>
> Guess what I miss the most after leaving Germany? Greek restaurants
> ...
>
Aren't they really run by Turks? :-)
Ciao,
Peter K.
Reply by Joerg●January 28, 20062006-01-28
Hello Martin,
>
> Of course you get Germknoedel in Germany, at every fun fair and
> Christmas fair. It's usually served with a poppy seed preparation
> and is about 15 cm in diameter. Doubtlessly, someone's now going to
> tell me that can't be the real thing ;)
>
I stand corrected. Didn't know that. The only ones I ever found were in
southern Bavaria. And no, they weren't the real thing ;-)
Anyway, don't eat the ones with poppy seeds if you have to take a drug test.
Guess what I miss the most after leaving Germany? Greek restaurants ...
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply by Martin Eisenberg●January 28, 20062006-01-28
Joerg wrote:
> Then there are items that just don't exist in Germany. The
> Germknoedel is one of these. Gray dough balls the size of a
> football.
Of course you get Germknoedel in Germany, at every fun fair and
Christmas fair. It's usually served with a poppy seed preparation
and is about 15 cm in diameter. Doubtlessly, someone's now going to
tell me that can't be the real thing ;)
Martin
--
Quidquid latine scriptum sit, altum viditur.
Reply by Jerry Avins●January 28, 20062006-01-28
Joerg wrote:
...
> "crispy" is "knusprig" in Germany but "resch" ... in Austria.
"Crisp" translates to Yiddish "kruchle". (I just looked it up.)
"Crispy" isn't a real word in English. It's a menu-maker's weasel word.
Since it has no defined meaning, customers can't sue if the crispy
French fries can be bent into pretzels. "Crisp" means a brittle outside.
Whenever I hear "crispy", I mentally translate to "crispoid". With
foods, "creme" is another such word. It carries no dairy connotation.
Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
�����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by Jerry Avins●January 28, 20062006-01-28
Joerg wrote:
> Hello Jerry,
>
>>
>> I'm at least as good at German as I am now at Yiddish. When in
>> Germany, My most repeated phrase is "Langsam, bitte!" The usual
>> response is "But your accent is deceptively good." Speaking is easier
>> than listening. I can choose words I know, but listening is passive.
>>
>
> Then you've got to be pretty good. Happened to me in the Netherlands.
> After a couple beers it all came back but then the guy next to me
> started speeding up the words. I learned the Belgian style and he spoke
> northern Dutch so that was difficult.
>
> There are lots of opportunities to practice German but Yiddish must be
> tough. The only people I ever met who still seemed to master it were
> older folks, mostly immigrants from former Eastern block countries. As a
> Lutheran I never learned it except what we learned at school but if
> spoken slowly I could understand some.
>
> If you want to learn it more, AFAIK many of Ephraim Kishon's works have
> also been translated into Yiddish (he couldn't speak it himself) and his
> stuff is really good. Sad that he isn't with us anymore.
There are plenty of books. http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/+yb shows
some. (BTW, The words there under "Buy Yiddish Books" Is just
translation: "Kauft Yidisher Bikher".)
I studied reading and writing Yiddish with a neighbor for a while when I
was four. (My parents thought she was teaching me in English, but my
cousin was doing that. Funny mixup.) I studied German four years in high
school; my teacher was a refugee from Berlin and I picked up her accent.
I could read the headlines in the Yiddish dailies back then, but I'm no
longer fluent in either language. I'm working on Vini-der-Pu, which is
mostly in transliteration, but has some Yiddish text. It is a more
satisfying translation than the German "Pu der B�r".
Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
�����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by Tim Wescott●January 28, 20062006-01-28
Jerry Avins wrote:
> Joerg wrote:
>
>> Hello Jerry,
>>
>>
>>> Of course not, neither is platdeutch or bayerisch, but one gets by. I
>>> understood other's speak in Mecklenberg With the help of a little
>>> Yiddish. I imagine hochdeutch would get me by in Vienna.
>>>
>>
>> It would, you'd just have to ask the others to slow down when they
>> respond. In Germany Yiddish can help a lot. Probably even when you
>> cross the border to Poland a lot of older folks would still understand
>> you.
