"I don't need any special preparation, because I'm not nervous, I don't have what the Germans call lumpenfever, which is stage fright."
That's from a biography about Peter Ustinov and it was the last straw.
Let's talk a bit about foreign words in books.
You can imagine that I notice the wrong spelling or grammar for German words or phrases in English books more quickly, but this is by no means a problem of the German language only.
I've seen Germans do "interesting" things with the English language, English or German speaking people with the French language and so on, and those are just the languages I know something about.
This isn't going to become one of those "your/you're" discussions (although some things like those can drive me crazy silently, no matter who does it or in which language).
It's not about blogs or social media posts, either. Although I often look up words I'm not sure of at the moment, I make my share of mistakes and typos, no doubt (and correct even really old posts if I come across them again).
I'm talking about books by big publishing houses.
Do you know what lumpenfever means? Nothing. A German "Lump" is a "rascal" and "fever" is not German, it's, surprise, English. The word they meant is "Lampenfieber", literally "lamp fever".
Among the languages Ustinov spoke was German, and although it was not always perfect, which absolutely added to the charm, I wouldn't be surprised if his biographer simply got confused by the German "Lampe" being pronounced like the English "lump" and of course "Fieber" and "fever" sounding very similar.
What I don't understand - and that may be an idea from a mad librarian's brain - is why that kind of information isn't checked before printing.
I think Ustinov's biography pushed me over the edge because it wasn't the only German mistake in it, it was just the most interesting looking one.
Of course it's not only books, but articles, TV shows, movies, news.
I will never not cringe (petty, I know) hearing Geoffrey pronounced with an o for the eo as in George instead of Jeffrey in German dubbings, but that's just the first one that comes to mind because I heard it again in a movie not long ago.
Having non-German actors play Germans can be just as terrible to listen to as can be UK actors playing Americans etc. and the other way round or Germans mangling a regional dialect that isn't their own (which I'm sure also happens in other languages).
I also think it's a matter of respect to learn especially how to pronounce names that are foreign to us and of people doing that professionally I'd expect it even more.
Do you have a pet peeve like that?
It is completely understandable to feel frustrated by this, especially when big publishing houses with dedicated editing teams let such glaring errors slip through to the final print. You would think a simple fact-check or a quick consultation with a native speaker would be standard practice before a book hits the shelves. Hearing a foreign name or dialect completely mangled in a professional movie dubbing or book translation always induces a bit of a cringe, and expecting professional creators to put in that basic level of research and respect is not petty at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that it shouldn't be difficult to avoid mistakes like that. What bugs me most is that it seems to become worse rather than better.
DeleteI'll be honest. Any kind of error in a book irritates the heck out of me because, just as Melody said, someone should be fact checking. Isn't that what editors are for? Grammar errors (and I make lots) drive me crazy, too. I don't remember my German that well (if at all), so I can't remember if there were lots of grammar rules. I just remember having to learn the genders of certain nouns and such.
ReplyDeletehttps://marshainthemiddle.com/
I know how difficult it can be to eliminate all mistakes. At work we go through our homepage more than once and not just one person and we still miss mistakes sometimes. That's typos, though, and they can happen, even in a book. That doesn't mean they can't drive me crazy, but I'm more lenient about them.
DeleteWrong words in another language, though, wrong spelling for towns, people, etc. make me mad (and of course I'm not talking about actually having a different name for a town, like Milano which you call Milan and we Mailand). It's Heidelberg, not Heidelburg, and Frankfurt, not Frankfort, just to mention the last two that made me roll my eyes.
Oh, and yeah, we have our fair share of grammar rules ...
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