And of course. More death.
September 8, 2020 5:30 AM Subscribe
An amusing Twitter thread (view it in Threaderader, but you’ll miss some of the equally amusing replies) on the gems to be found in a German grammar book published in 1913 by Cambridge University Press. A worthy predecessor to the bleakest oddest examples used in Duolingo, perhaps?
This reminds me of some of the odder, bleaker sentences in my Russian textbook 30 years ago.
There were lots, but the ones that stuck with me were "It is good when the woman stays at home" and "You will weep when I die."
posted by uberchet at 7:16 AM on September 8, 2020
There were lots, but the ones that stuck with me were "It is good when the woman stays at home" and "You will weep when I die."
posted by uberchet at 7:16 AM on September 8, 2020
This is even better than "The German textbook that was written by Morrissey", previously my gold standard for weirdly depressed example sentences in a book about German grammar.
posted by jedicus at 7:25 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by jedicus at 7:25 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
I’ll always remember the first practice sentence I had to read aloud in German class: Er hat seinen Vater vergessen. (He has forgotten his father.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:35 AM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:35 AM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
French Duolingo involves a lot more encounters with bears than you’d expect to have in France.
posted by sammyo at 8:00 AM on September 8, 2020
posted by sammyo at 8:00 AM on September 8, 2020
Italian Duolingo also made me translate "I am ready to die," so yeah.
posted by PussKillian at 8:52 AM on September 8, 2020
posted by PussKillian at 8:52 AM on September 8, 2020
Learning Russian at school years ago, one of the first sentences we had to memorize was "No, I cannot play the trombone". I can't honestly remember learning a single useful thing.
I don't think Monty Python's Hungarian Phrasebook sketch was that far off the mark.
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 2:18 PM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
I don't think Monty Python's Hungarian Phrasebook sketch was that far off the mark.
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 2:18 PM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
If you want a language book with heavily twisted examples, there is always the prime example: English as She is Spoke.
posted by njohnson23 at 6:15 PM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 6:15 PM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm a longstanding germanophile and lover of the German language.
1) I want to own a copy of this textbook now. But it doesn't seem to be available on my go-to used book site abebooks. :(
2) This book was written by one G. H. Clarke and one C. J. Murray. I.e., Anglophone persons, not actual Germans. Hence, imo, we are getting here a kind of caricature of the dire German mind as perceived from the outside and on the eve of the Great War to boot, when the 'nations' of Western and Central Europe looked very much askance at each other, compared to today. I'm sure the authors were trying to be helpful with their examples, but they can't be taken to be a reliable way to get a feed on German cultural dispositions. Also, an awareness of the reality of death, for example, was much greater then than now in any European culture. (For what it's worth, the realm of German literature from back then reveals -- to overgeneralize -- a people who are serious, bright and optimistic, passionate, easily critical as well as very soulful. The political catastrophes of the next decades were yet to come.)
3) Gotta say the examples given do fit with the sort of angsted-out Gemanitude projected by the contemporary German-made netfilx series Dark. So maybe the German brand is moving today into a sort of retro freaked-out gloom. (Although gloom is not in short supply in English and French netflix offerings by any means.)
posted by bertran at 1:29 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
1) I want to own a copy of this textbook now. But it doesn't seem to be available on my go-to used book site abebooks. :(
2) This book was written by one G. H. Clarke and one C. J. Murray. I.e., Anglophone persons, not actual Germans. Hence, imo, we are getting here a kind of caricature of the dire German mind as perceived from the outside and on the eve of the Great War to boot, when the 'nations' of Western and Central Europe looked very much askance at each other, compared to today. I'm sure the authors were trying to be helpful with their examples, but they can't be taken to be a reliable way to get a feed on German cultural dispositions. Also, an awareness of the reality of death, for example, was much greater then than now in any European culture. (For what it's worth, the realm of German literature from back then reveals -- to overgeneralize -- a people who are serious, bright and optimistic, passionate, easily critical as well as very soulful. The political catastrophes of the next decades were yet to come.)
3) Gotta say the examples given do fit with the sort of angsted-out Gemanitude projected by the contemporary German-made netfilx series Dark. So maybe the German brand is moving today into a sort of retro freaked-out gloom. (Although gloom is not in short supply in English and French netflix offerings by any means.)
posted by bertran at 1:29 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Learning Russian at school years ago, one of the first sentences we had to memorize was "No, I cannot play the trombone".
No, I cannot play the trombone. WAH-WAAAAAH
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:38 AM on September 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
No, I cannot play the trombone. WAH-WAAAAAH
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:38 AM on September 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
Learning Russian at school years ago, one of the first sentences we had to memorize was "No, I cannot play the trombone".
My roommate my first year of college was taking intro Russian. The bits I remember him having to translate include "He loves jurisprudence" and "Who ate all the candles?"
(I always assumed the authors were trying to spread out their use of Cyrillic letters and/or Russian phonemes)
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:07 AM on September 9, 2020
My roommate my first year of college was taking intro Russian. The bits I remember him having to translate include "He loves jurisprudence" and "Who ate all the candles?"
(I always assumed the authors were trying to spread out their use of Cyrillic letters and/or Russian phonemes)
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:07 AM on September 9, 2020
"Who ate all the candles?”
I’m really hoping that isn’t a misprint for “candies"
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 5:32 AM on September 9, 2020
I’m really hoping that isn’t a misprint for “candies"
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 5:32 AM on September 9, 2020
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posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:43 AM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]