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.

In connection with the abduction of a British girl in Portugal, the British press seem mystified by Portuguese criminal law. The BBC even has a video (and text) on the topic.

The man, believed to be Robert Murat, who shares a villa with his mother in
Praia da Luz, Algarve, was initially treated as a witness and not arrested or charged.
But now he has been given “arguido” status, which means he is officially a suspect.
…Artur Rego, a Portuguese lawyer, told BBC News: “Arguido is the person who has been accused of being the perpetrator.
“But he is not yet indicted. This is just an accusation made exactly at the end of the investigation.”

It sounds to me like Angeschuldigter and not yet Angeklagter.

Apparently the person involved can ask to be classified as an arguido, in order to obtain more rights than a mere witness.

In view of the circumstances, the suggestions in Webster’s Online Dictionary (often surprisingly useful) seem to go too far. Since the dictionary is largely based on searching, the presence of quotes like ‘Ma looked in astonishment at the bar of iron’ in the at the bar entry (accused, defendant, prisoner at the bar) are not in the same class as kalebeul’s quote on the French term home-jacking.

LATER NOTE: Here is more (OPINION OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, MR. ALVARO GIL-ROBLES, on the procedural safeguards surrounding the authorisation of pre-trial detention in Portugal):

A number of special features result from this system. There is, firstly, no conceptual separation between an investigation, conducted by the police, and a criminal enquiry conducted by a prosecution service. There is, equally, no division of competences between the investigation and the prosecution, both functions being fulfilled by the Public Prosecution Service, which is entirely independent from the executive and other State bodies. Lastly, information obtained in the course of the investigation led by the Public Prosecution Service (the —inquérito“, ”enquiry‘) remains, as a general rule, confidential, i.e. withheld from all parties except the judges involved, until such time as a formal accusation is made. This is procedural feature is referred to as the —segredo de justiça“, the confidentiality of the enquiry.