeteria from the duplex receive.
Our woman employee is pleased already it to welcome to be allowed.
If only they would have stopped by my desk before they posted this they wouldn’t have had a second disaster. Well, at least I can still look forward to the ‘beef balls’ in the cafeteria again this week.
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 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.
Happy Eastern
04
Apr
Before I left for the Easter break a German colleague wished me a ‘Happy Eastern’
As soon as she said it she looked and me and said, ‘That sounded wrong, you correct me on that last year, it is Happy Easter isn’t it?’
I got a laugh. The word for Easter is German is Ostern so I can understand the mistake.