No, XMFC fandom. Just... no.
Consider, if you will, the following bit of German:
Schenke mir Geduld wenn die stunden sind sehr schwer verletzt; oder die Enttäuschung geben mir Mut.
I apologise for singling you out, anonymous author, but you have the dubious honour of finally having broken my brain. The above sentence is supposed to mean "Grant me patience when the Hours are heavy; in hurt or disappointment give me courage." What it actually says is "Grant me patience when the hours very badly hurt are; or the disappointment are giving me courage."
I mean. What.
Look. I get it, okay? Erik Lehnsherr has a German background, however much he might loathe it (and actually, there's a whole different meta post about how a lot of the stories about an Auschwitz survivor cheerfully being made to teach German when he probably might prefer to forget that fucking language entirely make me cringe), and spoke German in the movie. Of course, he's doing it so that his German interlocutors may understand him and there's no indication anywhere at all that he would use the language on any other occasion, but okay. It's backstory. It's an interesting bit of character fanon to play with. It's probably also a convenient shortcut to convey how Erik might be baffled at some of the things Charles says and does - he doesn't share Charles's cultural background.
But please, for the love of my brain anything, stop using online translators.
I did this post a while ago, wondering about why the differences between British and American English seemed so darn important to large parts of fandom, and got a lot of comments about cultural backgrounds and the dominance of US mainstream media in fannish parts and how it can get very tiring for Brits to see their language stomped on mercilessly when, for once, the fannish source is British. The general line was that, "It throws me right out of a story." And that goes the other direction as well to some degree, apparently.
So please imagine how out of a story you'd be thrown if, instead of someone saying "cookie" instead of "biscuit" or "jumper" instead of "sweater," you'd be asked to make sense of "help me under the deprivations and the dissolving of the fear; renew in me the calmness ghost the trust and the peace."
I mean, obviously if you speak German and puzzle over it a bit, you can extrapolate what the translated sentence might have been, and where the online translator went wrong with grammar and synonyms. I still maintain that you're not thrown out of the story as much as catapulted at about the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow.
I know German isn't a common language in fandom among non-native speakers. I know it's not entirely easy. I know online translators are terribly convenient. I know there isn't always time to have a beta check over your work (though I swear, the next time I read "schiesse!" - "shoot!" - in a story instead of "scheisse!" - "shit!" - I will cry).
But I implore you, for the sake of German native speakers' brains not dribbling out of their ears or their eyes starting to bleed: use the resources you find in your audience. Fandom is full of Germans. We're online! We can translate! Ask us. Ask me. We'll be happy to help.
Schenke mir Geduld wenn die stunden sind sehr schwer verletzt; oder die Enttäuschung geben mir Mut.
I apologise for singling you out, anonymous author, but you have the dubious honour of finally having broken my brain. The above sentence is supposed to mean "Grant me patience when the Hours are heavy; in hurt or disappointment give me courage." What it actually says is "Grant me patience when the hours very badly hurt are; or the disappointment are giving me courage."
I mean. What.
Look. I get it, okay? Erik Lehnsherr has a German background, however much he might loathe it (and actually, there's a whole different meta post about how a lot of the stories about an Auschwitz survivor cheerfully being made to teach German when he probably might prefer to forget that fucking language entirely make me cringe), and spoke German in the movie. Of course, he's doing it so that his German interlocutors may understand him and there's no indication anywhere at all that he would use the language on any other occasion, but okay. It's backstory. It's an interesting bit of character fanon to play with. It's probably also a convenient shortcut to convey how Erik might be baffled at some of the things Charles says and does - he doesn't share Charles's cultural background.
But please, for the love of my brain anything, stop using online translators.
I did this post a while ago, wondering about why the differences between British and American English seemed so darn important to large parts of fandom, and got a lot of comments about cultural backgrounds and the dominance of US mainstream media in fannish parts and how it can get very tiring for Brits to see their language stomped on mercilessly when, for once, the fannish source is British. The general line was that, "It throws me right out of a story." And that goes the other direction as well to some degree, apparently.
So please imagine how out of a story you'd be thrown if, instead of someone saying "cookie" instead of "biscuit" or "jumper" instead of "sweater," you'd be asked to make sense of "help me under the deprivations and the dissolving of the fear; renew in me the calmness ghost the trust and the peace."
I mean, obviously if you speak German and puzzle over it a bit, you can extrapolate what the translated sentence might have been, and where the online translator went wrong with grammar and synonyms. I still maintain that you're not thrown out of the story as much as catapulted at about the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow.
I know German isn't a common language in fandom among non-native speakers. I know it's not entirely easy. I know online translators are terribly convenient. I know there isn't always time to have a beta check over your work (though I swear, the next time I read "schiesse!" - "shoot!" - in a story instead of "scheisse!" - "shit!" - I will cry).
But I implore you, for the sake of German native speakers' brains not dribbling out of their ears or their eyes starting to bleed: use the resources you find in your audience. Fandom is full of Germans. We're online! We can translate! Ask us. Ask me. We'll be happy to help.