Why we should learn German, by John le Carré

Chris S wrote:

The only decent music ever to come out of the German-speaking world is yodelling.

expressisverbis wrote:
I don't know a single word of German...
... but I like to listen it in songs, I consider it a beautiful language.
In fact, I like to listen other languages that I am not familiar with, pleasing to the ear.

P.L.F.Persio wrote:

Thank you, philgoddard, for this heartfelt reminder of what a truly great writer John le Carré was, and the sheer beauty of the German language.

Is the spelling correct now? I can't feel my eyes anymore.

[Edited at 2020-12-17 14:16 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-12-17 14:21 GMT]

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

You surely know at least a few German words such as 'Diesel', 'Autobahn' and 'Führer', Sandra. No need to be so modest. With a little more work, you could soon be translating Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in your sleep. 😁

expressisverbis wrote:
Not in my wildest dreams I can imagine that one day I would be able to do that

Chris S wrote:



That would be a pretty wild dream to be fair. I have it often.

I’m out in the mountains, the same place the Milka bars come from, and there’ll be some emergency, not a climate emergency because Greta is my other recurring dream, no an emergency like running out of Haribos on a bike ride, only there’s no mobile signal so the only way to summon help is to dodedodidodididlydiddlydo, and whatever Matthias says it’s not something you can do on your own, suddenly the hills are alive with buxom mädchens yodelling back, and behind me like magic appear two deliriously happy accordion players in matching lederhosen, or sex pants as we call them, but then, as always seems to happen in dreams, I’m suddenly back at school and naked and everyone’s laughing at me but I actually have the last laugh because I am now a German translator, a Donaudampschiffsgesellschaftshauptübersetzerin no less, and no that isn’t a comic Google Translate error, for I am ever gender-fluid in the early hours, senior translatoress it is, and yes I know there’s an f missing in that, but it’s near the beginning and I’m on my phone so I’d have to retype the whole word and not only can I not be arsed but there’s simply not enough time because one of the hot yodellers is just about to take off her...

And that’s where I wake up.

Chris S wrote:

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1"

Surely, the longer any discussion goes on, the more likely someone is to be compared to absolutely anything - Hitler, Gandhi or

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

I don't have such an Irish temper, but it's a relief that I'm not the only one to find him greatly overrated.

Thomas T. Frost wrote:



You forgot an F. 😊

It's Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän.

Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän bezeichnet als Eigennamenkompositum (und damit unberührt von der Rechtschreibreform) inoffiziell einen Kapitän der von 1829 bis 1991 existierenden Ersten Donau-Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft (DDSG).