from the fantastic patterns of dreams to the surrealistic behaving of reality

written in Dinglish (that's Germanic English)

N�rnberg, Mittelfranken, 2003-12-19 - 3:28 a.m.

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my terrific english is good enough - Part I

My terrific english quite fits the world standard in about 200 years.

Recently I heard a report where scientics were quoted, who prognosed, that in about 200 years, all the world population will speak english, but probably or maybe a very bad english.

I asked Gentry Lane ('culotte.diaryland.com') by mail wether she thinks my english is good enough to write in english. She mailed back: "Don't be silly. Of course it's good enough."

My friend Chantal from Australia (she's french, but a learned translater & and perfect in french, english, german, marsanian etc.) offered me to correct on request my sometimes 'poor' english diary entries (..if they are not too long) . So sometimes I ask her for a correction. The first time she corrected I was really shocked, how much mistakes she had found & how much corrections she made. E.g. she corrected my last entry 'forgetful research'. But I didn't just replace my former version with her new version. I compared every correction with my kind to express, & when her correction convinced me of my false english, I replaced my mistake with her correction. I took over about 80 or 90 %. I'm eager to learn & to improve my english, but I'm also wilful. If I doubt a correction would maybe not my style or changes the meaning I refuse it. I think Chantal knows a perfect or almost perfect english. It's correct & neat. Mine, if my english would be as perfect as hers, would probably be not that correct, because I like to play with words & sentences, sometimes change them by spite to my conditions, the way I do in German writing anyway - & at least I don't need correction in German.

So e.g. Chantal suggested to change the title of my former entry from 'forgetful research' to 'MEMORY LOSSES'. I know, that forgetful research is a strange somehow wrong construction - it would also sound in German strange: 'Vergessensvolle Suche' - not a typical expression.

But 'memory losses' is too direct - it tells just the content of the entry. Too direct for my 'verwinkelt' mind. And the somehow wrongness of the title arouses maybe curiousity.

Something about the funny mistakes Germans do, when using english:

In origin I started my former entry with:

"I hate if if I dial up to the internet (you know this procedure needs about a minute)..

In this sentence I used 'if', when 'when' would have been right.

'If' and 'when' are both translated to 'wenn' in German.

So:

If I'm young, I'm not old

is in German:

Wenn ich jung bin, bin ich nicht alt.

I'll visit the market place when I reach the city.

Ich werde den Marktplatz besuchen, wenn ich die Stadt erreiche.

So 'if' & 'when' are easily exchanged.

in German you say: 'es braucht nur 1 Minute' ='it takes only 1 minute'

But 'brauchen' litteraly = 'to need' - so the mistake is close at hand to translate with 'it needs only 1 minute'..

Also 'ready' & 'done' are easily exchanged, as the German 'fertig' could mean both.

And there's so much more of failure sources & sometimes I'm glad I don't know them. But from time to time I will ask Chantal for a correction, for (because) only fools live ever happily on in the valley of the ignorant, the dumb & the unknowing..

Thank you Chantal for your patience!

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