To the point: foreign language equals neck-breaking
My neighbor once went to Innstanbul (> Istanbul). She liked it quite a bit. But still, it wasn't as nice as Madaiara (> Madeira) last year, because there were so many Bogan villas on Madaiara.
No, not posh cottages for Turkish holidaymakers. She meant the colorful vines with the botanical name Bougainvillea. Besides, the apricots (> apricots) tasted wonderfully sapftig ... Next it's then to Mallorza (> Mallorca, pronounced: Majorka). I wonder if she'll have a caipiranha (> biting drink) for me? Snap!
The Bätscherätt is not the musical instrument of the Tschäggättä-mask wearers in the Lötschental, but all of us Frieda Hodel (> Bachelorette, pronounced: Bätschelerätt). Ex-Bachelor Rafael Beutl (> Säckli), most personal love advisor of the first Swiss Bachelorette and recently 3+ host, can't speak English that well (> what?) - though still better than Frieda Hodel can speak German (> huh?). But it's actually enough if a Hodel is simply beautiful, you can be loved for that too - if not for life, then for a season. Some people also find a Hodler beautiful. It's all a matter of taste.
Finally, "we are many different characters " (> have characters, feminine? plural?). Beautifully said, Frieda! And all have different brains with different capacities. I Tarzan, you Jane. One has brains, the other good genes. So everything is fairly distributed, more or less. Beutl and Hodel "aired" this "big secret" together after the first Bachelorette season. There's nothing like a cultivated exchange - of whatever. Hot air is part of summer. That's why it's enough at this time of year if you "look mega beautiful as a Kappel (> Couple)". More than Sepp Blatter can show at the moment. Learn: The way between monastery (> Kappel), snogging (> Frieda) and jail (> FIFA) can be quite short.
Against the laughing potential of the Bätscherätt, classic Heinz-Günther from Grevenbroich (> Grevenbräuch), who at "Chez da Giovanni" Knotschis (> Gnocci, pronounced: Njokki), Schiabatta (> Ciabatta, pronounced: Tschabatta), Prösäkkö (> Prosecco, pronounced: Prosekko), Pissa Proschuuto with a bit of ham (> Pizza Prosciutto) and Ekspressö (> Espresso), ride into the sunset specially ordered by Vujo Gavric.
Okay, my older son wants a Caprolee (> convertible) and doesn't like a Siloot (> salad). But he's also only three years old. I also had "a terrible smooch" the other day - which sounds better than it was. Because I meant Gnusch, correction program and poor knowledge of Swiss German wanted something else. And unawares one becomes a clown, in this case only of the editorial staff, not of the nation. Lucky again!
Some newspaper headlines are little different from dummy text. "Oxy moxy oaxy moxy," wrote the Berliner Zeitung at the end of June after a power outage. And you thought: that's finely observed and polished. Rarely does a headline get to the heart of the matter like this one. The editors took it with humor - the only salvation in such cases. "You don't see the wood before the trees," said a Gimmi girl once in a heated discussion - and we all laughed terribly precociously. But it is true: Even with the British, it's the trees that obscure the clear view. But be careful in Italy: Italians are epicureans and, when they don't get it, have their eyes wrapped in ham (> ho gli occhi foderati di prosciutto) or a slice of salami on their eyes (> ho le fette di salame sugli occhi). And the British don't catch two birds with one stone, but - a bit more brute - kill two birds with one stone (> kill two birds with one stone). Just in case you love proverbs and are vacationing in Cornwall.
What we learn: Anyone who attempts to speak a foreign or new language is walking a fine line between recognition and ridicule. It is futile to rely on the listeners' benevolent acceptance of one's efforts to speak a language. So when - à la Rafi Beutl - words burn on your lips (> burn on your nails, > lie on your tongue), which do not originate from your mother tongue, you have to think about it: Am I on vacation?
Do I apply my knowledge from the Migros Club School course while paying for everything I do? Do I see the people to whom I am doing my verbal exercises again after the vacation? Am I the boss? Or will my listeners be more likely not to hold back with scorn? That could be decisive for the vacation mood.
With this in mind: Happy Hollidays! We'll read you again on August 21.
Anne-Friederike Heinrich, Editor in Chief
[email protected]
Summer break: The print edition goes on summer break with issue 12/13 and reappears on August 21. The daily newsletter will be published until July 20 and then pauses until August 7.
