When Michael York is dropped off after, um, being with Max, there is an exchange in German between the driver and Max. Three lines. Can someone translate them for me, please?
share[deleted]
TY. I wouldn't have thought of that.
" See dat scenery floatin by, you're now approaching NewportRI." Cole Porter
Adding to alyoucha's translation, the driver says “There's still someone outside” (referring to Brian).
Chaos reigns
50 years later I am wondering why Sally Bowles couldn't be bothered to learn to speak German.
shareSome ex-pats are like that.
shareShe did say one word perfectly in German.
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
Was that one word the slang or "vulgar" word for it (my guess is that it was) or a more socially acceptable word?
share[deleted]
It's the "vulgar" word but not quite as strong as the "F bomb" (which is the same word in German but replacing the "u" with an "i"). "Screwing" is probably the closest English equivalent (and indeed in the film Sally uses the word to explain what the German equivalent of "screw" is). The "polite" word in German would be the same as in English: "schlafen" (sleep with).
shareDoesn't surprise me one bit. Anglo-Americans in particular (and I've seen quite a few around the world) can rarely be bothered to learn the language of the country they live in, even for decades. They expect everyone to know some English, and luckily for them there are always enough English-speakers around to allow them to continue ignoring the native language.
But listen to what a lot of them have to say about foreigners coming to live in their countries and not bothering to learn English! (But that's a discussion for another forum I guess :))
In other words, they have the same complaint about foreigners in their country that the foreigners in other countries have about them.
Everyone is born crazy. The purpose of life is to become sane.
But that's a discussion for another forum I guess
To alyoucha, I think you take a far too simplistic approach. I am an American who has lived many years in Europe. I do know three foreign languages very well, and can read a fourth (Slovak). I had great difficulty in learning two of them because I am one of those people who cannot learn a language solely from a book and must be able to pick it up by practicing speaking with ordinary people. I had a hell of a time with that in the case of German. Just about all educated Germans, Austrians and Swiss of my generation know English, and in my experience they simply could not be bothered speaking with a foreigner in German. As a result, although I can read and understand German quite well, I have real trouble speaking it. I had a similar experience learning Czech, but managed to overcome it through perseverance (getting out of Prague was the key), so that I managed to learn to speak Czech fluently (I considered it a great triumph when I could speak Czech to people in a pub and, while it was obvious I was a foreigner, they simply couldn't figure out what my native language was). My other language is French and most French are actually quite helpful and patient if you make the effort to speak French, so I learned to speak French quite passably.
As for us insisting foreigners speak English in the US, in my experience, most Americans are quite patient with foreigners, even when they speak very poor or almost no English. Try to get a taxi in NY City and see how well you can understand the driver's English. But as a country of immigrants with people constantly immigrating there from all parts of the world, we have little choice but to be patient and tolerant. As our immigrants come from every country, the notion that we might know all their languages is patently absurd. So, I view the need for them to learn English as a practical necessity. Still they manage because there are always enclaves of people speaking their language to help them integrate. Apart from that I know that voter information and the Department of Motor Vehicles in California (not all states are that open) has material in other languages - Spanish of course, but also Chinese and sometimes Tagslog.
um. . . she did make some attempts at several points in the movie. Considering she had been there 3 months, was working and wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree, I'd say she was doing OK. Not too many people are fluent after 3 months of living somewhere (even those who move to study a language full time).
share[deleted]