No, XMFC fandom. Just... no.

[lavvyan]

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

Comments

[chinawolf]

Seconded. I'm always willing to beta German, but I hardly ever get taken up on it. It's sad.

In addition to all you said re Erik's relationship with the language itself, I've often wondered why authors keep insisting that people revert to their mother tongue in tense or emotional situations, because for me it's the opposite. In whatever context, whereever I am, since I've been about 15 I've been cursing in foreign languages exclusively. I do use "scheiße/Scheiß-" as an description in German regularly, but I curse in English - maybe that's a 'just me' thing, but I have a hard time with Erik being so invested in his monther tongue that it'd be his language of choice for endearments and cursing alike.

My personal gag reflex = immediate close tab is whenever Erik calles Charles Liebchen. Extra gagging when it's Leibchen instead.

[tanpopo03]

Just dropping in to say that it's not just you - I'm exactly the same, but not just with cursing. The more emotional the situation the more I'm tempted to revert to English... not sure why. Maybe because it creates a sort of distance (for me at least), which makes it easier to say things.

Extra gagging when it's Leibchen instead. LOLOL

[lavvyan]

Yes! Or "meine liebe" - GUYS THAT'S WHAT YOU SAY TO WOMEN AND NOT IN A ROMANTIC WAY EITHER STAB STABBITY STAB STAB.

Also, huh. I'm far more likely to go "fuck it!" instead of "Scheiße!", now that I think about it. Maybe it's all the foreign-language fanfic?

[_bettina_]

I don't read in that fandom, but I know the feeling nonetheless. It's not as if there aren't many German-speakers around in fandom.

[lavvyan]

Trufax. The last round of holmestice had... five or six Germans and Austrians that I know of. That makes for about ten percent of the participants, and I'd expect the general number for the whole of fandom to be not that much lower.

[tagetes]

*pets* I know, believe me, I know. SGA. Zelenka. There were fics that made me cry.

[lavvyan]

With laughter, I hope. *coughs*

*snuggles*

[tagetes]

Oh yeah, maybe with one exception - when I replied to a fic along the lines of "great fic, but using online translators is not a good idea, I´m willing to help if you want" and the response was "that´s okay, people don´t understand it anyway". Either Czechs are not people or I´m the only one in fandom who speaks Czech. I don´t know. *g*

[lavvyan]

You're just not supposed to understand Czech, darling. It gets in the way of Art. *g*

[ladyamarra]

*snorts* I think the only thing even more annoying that mistranslated sentences are when actors try to speak german "native style" in movies. For example, the scen with nightcrawler, Jean and Storm in the church about half an hour into X-men 2. That hurts.

[lavvyan]

Ahahaha, oh god, yes. Or Kevin Bacon thoroughly eviscerating the language in First Class - true horrified fascination lies somewhere between cringing and giggling.

[mrlnpndrgn]

" But please, for the love of my brain anything, stop using online translators. "

I second that!
Really, if an author doesn't speak the language, ask around : someone else will ;-/

[lavvyan]

Yes! It's not that hard! And if you don't want to ask, well, then perhaps you shouldn't work with a language you don't know.