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Re: [Sks-devel] status page
From: |
Tobias Frei |
Subject: |
Re: [Sks-devel] status page |
Date: |
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 19:06:19 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.4.0 |
Hi Robert,
I love that story; saved it in my Documents folder! :D
When one of my female friends refers to me or another male friend, they
usually use "Kumpel" (buddy) as workaround term for this problem.
Another possibility is:
"Das ist ein Freund von mir" (that's a friend of mine)
The "ein" (a / one) in this example sentence implies that it won't be a
boyfriend (because that usually wouldn't be one of many other boyfriends).
For female friends, I have no equivalent to "Kumpel" which I could use
as replacement. Instead, I either try to use the female version of the
example sentence above:
"Das ist eine Freundin von mir" (that's a [female] friend of mine)
...or, if that is applicable, I use "gute Freundin" (good [female]
friend), which also implies that I'm not referring to a girlfriend. :)
Best regards,
Tobias Frei
Am 20.04.2014 17:43, schrieb Robert J. Hansen:
>> "You've seemingly overlooked that the message was typed on a cell and
>> the autocorrect isn't designed for English. 'This message was sent from
>> my Android phone via K-9 Mail.' And because you instantly become
>> personal in your first post and aren't engaging with the real issues,
>> you're dead as a conversational partner to me."
>
> Ah, thank you for the correction! :)
>
> With respect to the German language -- I spent a good bit of my 18th and
> 19th years in Saxony, and it literally changed my life. I found Germany
> to be a warm and welcoming place, and the vast majority of your
> countrymen were kind to me. I haven't been back since, although I'd
> like to.
>
> And what the hell. This list has had enough drama and bad feelings as
> of late, so I'll share a funny story from Hildesheim.
>
> ---
>
> I was on a bus with my host sister, who had a major English test the
> next day. She asked if we could speak English so that she could get
> some practice in before the Prüfung, so there we were chatting away.
> Sitting across from us was a mother with her young daughter, and the
> girl's eyes were wide as saucers as she watched me.
>
> She tugged on her mother's sleeve and whispered to her, "Mutti, Mutti!
> Ein Ausländer! Hier! Er ist Ausländer!"
>
> For non-German speakers, that's a pretty rude thing to say. "Mom, Mom!
> A foreigner! Here! He's a foreigner!" My host sister and I gave her
> a quizzical "we're right here and we can hear you" look, her mother made
> fulsome apologies, and tried to hush her daughter.
>
> The daughter just repeated it, louder, so everyone on the bus could
> hear. The mother looked as if she was about to die of embarrassment.
>
> Finally I spoke to the little girl directly. "Ich bin nicht 'ein
> Ausländer,'" I said, scare-quoting the phrase with my fingers. "Ich bin
> Amerikaner, ein Exchangestudent, und ein Freund zu meiner Freundin."
>
> My host sister elbowed me suddenly and I knew I'd committed some gaffe,
> but I went on anyway.
>
> "Ich bin Robert. Was ist deine Name? Wer ist deine Mutti?"
>
> The little girl looked as if I'd just slapped her. She turned away,
> stuck her nose high in the air, and said in an imperious voice --
> "/That's/ all right. /I/ speak /English/." She looked like a little
> queen, really, and her accent was straight-up Alistair Cooke.
>
> The entire bus broke out laughing. After the laughter subsided I asked
> my host sister what was wrong. "Nothing," she said irritatedly. "You
> just kind of implied we're dating. I'm your Freundin?"
>
> I blinked. "What? It's the feminine of Freund..."
>
> "Yes, and it's used for girlfriends."
>
> "So what's used for friends who happen to be women?"
>
> "Freundin, of course."
>
> I shook my head. "But it's the /same word!/"
>
> She shrugged. "It's more about how you say it, I guess."
>
> I stared at her a moment. "Your language makes absolutely no sense, you
> know that?"
>
> She gave me a glower and a smile. "This, from the English-speaker."
>
> The bus had a second round of laughter over that. :)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sks-devel mailing list
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> https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/sks-devel
>
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- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, (continued)
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Tobias Frei, 2014/04/19
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Simon Lange, 2014/04/19
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Robert J. Hansen, 2014/04/19
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, slange, 2014/04/19
- Message not available
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Robert J. Hansen, 2014/04/19
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Tobias Frei, 2014/04/20
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Robert J. Hansen, 2014/04/20
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page,
Tobias Frei <=
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Frank Villaro-Dixon, 2014/04/20
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Christian Reiß, 2014/04/20
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Frank Villaro-Dixon, 2014/04/20
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Simon Lange, 2014/04/19
- Re: [Sks-devel] status page, Arnold, 2014/04/18