Video-Podcast von Kanzlei Dr. Bahr, heute Das neue Telemediengesetz

A vodcast on the new German Telemedia Act: the text is graphically illustrated practically down to the last word. You can tell it’s German by the illustration of ‘Abwarten und Tee trinken’, which shows a teabag with a deep pink tisane being dunked in a water glass. The relentless visuals are often helpful in following the ideas, but always amusing.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Werner Siebers presents less artificial videos in which he can be seen in full colour, first addressing the viewer, then reading a text located somewhere outside the top left of the monitor, and then addressing the viewer again in conclusion. Rechtsanwalt Siebers in Farbe und bunt zu einer Entscheidung des Landgerichts Magdeburg is the first. This is an excellent opportunity to see a German law blogger in 3D. Had Kanzlei Dr. Bahr had the latest Siebers vodcast theme, the case of a man fined for taking a bite out of a sausage in a supermarket and putting it back, heaven knows what they would have done with the visuals.

The introduction to the feature comes last.

European Translation Contest / Europäischer Übersetzungswettbewerb – for 17-year-olds.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the European Union, the Commission is organising a contest to give young people first-hand experience of what it is like to be a translator.
You don’t have to look far to see that translation is everywhere – film subtitles, cereal packets, books, user manuals.
How? By giving them a chance to slip into the skin of a translator.

Anlässlich des 50. Geburtstags der Europäischen Union organisiert die Kommission einen Übersetzungswettbewerb, um jungen Leuten einen Eindruck von der Arbeit eines Übersetzers zu vermitteln.
Denn Übersetzung ist überall – ob in Filmuntertiteln, auf Cornflakes-Packungen, in Büchern oder Bedienungsanleitungen – man muss gar nicht lange suchen!
Warum also nicht einmal ausprobieren, wie das funktioniert?!

You have to be at school and nominated for the contest, which will take place on 14 November. The prize is two days in Brussels with an accompanying adult. Translations from any EU language into any other. One may well wonder what texts they will find to enable pupils to ‘slip into the skin of a translator’.

In the Bremer Sprachblog, Anatol Stefanowitsch has an entry on the use of Schadenfreude in English – the British and Americans claim, he says, that the feeling is unknown in English, which doesn’t have a word for it, but of course Germans do. There’s also the suggestion ‘English doesn’t have a word for it’. I think that even if we didn’t (the entry claims that ‘gloat’ can be used), this wouldn’t prove we don’t know the feeling.

Ich wusste, dass Doris Lessing in erster Ehe mit einem deutschen Marxisten verheiratet war, aber ich wusste nicht, dass sie einen berühmten deutschen Neffen hat.

A Franconian asparagus field at the most exciting time of the German asparagus year:

Too late:

This is not nice green asparagus, but white asparagus that has been missed and will now grow, flower and die:

Some asparagus pluckers:

Father’s Day / Herrentag was originally the day of God the Father, hence today, Ascension Day. At some time it became a day for drinking beer. I didn’t even realize this till recently.

German legal weblogs report that drinking and driving accidents produce lots of work for lawyers in the coming months. Perhaps the rain will help. See Vater- oder Herrentag, Mandate bringt er allemal:

Erfahrungsgemäß so etwa ab Oktober bis etwa Januar nächsten Jahres werden vor den diversen Amtsgerichten, seltener vor den Landgerichten, die Straftaten abgehandelt, die – fast ausnahmslos – unter Alkohol an Himmelfahrt begangen wurden.