Brits, does modern German sound camp to you? As in Stephen Fry's "mein Handy" camp?

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Because I'm currently watching Horrible Histories, and the Second World War German characters no longer sound like they used to in the olden days, i.e. like Hitler. They sound like this:

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As far back as 2000, The League of Gentlemen introduced Herrn Lipp:

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Who ( Read more... )

Because my f-list knows the answers to Important Questions ( Read more... )

A question to the Americans: what's the difference between "living room" and "rec room/den"? (Bonus points if anyone can tell me how to translate the latter into German.)

The fun thing about not being a native speaker of English is that I often learn perfectly ordinary vocabulary in the wrong context, namely through porn. Earning, as I do, my living through writing technical texts for English-language publications, I often have to use terminology such as "erections" (buildings), "lubrication" (machines) and "kinks ( Read more... )

I don't like epithets, as I'm sure I already mentioned a couple of times. But yesterday I came across one that made me laugh (and hit the back button, too, but laugh first of all): "his godfather's best friend". Apart from the fact that it was Harry's father and not Remus who was his godfather's best friend - how much more complicated can you get? ( Read more... )

Can anyone help me with agricultural technology here? Rosina maybe?

How do you call the crop huddles you get after harvesting a field, when you bind the crops (wheat or whatever) together so that they form conic shapes? "Crop huddles" just doesn't sound quite right.

A meme I found truly interesting for a change:

( Which words have I been using the most in recent entries? Cut for size. )

The discussions that evolved from my latest post on Harry Potter-influenced naming of children made me think of this site. It offers a list of the translations of HP names (both characters and objects) they use in various European languages. Some of them are funny. Did you know that Minerva is called "Minerva McSlurp" in Norwegian? And that "Moony ( Read more... )

I wrote a Dudley/Aunt Marge fic last night. Before you run off, screaming with disgust: It's only PG-13. No graphic action. After all, Dudley is only ten ( Read more... )