>
>
> I'm at least as good at German as I am now at Yiddish. When in Germany,
> My most repeated phrase is "Langsam, bitte!" The usual response is "But
> your accent is deceptively good." Speaking is easier than listening. I
> can choose words I know, but listening is passive.
>
> Jerry
I always tacked on "ich bin auslaeder".
I did much better in Yugoslavia (Croatia) -- their German classes taught
from the same word lists as mine so we did just fine.
At least we did just fine once they figured out I wasn't German. If you
want to know how the German tourists act in Croatia* just review how US
tourists act in Mexico. Once I started out by saying "guten tag, ich
bin Americanischen" I did just fine.
* Well, how they did 24 years ago.
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Reply by Joerg●January 28, 20062006-01-28
Hello Jerry,
>
> I'm at least as good at German as I am now at Yiddish. When in Germany,
> My most repeated phrase is "Langsam, bitte!" The usual response is "But
> your accent is deceptively good." Speaking is easier than listening. I
> can choose words I know, but listening is passive.
>
Then you've got to be pretty good. Happened to me in the Netherlands.
After a couple beers it all came back but then the guy next to me
started speeding up the words. I learned the Belgian style and he spoke
northern Dutch so that was difficult.
There are lots of opportunities to practice German but Yiddish must be
tough. The only people I ever met who still seemed to master it were
older folks, mostly immigrants from former Eastern block countries. As a
Lutheran I never learned it except what we learned at school but if
spoken slowly I could understand some.
If you want to learn it more, AFAIK many of Ephraim Kishon's works have
also been translated into Yiddish (he couldn't speak it himself) and his
stuff is really good. Sad that he isn't with us anymore.
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply by Rune Allnor●January 28, 20062006-01-28
Joerg wrote:
> Hello Rune,
>
> >
> > In what ways are the two languages (dialects?) different?
> >
>
> A thick accent difference and slightly other intonation. What really
> throws foreigners off is when they use completely different words. For
> example "crispy" is "knusprig" in Germany but "resch" (hope that's
> spelled right) in Austria. Then there are items that just don't exist in
> Germany. The Germknoedel is one of these. Gray dough balls the size of a
> football. Absolutely delicious but extremely heavy on the calories.
>
> One part of the movie "Sissi" has a song episode in there that is a
> lengthy play on the different words.
Sounds like the relation between Norwegian and Swedish.
The accents are clearly different, and most of the time it is no
problem
to understand each other. There are some confusion, thoug, as some of
the words are mutual but have different meanings. "Rolig" means "calm"
or
"quiet" in Norwegian, "fun" or "party" in Swedish. "Artig" means "fun"
in
Norwegian, "polite" in Swedish.
There is a myth -- I don't know if it is true -- that a Swedish nurse
in
a Norwegian hospital noted "The patient has 'glas=F8gon'" in the journal
for some patient. In Swedish the word "glas=F8gon" means "glasses",
"spectacles". In Norwegian the direct translation "glass=F8ye" means
"glass eye" in the sense "eyeball prothesis made from glass".
Apparently the patient had a hectic time explaining the Norwegian nurse
at the next shift that he had all his facial anatomy intact...
Rune
Reply by Joerg●January 28, 20062006-01-28
Hello Rune,
>
> In what ways are the two languages (dialects?) different?
>
A thick accent difference and slightly other intonation. What really
throws foreigners off is when they use completely different words. For
example "crispy" is "knusprig" in Germany but "resch" (hope that's
spelled right) in Austria. Then there are items that just don't exist in
Germany. The Germknoedel is one of these. Gray dough balls the size of a
football. Absolutely delicious but extremely heavy on the calories.
One part of the movie "Sissi" has a song episode in there that is a
lengthy play on the different words.
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply by Rune Allnor●January 28, 20062006-01-28
Joerg wrote:
> Hello Jerry,
>
>
> >> What are the spoken language and citizenship requirements?
> >
> > I speak enough German to get by in a restaurant. If I were younger ...
> >
>
> Austrian isn't exactly German... (now I am going to have to dodge the
> flying tomatoes).
In what ways are the two languages (dialects?) different?
Rune