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Language

Anghela’s friend Galina

2008-02-20

My regular readers might remember the scam mail series with “Anghela” with funny automatic translation, which I received in German and tried to reproduce in English, somewhat simulating the bad language – but Anghela isn’t alone. And this long mail, too, which tries just as well to grift travel money from overcredulous recipients or use them for money laundering, went to many mailboxes, with a few variations and different mail addreses – here the German antispam forum thread, and an example of another German commenting it.

„Hello!!!!!!!!“

As Terry Pratchett put it, Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind. In this case, diseasedly criminal, it seems. „about my letter please be not astonished! I saw your account on the web page of the acquaintances. This web page is called “FreundScout24” or “Meetic”.“ Now where? Can’t remember that? Diseased mind, hm?

„You have the registration there?“ I thought you saw me there – so why the question?

„I want that you understand me. I will strive to [German] write properly.“ Then why don’t you try harder in this mail? The first impression is often important! „I think that you man with whom I are I can happy be.“ I think that you should your school fee you get back: „You understand mine [German]? I studied [German] in the school and the college.“
:klugscheisser:

„I upset am when I write this letter for you.“ And I’m upset when I receive spam. Well, at least you can laugh at spam like yours… „I will very very attend your reply.“ Oh, you too? Anghela was eager about that too.

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Tollpatschiges Quiz in der Sauna

2008-01-18

This is about a quiz about words imported into the German language…

Wenn der Tollpatsch mutterseelenallein mit Lametta und Anorak in der Sauna Fisimatenten macht und bei der anschließenden Safari mit einer Tomate am Kiosk Alarm auslöst…

…dann geht’s um das Quiz über “Wörter mit Migrationshintergrund” auf Spiegel Online (Artikel dazu).

Ich hab mit etwa gleichviel Raten und Wissen tatsächlich alle 10 Wörter ihren ursprünglichen Herkunftssprachen zuordnen können:

Sie haben 10 von 10 Punkten.

Geben Sie es zu – Sie haben das etymologische Wörterbuch geschrieben, aus dem wir die ganze Zeit zitiert haben. Falls nicht, haben Sie wirklich eine Menge Ahnung oder für diesen Test drei Stunden gebraucht, weil sie jede Antwort erstmal bei Wikipedia nachrecherchiert haben. Achso: Dass Sie das mit […] wirklich wussten, glaubt Ihnen übrigens kein Mensch.

Och menno… :heul: grad das war eines, das ich tatsächlich gewusst habe…

Und ihr? :mrgreen:

Climate-neutral hearth bonuses are degenerate!

2008-01-15

The second place of “Word of the Year” (in Germany) is the “winner” of the “un-word” (doublespeak) 2007: Herdprämie ≈ hearth bonus. Number 2 and 3 are “klimaneutral” (climate neutral) and “entartet” (degenerate) – read more (as long as the official site is not updated yet) e.g. at Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (shouldn’t they translate press releases if they offer an “English” link??).

Global Scaling Event… or Someone speak Turkish?

2007-12-18

I’m looking for information about the so-called “Global Scaling Event of the year” that took place on 1 Dec in Berlin, alledgedly presenting a new invention for secure data transmission (GSPIN) – and about which there’s hardly anything to find. (Which doesn’t have to be bad, actually…) The general Głobal Scaling site still shows the announcement; the dubious company’s site on morint.com = GSDI Cyprus Ltd. reports in the News from 6 Dec (German; the beginning seems to have been lost somehow) the following (my translation):

“The over 300 participants positively felt the crackling excitement when they witnessed the experiment. On a big screen, everybody could see that in Berlin and Nicosia the same security code was generated.”

I, personally, think that you can project a lot onto a screen… As long as it hasn’t been reliably verified and approved by independent scientists that indeed this technology created these codes as has been claimed, I got my doubts. And I think folks who offer a lotto prognosis deserve no trust in advance whatsoever, anyway.

Other than that, Google finds with GSPIN Berlin and GSDI Cyprus Berlin – thanks to the company’s location and aforementioned partcipation in Northern Cyprus – only several Turkish reports, e.g. Kibris Gazetesı, Mercek TV, TurkEkip, who look as like as two peas in a pod, which leads to the suspicion that they are just press releases from the GSDI company (from 1 Dec) which, of course, praise their own technology to the skies. (Another, not identical article: BRT.)

Since neither Google nor Altavista can translate Türkisch, and the attempt to translate word by word with online dictionaries is both cumbersome and error-prone as well as seems to confirm the praise to the skies, I’m asking, as the title shows, if you know Turkish and can have a look at the links above and tell me (in the comments here) what exactly they say – if it’s more than the typical press release blah-blah… (you don’t need to make a full translation, of course :mrgreen: ).

And does anyone maybe know actual eye-witness reports, preferrably critical ones?

Update 3.2.2010: » Ermittlungen gegen zyprische Global-Scaling-Vermarkter

Wörter des Jahres 2007

2007-12-07

This is about the German “Words of the Year 2007”.

Wenn man nach der Dopingbeichte in Second Life in die reale Raucherkneipe geht, um über den Bundestrojaner zu diskutieren, anstatt, nachdem man durch Arbeit arm geworden ist, dank Herdprämie doch noch eine Lustreise anzutreten, was durch spritdurstige Autos und Flugzeuge die Klimakatastrophe auch nicht gerade aufzuhalten hülfe – wird dann alles Knut?

» Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache: Wort des Jahres 2007

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