Yes, it’s not exactly front-page news, because it happened in the year 2000, when police stopped the then Bishop of Stepney, John Sentamu, now Archbishop of York.

(Picture by Brokethebank from Wikipedia)

The Guardian reported that a police officer stopped and searched Sentamu’s car near St. Paul’s Cathedral, and he was made to get out and stand in the rain. The officer ordered him to open the boot. At the time, he was wearing a scarf and anorak.

“He asked me what I did, and I said ‘I’m the Bishop of Stepney’. He said ‘whoops’. I revealed my dog collar and he looked as if he’d just seen a ghost.”

Despite repeated requests, the officer would not justify his search to the bishop and had kept saying “off you go”.

The bishop said he did not know why he had been stopped, but added that he did not know of any white bishop who had been treated in such a way by the police.

Of course, he did not drive through a red light and had not been drinking, unlike Margot Käßmann (Spiegel Online in English).

I understand that her resignation is a loss to the church and so on, but I am finding the sycophantic TV news reports rather wearing. In fact, they seem to be interviewing people on the streets of Hannover in order possibly to get other opinions, without the newsreaders sullying themselves by saying anything negative. Does anyone know where she was celebrating and who persuaded her to have another glass?

Glasgow has appointed a Lancastrian, sorry, a man of Lanarkshire (that makes more sense) trained as an interpreter at Heriot-Watt University, as a Glaswegian-English interpreter. Here’s a video of an interview with him – at 2 min 45 sec he is tested, and the original text appears onscreen.

With over 500 applicants, 26-year-old Jonathan from Wishaw in Lanarkshire was delighted to take on the challenge of deciphering the city’s various twangs…and to get paid for doing it!

The MSc graduate in Translation and Conference Interpreting from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh said: “There is a genuine need for Glaswegian interpreters.

(Tweeted by Nick Rosenthal)

Doughnuts if you give plasma:

Attack on the tube:

How to ruin the German language without anglicisms. (The other side says ‘Steuerzahler’).

Today, the Financial Times Deutschland takes up the proposals for German courts to hear cases in English.

In particular, it mentions a joint NRW/Hamburg initiative under which the court records and judgments would be written in English. A lawyer from CMS Hasche Sigle wonders how English-language judgments could be enforced and appealed against. And some lawyers doubt that judges can speak English (I would go further and wonder about the lawyers too).

Skeptisch sind Anwälte auch in Bezug auf die sprachlichen Fähigkeiten vieler Richter. Nicht zuletzt vor dem Hintergrund der Debatte um das Englisch des neuen EU-Kommissars Günther Oettinger befürchten Kritiker, dass in Gerichtsverhandlungen ähnliche inhaltliche und phonetische Ausfälle bevorstehen. “Für solche Verfahren müssen alle Beteiligten exzellentes Englisch sprechen”, warnt Konstantin Mettenheimer von der Wirtschaftskanzlei Freshfields. “Dass sich ausreichend Richter mit verhandlungssicheren Englischkenntnissen finden, ist noch nicht selbstverständlich.”

There are also doubts as to the other court staff, including those who have to keep the record. (There isn’t a transcript, but a court official usually sits at a computer in court and records a summary of the trial). Ther’s a suggestion that only the pleadings (statements of case as they are now called in England, or US briefs) should be in English.

“Sinnvoll wäre es, sich auf die englische Verhandlungsführung und auf englische Schriftsätze zu beschränken”, sagt beispielsweise Martin Huff, Geschäftsführer der Rechtsanwaltskammer Köln. “Protokoll und Urteil sollten dann wieder auf Deutsch abgefasst werden. Die nötigen Übersetzungen und Erläuterungen gegenüber dem Mandanten kann der Anwalt vornehmen.”

Hmm.

See earlier entry.

(via Handakte WebLAWg)