Confusingly irritating (German mistakes in English)

Have you ever had a German/Austrian/Swiss apparently get angry at you because he did not understand something you said, and then act like he was surprised when you (naturally) got on the defensive?

Well, it might all be a (widespread) translation mistake.

On Spanish names: I am not Mr. Ferrer!

Again somebody called me “Mr. Ferrer” today. So tired, really. Twenty years abroad, and it still bothers me that so many people just assume that Germanic/Anglic naming conventions are universal in this planet. And I am not just speaking of non-academics and people with a, hm, let’s say “local horizon.” I have also seen this kind of mistake among scientists and internationally-oriented professionals, including the newspaper The Economist calling Gabriel García Márquez “Mr. Márquez” (I still shudder when remembering that one; the sloppiness of that newspaper in things like these was one of the reasons which made me give up my subscription years ago).

Valencià o català?

Visc a l’estranger des de fa ja vora a vint anys, eixí que resulta inevitable que el meu bagatge intel·lectual i cultural haja derivat i es produïsquen, de tant en tant, xicotets (i no tan xicotets) episodis d’incomprensió mútua amb els meus compatriotes. I amb els ànims políticament calents que es viuen aquests dies a Espanya, el tema de la llengua genera molts d’eixos episodis.

Per aclarir les coses. Sóc valencià i em considere bilingüe, encara parle espanyol amb fluïdesa (tot i que no l’utilitze diàriament ni de lluny), però mai se m’ocorreria parlar amb els meus pares en cap altra llengua que el valencià.

I ja l’hem embolicat, acabe de dir-li “valencià”. Arribem al malentés.

Some astonishing German words

After almost 20 years in the German-speaking world, I am still amazed by the German language. As many expats living in Germany, I sympathize with Mark Twain’s impressions and fully support his recommendations, as getting rid of the useless Dative or moving the verb forward in the sentence (here is an updated critique). But what really gets me is word pronunciation. In the German language, one is expected to pronounce incredibly long strings of consonants in the middle of perfectly normal, daily-use words. For instance,