1920's fashion, gangsters and some German phrases

[setos_puppy]

Hello all! Looking for some RP help, if you please

Comments

[legoline]

a) German sex talk.
b) German slang and catch phrases, or expressions.
c) German insults and swear words.

Well, what are you looking for? Any specific phrases? ;-)

Also, bear in mind that in the 1920s, German differed somewhat from today's German. I for one barely know anything about the actual slang from back then :-/

[setos_puppy]

I'm looking for swearing, specifically when angry or frustrated, and insults, more than slang.

[legoline]

Well, other than Scheiße a common exclamation of frustration might be "Mist!" or "Verdammt!". (Or variations thereof, like "Verdammte Scheiße")

[setos_puppy]

oh "verdammt", I heard you often when I was a child.

What about expressions in German? We have so many in English, like "the early bird gets the worm", or "slow and steady wins the race". There are others, but for some reason, none are coming to mind.

[cuddyclothes]

Yes, women wore slacks, but it was not until the 1930s, when Katherine Hepburn wore them on movie sets, that they became acceptable attire. In the 1920s it would have been a very bold statement, either politically or sexually, usually the latter.

Men wore tailored suits, some with long ties, some with bow ties, and every man wore a hat. I mean EVERY man. Go to Google images and google "1920s mans suit" "Reginald Dennny 1920s" (romantic lead who mostly did contemporary comedies),and also look at street photos from the 1920s. It was a time of of abundance before the stock market crash 0f 1929, which led to the Great Depression.

I'm not sure if they were called "mobsters" or "gangsters." Try googling "bootleggers," were operations who sold liquor, which was illegal during this time in America. The term and time was called Prohibition.

[setos_puppy]

I figured women wearing pants was a bold sexual statement, but I didn't know that about Katherine Hepburn! So interesting.

I figured hats were common, but every man, yeesh, talk about conformity.

I'll definitely try googling bootleggers :D

[cuddyclothes]

Here's a link to 1920s women's fashion:

http://vintagefashionguild.org/fashion-timeline/1920-to-1930/

Look for "vintage 1920s men's suits -ebay".

[setos_puppy]

Thank you very much!

[sollersuk]

1 :I don't knot about the USA but in the UK for a long time "Turkish knickerss" aka harem trousers (what is worn in "Raiders of the Lost Ark") were acceptable informal wear at home and similar could be worn outside the home, certainly by the 1930s, by upper middle class and upwards women. The UK experience was probably different; trousers were worn by women doing war work in WWI; there's a Punch cartoon of Lady Something, trouser clad, on her way to a munitions factory, paying a cabbie the exact fare - his response: "Call yourself a gent?"

[sollersuk]

Just remembered a WWI catchphrase, derived from a popular song at a time, of a young man's response to his girlfriend's garb: "Not in those trousers!" It became a general negative.

[setos_puppy]

HA! Punch. Oh how I love you.

That's absolutely fascinating.

[azn_jack_fiend]

In that period in general, Asian-Americans in cities would be segregated from white people, and even if they were very rich and successful would be accepted by white society very marginally and provisionally. In most Western states there were laws on the books forbidding white-Asian marriages, but I'm not sure about Illinois. Also, by 1924 ALL immigration from Asia was completely barred, so there was a lot of backlash attitude around that time.

Black-Asian community relationships in that period would be pretty interesting, although I don't know much about the subject.

[setos_puppy]

I knew about the 1924 ban, but I was thinking the two Asians in my RP (married, obviously to each other) were children of people who had immigrated earlier.

It's just a case of how do I bring them in, if at all, and is it worth it.

I sort of have a rag tag gang of misfits.

[drachenmina]

If this helps - after six months of au-pairing in Germany, I found myself saying (in English) "do you want to come by me?" instead of "do you want to come to my house?" and referring to "giving out" money instead of "spending" it.

[setos_puppy]

That's definitely a miswording I'd be interested in using, thanks

[legoline]

Oh. If you're interested in "false friends", I've got a couple. In German "become" means "to receive something", rather than expressing one's state etc.

[sethg_prime]

“We had dinner by the Cohens” is also grammatical Yeshivish; I assume this is a borrowing from Yiddish.