Volkswagen is changing its official language from German to English

Christine Andersen wrote:



Reminds me of an episode in the first year after I came to Denmark.
My heading is Danish for 'The ship has been delayed' ...

I was waiting in a queue at the port of Esbjerg, hoping to board the ferry home to England. An announcement came over the loudspeakers, with an explanation I did not quite catch, and finally that crucial sentence.
The English family behind me were very upset: "Does that mean the ship has sunk?"
I had learnt enough Danish to know that no, it was just late. As the explanation in English came over the loudspeakers, the ship could be seen sailing into its berth, returning several hours late from its last voyage, but undamaged!

And then there is always the Danish word eventuelt, which does NOT mean eventually as in Eventually, we were allowed to board the ship.

False friends and traps abound, and it is often important to know whose version of the lingua franca a speaker is using - English is not just English!

That said, many non-natives speak impressively good, understandable English, and thank goodness for that.

Christine Andersen wrote:
....returning several hours late from its last voyage, but undamaged!

And then there is always the Danish word eventuelt, which does NOT mean eventually as in Eventually, we were allowed to board the ship.

Tom in London wrote: (and don't mention the War any more)

Peter Motte wrote:

Looks like fake news to me.

Matthias Brombach wrote:

This allows Volkswagen to put their future scandals (those like the emissions scandal) on bad translations (English source texts, poorly translated from German into "English" by German engineers and then translated back from "best rate" Germans into German again).