German, for me, is so logical it defies reason. It's not for nothing that English speakers have difficulty with it. Mark Twain famously said that German was impossible to learn. He added that his two favourite words from the language were damit and womit (w pronounced like v).
A story in which a page 3 topless model was referred to variously as die (female) das (neutral ) and sein (male) in two or three lines was for me beyond the pale, so much so that I made a drawing to illustrate the point, and to confirm to myself that I haven't so far succumbed to linguistic madness.
In the newspaper Kate, as she is called, has purchased calendars for her friends. I've changed the story as I thought her fruit trees might in a humorous way help us to remember the points.
Your picture could be a Van Klomp Gwil? I am joking. It's very good.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave, I've given it little baroque touches to make it more Viennese. After all living in the town where the future fuerherr failed his art exams standards must be kept up ;-)
DeleteAdolf was a painter. Could he hang wood chip wallpaper too?
DeleteHa, ha. He was a good postcard painter. He'd paint little postcards of buildings in the centre if Vienna whilst posing as a down and out. His friend at the local doss house, who happened to be a Jew by the way, sold the postcards to visitors. So they had a good little number going between the pair of them.
DeleteHe should have kept the family name of Shicklgruber and hung woodchip. Then we'd all have been saved a lot of bother.
Yes I believe he was a very good landscape painter. When he went to Vienna he called it his anaglypta period. Sorry.
DeleteStan Boardman?
DeleteH made sketches of Vienna's architecture. Later the cathedral was used for his army's cannon target practice. Something white flying on the spire must've annoyed him.
No one of my own jokes Gwil. I often watch Stan on You Tube. Imagine the jaymans dropping bombs on his chippy. I loved The Comedians.
DeleteSimilar jokes about the atchies. Expect he get a gong for his contribution to Falkland effort.
DeleteI have never been tempted to learn German, but my youngest son surprised me once by booking a Frankfurt Hotel room, in what sounded like very fluent and confident German. I had no idea he spoke any at all.
ReplyDeleteYou're very wise Cro. Waste of time and energy learning such a stressful lingo unless you want to be a WW2.spy like my namesake a police inspector from Wales (no relation) who posed as a welsh nationalist and infiltrated the enemy's hierarchy.
DeleteI am not sure I understand the story. Are the pronouns correct or incorrect? I thought at first the trees were maps, like my maps.
ReplyDeleteIt's the way of speaking. So, it's basically it's a literal translation. But this is how German works. Or seems to. Think of saying (without using the bracketed words) something like the following: Let me introduce you to my friend. Her name is Marlene Dietrich. It (she) is a model. He (she) gave a signed photo to his friend.
DeleteMy classic example of a literal translation which I read in a novel: He entered the room. It was empty except for a table. He stood in the corner (the table in case you were wondering).
But it is true, a person or an object can change gender up to three times in one sentence.
I see now that the trees are like your maps. Who knows when and where our subconscious picks up images. But doubtless it does.