2008-05-02 Food Friday

(written 2008-05-03)

Another Food Friday at Jade. Nothing else has happened. Nothing that would be worth blogging about, anyway. Instead, I'm going to pull a joker out of the "blog about it when there's nothing else to blog about" drawer.

Vocabulary. Apparently, German pupils are the only kids in the world that have to learn vocabulary. In all other countries they seem to learn the words by simply using them often enough. There isn't even an English term for the German "Vokabeln abhören", which how it's called when one student asks another for the translation of a list of words.
(Side node: Today I finished a small C#/Gtk# program for that.)

While I'm writing about vocabulary and translations, there's something else I noticed. Some things have different meanings when they're translated literally. "Obviously", for example. I wasn't aware that it can be used as a synonym for "of course". The German "offensichtlich" has a bit of a negative connotation. To me, "obviously" sounds almost like "of course, you idiot!", which is not what it means. Obviously.
The same is true for "I know!". Most of the time it can be replaced by "exactly!", but the German "Ich weiß!" is more along the line of "Hey! I already knew that!".
A while back I've been asked if I had problem understanding innuendo in the English language. Well, after three month in this country I realize that I sometimes even have trouble comprehending the subtleties of everyday conversation!

And don't even get me started on the special Kiwi way of speaking! Or as Tino once put it: "Sweet was what? Finish the sentence!"

***

Which reminds me: "Sweet as" is my word of the day. About time, don't you think?