Oh Come On Seriously
I signed up for something, probably on my iPod, some German-language podcasts or something, in a presumably futile attempt to once more, and once and for all, learn German before our trip in 2012, and so I get frequent e-mails from them trying to entice me to send them some money for something or other. Today I got an e-mail promising the first month's whatever at a price of only $4.89, which is $20.11 (get it?) off the regular price, and I was slightly tempted, so I clicked on the link, and this is what I saw:
You can click on that to see it bigger, but what's relevant about it is the headline and the first three sentences:
News #45 - This is the Year You Finally Learn Germany!
This is it! Lucky 2011 is the year you stop procrastinating and finally learn Germany. And not just a few lines like “Hello” and “Sorry, I don’t speak Germany” but REAL Germany. You’re going to learn how the locals speak, perfect your pronunciation, grow your vocabulary and learn about Germany culture so you’re totally ready for that trip to Germany you’ve been planning all these years.
I'm speechless. Did nobody actually notice that someone had written "Germany" instead of "German" five consecutive times?
I mean, I'm not even selling anything, I just write up my little blog posts for my own amusement and theoretically that of anyone who might happen to stumble across them, and even I proof-read. If I were trying to make money, you had better be damned sure I'd spell-check and proof and re-proof. What I get out of that up there is, "How can I trust them to teach me German when they can't even be counted on to do English properly?"
(P.S. I did get some winter boots yesterday, extremely boring black ones with lots of tread. As a present to myself for enduring the hell of shoe shopping--how do women do it, how do they buy all those shoes and actually seem to derive some enjoyment from it?--I got some more Yves Rocher orange-chocolate shower gel, clearance-priced at $2.50, three bottles, because I don't want to run out any time soon.)
You can click on that to see it bigger, but what's relevant about it is the headline and the first three sentences:News #45 - This is the Year You Finally Learn Germany!
This is it! Lucky 2011 is the year you stop procrastinating and finally learn Germany. And not just a few lines like “Hello” and “Sorry, I don’t speak Germany” but REAL Germany. You’re going to learn how the locals speak, perfect your pronunciation, grow your vocabulary and learn about Germany culture so you’re totally ready for that trip to Germany you’ve been planning all these years.
I'm speechless. Did nobody actually notice that someone had written "Germany" instead of "German" five consecutive times?
I mean, I'm not even selling anything, I just write up my little blog posts for my own amusement and theoretically that of anyone who might happen to stumble across them, and even I proof-read. If I were trying to make money, you had better be damned sure I'd spell-check and proof and re-proof. What I get out of that up there is, "How can I trust them to teach me German when they can't even be counted on to do English properly?"
(P.S. I did get some winter boots yesterday, extremely boring black ones with lots of tread. As a present to myself for enduring the hell of shoe shopping--how do women do it, how do they buy all those shoes and actually seem to derive some enjoyment from it?--I got some more Yves Rocher orange-chocolate shower gel, clearance-priced at $2.50, three bottles, because I don't want to run out any time soon.)
posted by pyramus | 7:17 PM
1 Comments:
This somehow reminds me of what Karl Kraus, an Austrian author wrote about Siegrid Trebisch, his German translator:
"One may remember the plethora of specimens of style which were presented as Herr Trebitsch translated the first plays of Mr Shaw from English into a language which was equally foreign to him […]"
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