"No word for x"
May. 27th, 2011 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckAnd again someone is making a pronouncement as to how a language has no word for X and that means that the speakers don't know the concept.
This time it's the BBC and yes, it's about the Germans again. They say we have no word for "small talk", well, we do use Smalltalk or Plaudern and I'm sure there are lots of other ways of describing "empty verbiage", which actually reminds me, the direct translation leeres Gerede would be another, slightly negative term. (Though I suspect that the German expression was translated into English for the article.)
The prejudice is that Germans talk less about the weather than the English and the article mentions a study that has found that this is indeed true and I don't actually doubt that.
We do small talk though, and I know, because I find it so difficult, especially at social functions in a school context. Terrible! Maybe we don't have a name for it because we don't find it remarkable?
As to the rest of the BBC piece? Sun-loungers are definitely old hat. Yes, the English tendency of using "would you" for instructions confuses Germans, especially pupils. On the one hand, Germans value directness and honesty, but when your employer writes a reference for you there are all sorts of euphemistic ways of saying someone was lazy and ill-suited to the job. ("Er hat sich stets größte Mühe gegeben, seine Aufgaben zu unserer Zufriedenheit auszuführen.") Just like the list of English phrases translated into their real meanings that has been making the rounds there are phrase books translating the secret language of job reviews and reports.
This time it's the BBC and yes, it's about the Germans again. They say we have no word for "small talk", well, we do use Smalltalk or Plaudern and I'm sure there are lots of other ways of describing "empty verbiage", which actually reminds me, the direct translation leeres Gerede would be another, slightly negative term. (Though I suspect that the German expression was translated into English for the article.)
The prejudice is that Germans talk less about the weather than the English and the article mentions a study that has found that this is indeed true and I don't actually doubt that.
We do small talk though, and I know, because I find it so difficult, especially at social functions in a school context. Terrible! Maybe we don't have a name for it because we don't find it remarkable?
As to the rest of the BBC piece? Sun-loungers are definitely old hat. Yes, the English tendency of using "would you" for instructions confuses Germans, especially pupils. On the one hand, Germans value directness and honesty, but when your employer writes a reference for you there are all sorts of euphemistic ways of saying someone was lazy and ill-suited to the job. ("Er hat sich stets größte Mühe gegeben, seine Aufgaben zu unserer Zufriedenheit auszuführen.") Just like the list of English phrases translated into their real meanings that has been making the rounds there are phrase books translating the secret language of job reviews and reports.
