It is interesting to see how different countries present the news. On a late-night news bulletin yesterday, I heard that Andy Murray had beaten his opponent in the semi-finals of the Australian Open. There was lots of talk about tactics, strength and skill.
I have just read in the Hamburger Abendblatt that Roger Federer has reached [...]
Filed under: Life, Switzerland on January 29th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
… not the Word, but the word. And to gather ideas, I am asking my gentle readers to give the following some consideration and to submit their thoughts in the little commenty box below.
The Ancient Roman City has a German Society, of which I am a member, nay, am on the committee. The purpose of [...]
Filed under: Austria, Community, Germany, Switzerland on October 29th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
The Swiss may not have Fathers’ Day, but they do have a National Day. Such are the wonders of blogging that my gentle readers cannot tell if I am writing this post from Switzerland – to continue my tour of celebrating European National Days – or from the Humble Abode. You will have to [...]
Filed under: Switzerland on August 1st, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Well done chaps! Awfully good show. 100 of the pesky pages are down now – so there’s light at the end of the tunnel and all that kind of stuff. Ho-ho – know the one about it being the lights of the oncoming train do you? What?!
My strategy is this: we make one final [...]
Filed under: Life, Switzerland, Translation on June 16th, 2008 | Comments Off
Sunday was Mother’s Day in Austria, Germany and Switzerland (as well as Australia, Canada and the US). I have shamelessly plagiarised this joke from a blog I read called Ms Mac – written by a Scottish lassie, married to an Aussie living in Switzerland. She calls it her favourite Mother’s Day joke:
Why is Father’s [...]
Filed under: Switzerland on May 13th, 2008 | Comments Off
It will not have escaped your notice that today is May 1st, May Day or Maifeiertag. Given that many of my gentle readers are churchgoers of one sort or another, you will probably also know that today is Ascension Day – or Christi Himmelfahrt. This has been an official holiday in Germany since 1936 – [...]
Filed under: Austria, Germany, Life, Switzerland, Translation on May 1st, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I had to translate some travel directions today. The project manager blithely said “It’s *just* a small job; *just* translate these directions. You’ve seen worse…”
Well, it’s true; I *have* seen worse but I’ve been paid better for it (There. That’s that little grumble over with). These directions were not written with clarity in mind [...]
Filed under: Germany, Switzerland, Translation, Trials on April 22nd, 2008 | Comments Off
The other day, I mentioned to the Lödgerin that an event was going to start at “half seven”. I saw her face cloud over for a second – and I knew immediately what she was thinking. Of course, I meant “half past seven”. If you say “halb sieben” in German you actually [...]
Filed under: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Translation, Words on August 28th, 2007 | 5 Comments »