AmericanAnDerTU

There are quite a few lovely phrases in English and German that always make for a few laughs when doing literal (or near literal) translations. Here are a few that I can remember off the top of my head:

• “I glaub i krieg ‘ne Krise” is one of my favorites of all. If you translate this almost word for word into English it comes out like this, “I think I’m having a crisis!” Why is it funny? In British English if you say that you’re “having a crisis”, then you’re having an orgasm.
• “Vollkoffer” is not a “full suitcase” in English but rather an idiot.
• “Schwanz” is a great word in German. In normal speech it simply means “tail”. However, there is a more colloquial form that means “cock” (not the bird). In German you have an awesome word in the form of “Schwanzvergleich”, which COULD mean “tail comparison”… or something else. Great word.
• “Hast du einen Vogel (im Kopf)?” is one of the first German insults that I learned. I first heard it when someone translated it directly in English (“Do you have a bird (in your head)?”) and thought I would understand it. It means “Are you crazy?”. Yea, in the German language to ask someone if they’re stupid or crazy, you ask them if they have a bird in their head.
• “Blasen” and “Gebläse” are two other great words. Certainly one could directly translate the verb “blasen” directly into English and get “blow” and that would be entirely correct. You often hear this word, though, in connection with giving a blowjob with “Gebläse” being a blowjob, though “Gebläse” has other, non-dirty meanings in English. Are you starting to understand why I love this language?

That’s all that occurs to me at the moment, though. I’m going to start writing these down (or tweeting them) so that way I can remember them and write more posts.