The Higher Labour Court in Düsseldorf today held that Wal-Mart’s ethics code (Verhaltenskodex) for Germany is incompatible with the Basic Law (Grundgesetz).
The code forbade ‘inappropriate behaviour’ among employees, and there was a telephone hotline which employees were encouraged to use to snitch on their colleagues. The works council took legal action against this.
(From WDR via Handakte WebLAWg)
Press notice (German)
The European Court of Justice is to decide whether Germans born outside Germany and given hyphenated last names there can keep them. FAZ some months ago:
bq. Das Rechtsgutachten beschäftigt sich mit dem Fall des Kindes Leonard Mathias Grunkin-Paul. Der Junge wurde 1998 in Dänemark geboren und lebt auch überwiegend dort bei seiner Mutter in der Ortschaft Tønder. Seine deutschen Eltern haben verschiedene Nachnamen, aber selbst keinen Doppelnamen. Die dänischen Behörden trugen deshalb nach dortigem Recht einen Doppelnamen in die Geburtsurkunde ein.
The Independent reports:
bq. German bureaucrats fear a hyphen pandemic. A child with a double-barrelled name, they point out, could go on to marry someone with a double-barrelled name. Their children would have four linked-up surnames, and the next generation might have eight.
Apparently there has been an opinion by Advocate General Jacobs, but I haven’t succeeded in finding it. It sounds as if the Germans will have to give way. But I think anything that can be done to stop Germans having eight-element hyphenated names can’t be all bad.
Today I am busy, so I offer this slightly off-topic entry – it does have to do with living abroad.
There is a wonderful British website called sausagemaking.org. (Molesworth admirers: be careful not to misspell sossages).
It has sausage-making kits at a range of prices, recipes, ingredients, a shop, and a forum where recipes and problems are discussed. You can see pictures in the forum of the making of a pork pie, and read about the dangers to avoid, why the centre is pink (is it cure or is it anchovy essence?). Haggis is also discussed.
For any Germans still reading: German sausages are not neglected (nor are haggis, salami and merguez)
bq. Complete sausage making kit… Just add meat
Everything you need to start making sausages at home
# Includes mincer,
# hog casings,
# 2 different spice blends,
# 3 filling tubes,
# instructions and recipe guide.
Price: £54.00
I found this site once when I was thinking that, although Nuremberg sausages are very good, they are too salty to really enjoy cold. I expected to find information on the Web, but I did not expect a whole forum of enthusiasts (started by Franco Sotgiu, whose Italian father immigrated to Lancashire).
Here’s an article about the site (PDF).
Deutsch-Französische Übersetzungen in beiden Richtungen, nicht ganz perfekt aber zum netten Preis, bietet der 1989 geborene Guillaume Beringer in Nice.
Hier ein Thread dazu (eine Suche auf diesem Forum ergibt das Alter).
bq. Excuse mais qui es tu?
Même ma mère ne sais pas.
Et je sais il faut que je fasse corriger les pages par qn.
Et bien sur c’est qu’une start-up c’est pour celà que les prix sont beaucoup moins élevés que chez la “concurrence”.
Je fais ça pour m’amuser et pour m’interesser à la langue française…
Meine Frage an mich: sind Sprachen besonders anfällig für die Übernahme durch IT-Experten?
(Danke an Jutta im U-Forum)
Are you a young high potential? Then this may be for you:
bq. Young Germany is an initiative of Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and its partners. Our aim is to inform young high potentials across the globe about their opportunities in Germany, provide a communication platform and turn their stay in Germany into a rewarding and enjoyable experience.
The strangely unhyphenated Sprachen und Dolmetscher Institut in Munich has long since announced a seminar on legal translation on 25th and 26th November. In fact, it looks as if booking has to take place before November 15th.
There is a programme online, but there is no information as to who is speaking, and the details are from June 2005. I did, as recommended, email for more information on October 16th, but none has been forthcoming. Here’s what it says:
Freitag, 25. November 2005
* Begrüßung des Direktors
* Wunschqualifikation von Fachübersetzungslehrern
* Rechtsfehler in EU-Texten
* Terminologierecherche für EU-Texte
* Terminologierecherche für ein juristisches Fachwörterbuch
* ca. 18:00 Uhr Ende des ersten Tages
Samstag, 26. November 2005
* Übersetzung von Urkunden EN-DE
* Übersetzung von Texten aus dem Bereich Lebensmittelrecht DE-EN
* Übersetzung von Verträgen DE-EN
* Juristische Fachübersetzung: Quo Vadis?
* ca. 15:30 Uhr Ende des Seminars