German translation is in a world of its own. German as a language is linguistically similar to several other European languages, but seems to be unique in its ability to construct complex words by combining several others together into a ‘super word’. These super words cannot easily be translated literally. In fact, if you have a German dictionary you might not even see some of these words in it unless it is a very comprehensive one. Professional German translators need to have a very extensive vocabulary if it is to include the rich diversity of German super words. Not sure what we are talking about?
Here are some examples below.
Have you ever eaten ‘comfort food’ if you were bored, lonely, or just stressed out? If you do that on a regular basis, you may just put on a few extra kilos of weight, what is called in German Kummerspeck, literally ‘grief bacon.’
If you do end up with too much Kummerspeck, you will have to fight quite hard against your natural tendency to do nothing about it to shed those kilos. What is called in German Innerer Scheinehund is the tendency in each of us to put off doing now what could be done later, our ‘inner laziness’. In fact, the German term literally means ‘inner pigdog,’ which somehow or other becomes something quite different!
Have you ever thought you really wanted to be somewhere else, somewhere altogether more exotic than the place you are right now? Of course, you have. It’s common in winter, when the skies are grey and drab. Germans feel it a lot and call it Fernweh, or in English literally ‘distance pain’. Perhaps that’s why so many Germans can be found all over the world in exciting locations. They just love to listen to their Fernweh!
Some of us keep working and living the same old life until suddenly we get the feeling that we really should have done something more exciting. Maybe it’s now too late? That funny feeling that we might be missing out on something is what Germans call Torschlusspanik. It literally means ‘closing gate panic’ or in other words a fear that an opportunity is going to disappear!
Have you ever been caught out doing something you shouldn’t and have given some kind of lame excuse? Some of us do it all the time, especially kids! A poor excuse in German is called Erklärungsnot, although the literal explanation is ‘explanation poverty’!
As you can see from just these few examples alone, learning German is actually a lot of fun, so don’t leave it all to the professional German translator. German words might seem like Zugenbrechers, (tongue twisters) but most of them are easier than that and once you’ve mastered a few yourself, you can try them out on your German speaking friends!
No comments:
Post a Comment