DSP Engineer position opening in Vienna/Austria

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.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

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
-- 
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
�����������������������������������������������������������������������

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

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

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

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

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

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.
�����������������������������������������������������������������������

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.
�����������������������������������������������������������������������

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.