Lost in translation

[jadesfire]

This is why you should be very careful when emailing in another language:

"...also confidently hoping that our business relationship may become more tense in future"
(emphasis mine)

I'm intrigued. I notice common phrases in people whose first language is French (where the construction is generally much more elaborate than average), German (usually very direct and with better grammar than mine) and Polish (where articles tend to get left off). I'm sure English people do it in other languages - probably word-order-issues, but there'll be others as well (apart from general inability to speak them...)

So what German phrase could have resulted in this? German speakers?

BTW, I'm interested not mocking - I'm immensely grateful that all our suppliers email me in English or I'd never be able to sort anything out...

Comments

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

I think if that's a German speaker he did indeed mean 'more intense' in the sense of 'close', like in 'close friendship'. It's a nice thing to say, yes ^^

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

ahhh...that makes sense.

I'd assumed he meant something nice :) it was just one of those "huh" moments. Plus languages fascinate me, so any excuse...

Thanks :D

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

It's one of the more common mistakes, we use the same word for 'close' and 'tight', I guess he just got a bit confused there

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

Well, hopefully someone with a better grasp on the nuances of the language than me will come along, but if it helps, straff can mean 'tense', but also 'tighten'. So maybe they meant 'tighter', 'closer'?

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Well remembered! :) (see seti_drd above)

very impressive ;)

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

*grin* yeah, her post wasn't there when I hit reply, but when I posted I was like 'woot!'

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

*claps*

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

Definitely lost in translation - I'm German and I checked dictionary website (www.leo.org) where tense is definitely not positive. More intense more likely, but guessing they try to say stronger.

Hope that makes sense, if not please say!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Thanks for looking! I'm sure it was meant to be positive, given that we're very good customers :) It just fascinates me the way a single mistranslated word can make so much difference.

[laurab1.livejournal.com]

< language geek >

I'm intrigued. I notice common phrases in people whose first language is French (where the construction is generally much more elaborate than average)

Yes, French can be show-off and flowery. Lots of French idioms that don't translate directly to another language.

German (usually very direct and with better grammar than mine)

German and its 16 different words for *the*. It's *hard*.

and Polish (where articles tend to get left off).

The Slavic/Eastern European languages don't have articles. The terribly pretty Goran Visnjic, who plays Luka Kovac, on ER, is Croatian. He was *always* missing articles, when his English wasn't brilliant.

< /language geek>

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* Even in French, the letters we get are very flowery. I like it - much more fun to read. I can read most European languages with reasonable comphrehension (Greek and Latin proving useful after all) and one day, I will learn to read the Bulgarian alphabet...

My colleague is Polish and articles are the thing that trip her up the most, especially in writing - it's only when you sit down and try to explain it that you realise the English construction is more complicated than it looks.

[seraphina_snape]

German (usually very direct and with better grammar than mine)

*g* Well, English might not be the easiest language to learn, but it's definitely less rigid than German.

I'm sure English people do it in other languages - probably word-order-issues

Definitely that; English people (and pretty much everyone else) also mix up the articles - which is understandable since German articles depend on gender and case of their corresponding noun (and with three grammatical genders and four cases singular and plural...well, I can't blame them). It's pretty fascinating, really:

der Ball - nominative m.
des Balles - genitive m.
die Sonne - nominative f.
der Sonne - genitive f. (sun is a female noun in German, but the genitive gives it the masculine article - that's probably the one case that everyone gets wrong a few times.)

~ sera

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

My mother always wanted me to do German - I did Ancient Greek instead, which actually isn't that much more useful for Classics, as 50% of the commentaries and books are written in German and most texts are available in translation...

But after Latin and Greek (3 genders, five cases and don't get me started on the moods of verbs :S), it'd be interesting to have a proper go at learning some. English grammar isn't always taught very well in English schools, and if you don't understand how your own language is put together, you're at a disadvantage in trying to grasp someone else's.

[seraphina_snape]

I did French and Latin in grammar school. I always thought the main difficulty with Latin wasn't the grammar; it was getting through yet another really boring translation. Honestly, I don't think you can fully enjoy Latin if you aren't at least marginally interested in history.

I can't really remember if we ever had pure grammar lessons like we did in French or English, but we certainly learned a few grammar rules in German. I can remember that I had this list of important grammar rules and different types of subordinate clauses. Stuff like that.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I've discovered that some non-native speakers of English often have a better grasp of English grammar than native speakers. I think it's because we consciously learn the language, including grammar rules, in a school setting. I'm a beta for several native speakers of English and you wouldn't believe how often I've heard: Huh? There is a rule for this?

~ sera

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Taken as meant! I don't know if things have changed (the curriculum seems to change about every 6 months at the moment) but when I was at school, there was very little 'pure grammar' taught, and I find that English people generally don't know the names of things in their own language.

I'm a grammar geek, and am lucky enough to have a beta who is too - so much bouncing went on when we discovered that we both knew what a gerund was :)

[seraphina_snape]

so much bouncing went on when we discovered that we both knew what a gerund was :)

I hear you. It's nice to find out you're not the only geek around.

~ sera