I thought my MTC teacher was a bit stand-offish and way too serious. It wasn't until he played a joke on the class on the last day that we got to like him.
It must have been a delicate balance for you to come up with an offensive epithet that's still G-rated like "snot-nosed geek."
I think it's funny that kids who are leaning a new language in school immediately try to find translations for the crudest words they can think of. New missionaries are no different. We all secretly wanted to know the German words, too.
And the German naughty words are so much fun--full of great, guttural sounds. I was reminded of that fact while reading the great YA fiction novel The Book Thief. The book takes place in Nazi Germany and every time a character swears the author uses the original German.
I suppose that's the only way the book could have remained a young adult novel as there was a log of German words in the book. I do wonder, though, how offensive the book must read translated in German (or perhaps all the swear words are in English).
...And that concludes our book review portion of the blog.
The really sad thing about my MTC group was the word they REALLY wanted to translate: tubular. Those of you under the age of 40 may not recall when this pseudo-surfer lingo was the rage among us land-locked suburban white kids. One of the missionaries came up with the direct translation and to this day I'll never forget it: roehrenfoermig. Somehow it didn't quite capture the coolness of the English original.
Thanks for the book review. I'll put it on my list of books for my daughter to read when she's a little older. And thanks for the wikipedia hyperlink. You know how much I love those hyperlinks.
MTC teachers never teach the important stuff.
I thought my MTC teacher was a bit stand-offish and way too serious. It wasn't until he played a joke on the class on the last day that we got to like him.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been a delicate balance for you to come up with an offensive epithet that's still G-rated like "snot-nosed geek."
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny that kids who are leaning a new language in school immediately try to find translations for the crudest words they can think of. New missionaries are no different. We all secretly wanted to know the German words, too.
I speak German and also know the one curse word.
DeleteBut I’m not gonna say it
And the German naughty words are so much fun--full of great, guttural sounds. I was reminded of that fact while reading the great YA fiction novel The Book Thief. The book takes place in Nazi Germany and every time a character swears the author uses the original German.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that's the only way the book could have remained a young adult novel as there was a log of German words in the book. I do wonder, though, how offensive the book must read translated in German (or perhaps all the swear words are in English).
...And that concludes our book review portion of the blog.
The really sad thing about my MTC group was the word they REALLY wanted to translate: tubular. Those of you under the age of 40 may not recall when this pseudo-surfer lingo was the rage among us land-locked suburban white kids. One of the missionaries came up with the direct translation and to this day I'll never forget it: roehrenfoermig. Somehow it didn't quite capture the coolness of the English original.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book review. I'll put it on my list of books for my daughter to read when she's a little older. And thanks for the wikipedia hyperlink. You know how much I love those hyperlinks.