Oddly enough - Germans and Christmas
(Preface: I use this blog as my playground for texting in English. Very far from being perfect, I would like to encourage every native speaker who happens to read my blog to give his comments on mistakes and improvements, so that I can learn more by your help
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Thanks for your encouragement, this is most helpful for me as well.Already some of your phrases (for example: " bricht die Stromversorgung zusammen")are decorating the kitchen on little cards which I look at whenever I have an idle moment.
I printed out a copy of your blog in both German and English so I can hold them side by side and compare.
Everything was going along nicely till I got to "But stop!" I don't think we would say that. We'd say "But wait a minute..." or still more umgangsprachlich "But hold on just a minute..." And then you say "We Germans follow many trends which that swap over here from America-" Now I applaud your attempt to use the word "swap" but it won't work here. I looked at your German version "Wir Deutschen Uebernehmen ja viele Trends von den Amerikanern-" and I saw your dilemma. How to translate "uebernehmen". I had to think for a few seconds but then I said to myself, "adopt". We Germans adopt many American trends.And since you used "ja", "ja viele Trends" I think we(I hope you don't mind me horning in) should say: "We Germans certainly adopt many American trends-" or "To be sure, we Germans (certainly) adopt many American trends-" Swap is a nice word but about the only way you'll see it used is for example when a child might say to a playmate: "I'll swap you my pet snake for your bycycle."
Machs Gute, john
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I do hope for you and your kitchen that you use it also for cooking. ;-) - Hm, but you give me an idea ... my computer room is tiny and stuffed with books, magazines, and other paper work, whereas in the kitchen there is still space ... *l* (But on the other hand, I should not go there too often ... :-))
Concerning "swap", you are right. The picture I had in mind was quite another one: the "big pond" with its waves splashing to Europe. "schwappen" ... see what I did? My mistake was typical DEnglish: with so many words that are similar in English and in German, I did not think much about it and took it for granted that "swap" is "schwappen" ... Thank you for drawing my attention to this.
Now how could I express the picture in good English?
"... many trends that splash across (from America) ..." - it does not sound either, does it?
By the way, the "ja" in the German version (e.g. in "wir machen ja vieles mit, aber ...") is one of my old sins: it does not mean anything in the text, it is used as a Füllwort. Something I try to avoid - until I forget it again. :-)
Have a fine time there.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon again,
Martina
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