My co-workers are the best! They really are, they even try to speak English with me, and I really appreciate their efforts. Sometimes, I have to do a quick rough translation into German and back into English to understand what they mean. That only makes it better!

Example #1:
What co-worker said:
Please give to know doodle if you make want to with.

Rough translation into German:
Bitte gib doodle Bescheid, wenn du mitmachen willst/moechtest.

Rough translation back into English:
Please answer via doodle, if you would like to join.

Example #2:
Different co-worker said:
As I before one years come was, those machine had never as worse earlier functionalized since a year.

Rough translation into German:
Als ich vor ein Jahr eingekommen war, funktioniert diese Machine nicht. Sie hat seit einem Jahr immer schlimmer geworden.

Rough translation back into English:
This machine hasn't worked since I started here a year ago. In that year, it has just gotten worse.

Does anyone have better methods to decipher Germanglish?

No better method than that. Same with Instruction Booklets. You can only understand them when you know what the original language was. Quite interesting is Japanese > English > German.

Back on-topic...

Are they actually saying these things or writing/emailing them? If it's email, I doubt they're trying at all- just writing it in German in google translate and sending you the result ;p

and if they're saying it....wow...

It's the same when they say we speak "Denglish" (changing English words for German).


In Australia we used to call that language "Woglish" amongst our friends. They came from Belgium, France, Germany, Sth America, etc.

It was so much fun to listen to.


(Some of us even learnt how to speak Woglish back, and convince them that they were speaking properly...... cruel, but funny )

I learnt something useful from Terminator. Think about it, when did you learn to say,"I'll be back" correctly in german? Ich werde wieder da sein? ich komme zurück? i always got quizzical looks until i saw Terminator in german...

Swissiter, they are saying these things, yes.

Another one that took me a long time time to decipher was "Are these informations actual?"

dammit, i just become a letter from the traffic police!

There's a legendary thread on http://dict.leo.org/forum/viewWronge...p=ende&lang=de about such direct translations, also from English to German (Zunge-in-Backe...)

You mean like:

"I understand only Railwaystation"
and
"That makes me nobody so fast after"

He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first...

I see that prof. taratonga knows where the rabbit runs along...

I don't quite get it (Ich komme nicht ganz nach = I come not entirely after). I mean, how come someone knows a fairly sophisticated and rare word like "functionalize" (it's not even in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary) but doesn't know the most fundamental basics of grammar?

Am I the only one who finds it not funny at all to make fun of other people's shortcomings in languages?
Just for the record: I do not correct EF member's French or German if not being asked, because first, that would be a lot of work, and second, because laughing at people is not part of language learning by any standards.

But you are wellcome to correct of even make fun of my English, I admit since day one here that I suck at English.

I would say most likely, he knew the word function, and just added the 'alize' at the end of it since it sounded nice? I do that all the time in languages. Like if I don't know how to properly say the equivalent of something ending in say "ing" sometimes I take the basic word that I know, and just add an "ing" ending from another word that I know. Usually it works, but a lot of times I sound like a complete idiot, but people at least get the gist of what I am trying to say. haha

I think me you are learning right oversetting.

Or?

Generally I'd agree with you. Sometimes things that 'foreigners' say can be genuinely funny - I've made plenty of howlers myself in French and German but then often everyone can laugh together. As a language learner myself I hate it when I think people are laughing at me (and it's rare here that people do, I think) so I try to be sensitive.
Anglophones seem to be the worse at pointing out errors in English, perhaps because it's so widely spoken here as a second language. Quite ironic when you consider the language ability of the average Anglo.

Gently poking fun at each other has been very helpful in improving my German and improving my co-workers' and family members' English. Note that none of this is done in a mean spirited way. That would of course not be helpful to anyone at all; in fact, it would be quite hurtful. Of course, it also depends on the dynamics of each relationship. Lots of care has to be taken before/during the fun poking.

I don't think anyone is poking fun (in a bad way) at anyone's English at all.

In fact, it's the opposite.

Learning German myself, I now truely appreciate hearing broken English. In fact I love it.

It takes so much more pressure off me while trying to overcome the obstacle of embarrassing yourself to speak German in public.

Knowing everyone goes through this is fair.

The only people who poke fun at another's language are the sort of people who can't speak another language anyway.... or are just plain dickheads.


The beauty of broken English is that there is no way we could ever come up with that sort of sentance construction ourselves if we tried..... so it sounds awesome when someone has "Just becomes a letter from the traffic police".

Besides:
Es ist nicht auch lustig wann wir schribt in "Denglish" fur dir?

Relax
Let the thread run it's course.
No one means any harm

Gleicht geht's los - equal goes it loose: