#39
by ConnyRaSk » Jun 16, 2010 8:16 pm
Vielleicht ist das hier fehl am platz, wenn ja, dann sagt es nur...
( übrigens...soll ich eine neue Rubrik anfangen für Witze auf Deutsch?

)
Achtung! Englisch Verboten!
Germans Wage War Over Words
BERLIN -- Gayle Tufts doesn't like the word "Unterhalterin" -- to her mind, the noun resonates with too much beer-swilling oom-pah-pah -- so she prefers a little Anglicized German and calls herself an "Entertainerin."
On a recent night at the Bar jeder Vernunft, a popular cabaret in a 1920s art deco tent, she regaled a packed crowd with her schtick, a comedic blend of English and German that mixes the two languages until they become something called "Denglish" -- or if you prefer the German versions, "Denglisch" or "Engleutsch."
"Howdy folks, wie geht es Ihnen [how are you]?" sings Tufts in a tune called "Miss Amerika." "So much has passiert since last time I was here. . . . I'm a Schoenheitskoenigin, [beauty queen] obwohl [although] not klein [small] or thin."
"I love the languages, and I'm just having a little fun," said Tufts, 40, who moved here without knowing a word of German in 1990. And Tufts' audiences collapse in laughter at her Denglish take on Americana, and her more gentle prodding of German foibles, which includes changing the words of the German national anthem into a series of bad puns. Not everyone sees the joke, however.
The robust language of Goethe and Schiller is being invaded by English words, leading to an outbreak of what might be called linguistic angst.
One German legislator has shouted "Halt!" -- not, mind you, the increasingly common "Stop!" Seeking a French solution to the English problem, Eckart Werthebach, the Christian Democrat interior minister in the Berlin government, is calling for a language law. He wants to fine telephone companies that advertise "evening rates," taxi drivers who have signs telling you to "fasten your seatbelt" and cafes selling "coffee to go."
And if you bump into someone in the "Supermarkt," say "entschuldigung," not "sorry."
"The German language needs legal protection, protection in its culture and for its consumers," Werthebach wrote in the mass-market Bild, which editorialized in support of him. "Why can't we use German words for concepts? Do we really need English to take over?"
And woe to anyone who suggests he should "relaxen."
Indeed, Werthebach's crusade has become an "event," to use another goose-stepping English word that has supplanted its German counterpart. And some of the German "leadership," to use another invasive noun, want a blitzkrieg against BSE. "Bad Simple English" is what the German Language Union calls the prevalence of things like "shopping" and "sales" and "secondhand."
"The inflationary use of Americanisms in advertising and the media is foolish and stupid," said German President Johannes Rau.
Hartmut Schiedermair, president of the German University Association, called for an "Academy for the Cultivation and Protection of the German Language" along the lines of the French Academy, which formulates indigenous new words rather than allow the adoption of the English equivalent.
"Why shouldn't German-language user manuals and product adverts use the word Rechner instead of computer, Luftkissen instead of airbag and Programm instead of software?" said Christoph Bohr, a Christian Democrat politician.
And he called on educators to work on the problem, which, presumably, could start in "Kindergarten."
The British media, which loves a good spat with Germany, has reacted as if the country has declared World War III. "Germany is ready for war with the English again," wrote the Observer. "GERMANS HAFF VAYS OF BANNING ENGLISH," said the headline in the tabloid Star.
Some Germans have cautioned restraint and argued that the rise of English is part of the global zeitgeist. Julian Nida-Ruemelin, the state minister for culture in Gerhard Schroder's Chancellery, said: "We don't need a language protection law, nor a language police. The state should not interfere in a process to which a living language is always subject."
But the anti-English (language) campaign appears to have popular support. A recent opinion poll in Focus magazine found that 53 percent of Germans oppose use of English words.
And the German Language Club, which has 10,000 members, has created a place on its Leitseite (home page) for people to vote for the worst abuse of German by a "language sinner." Last year's "winner" was the president of the University of Munich, who wanted to change the German word Fakultaeten into the English word "departments" at the university. Elsewhere on the Leitseite, the German Club allows people to list the English words they hate the most. Examples: "task force" and "win it" and "Xmas" and "party."
Entertainerin didn't make it, but it hasn't gone unnoticed. Werthebach recently crossed swords with Tufts after she told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper that being an "Entertainerin" must make her a "language criminal."
Werthebach said she was being uber-sensitive.
"The priority is not to forbid something, but much more to develop a consciousness for the question of where Anglicisms are valuable and where they are unnecessary," retorted Werthebach.
"Keep entertaining us," he added using the proper German verb, unterhalten."
And the two now say they may have misunderstood one another.
To which one can only say, "Wunderbar!"
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
Literature, fiction, poetry, whatever, makes justice in the world. That’s why it almost always has to be on the side of the underdog. ~Grace Paley