When you operate in two languages, either in your personal life or in the business world, the two tend to meld into a horrible concoction that does no favours to either. Language purists are fighting a losing battle against Denglish, which Wikipedia says is the influx of English vocabulary into the German language through travel and the widespread use of English in advertising, business and information technology. Germans now speak of Computers instead of Rechenanlagen and in Kindergartens across the country, children shout cool to each other.
I’m not here as an advocate of Denglish or otherwise. I think that languages grow and change organically and I’m probably going to use downloaden as a German verb one day in the not-too-distant future.
However, I do care about very ugly English. There is a difference between natural evolution and just plain wrong.
German companies are using the web to sell products and services into an English-speaking global market. Where they go wrong is to assume that in every case they can translate German directly into English. However, the German language contains a number of false friends that, no matter how logical they may appear, just don’t survive translation.
Here is one: sogenannte. Meaning thus named or so named, it seems like an innocent that one can happily sprinkle into English. It isn’t.
A board member of a leading German software company was once heard to say at a press conference, ‘We are the so-called market leaders.’ Believe me, dear German speakers, the English-speaking members of his audience were holding back their tears. Of laughter. English-speakers only ever use so-called when they are applying irony. In other words, to his English audience, he appeared to be saying, ‘Some say we are the market leaders, but we don’t really believe this.’
Here is another example, lifted off a different software company’s website: ‘On this dashboard, you can collect so-called widgets about topics that interest you.’ This is confusing to an English reader. Are these real widgets? Fake ones? Ironic widgets that might break into hysterical peals of laughter as soon as you turn your back?
The bottom line is don’t use it. If you’re trying to sell a product, the use of so-called in your marketing materials makes you look as if you don’t believe in your product.
And if you don’t believe in it, who’s going to?
Contact me if you’d like ugly English eradicated from your website!
January 14th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Very interesting article. A little ironic that you mention children in Kindergartens while discussing English words invading the German language – it almost made me fall off my chair in the delicatessen!
English is such a polyglot language itself, with many languages from German, French, Latin, and so many others, not to mention Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Gaelic, Angle, Saxon, …
One more example you could have cited is the use of “since” by Germans speaking English, when what they really mean is “until.”
A good example of Denglish, featuring a number of SAP speakers, is on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XUiLtvKqns
Thanks for an enjoyable article!
January 15th, 2011 at 7:13 am
Thanks, Dennis! Yes, now that you mention it, it is ironic that I used Kindergartens unironically …
Watch out for the next post: since versus until, actual versus current.
I enjoyed the video.
January 16th, 2011 at 3:53 am
Thank you! I’ve cringed for years when hearing “so-called” misused. Love this post! One of my favorites is “zusammen” translated to “all together” as a greeting in email.
January 17th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
If you think the board member spoke Denglish, how do you explain this definition of so-called adjective from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary?
so-called adjective
•
used to show that you think a word that is used to describe someone or something is not suitable or not correct
It was one of his so-called friends who supplied him with the drugs that killed him.
•
used to introduce a new word or phrase which is not yet known by many people
It isn’t yet clear how destructive this so-called ’super virus’ is.
-> http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/so-called
January 17th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Hi Michael, thanks for stopping by and providing a definition. It’s still an error, however, because the executive was not saying that the company was not a market leader and neither is ‘market leader’ a new word or phrase not known by many people. In this context, the use was incorrect.
January 18th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
I work in the English department of a German university, and I have a collection of these sorts of expressions a mile long. (I’m fighting the good fight against “informations” at the moment. And against calling babies “it”. And then there’s the possibility to do something, which seems to be the only way my students ever translate “Moeglichkeit”!)
Mind you, I’m sure I’ve committed some atrocities in German myself – I am fluent, but there’s always something…
February 22nd, 2011 at 9:53 pm
“Ironic widgets” – you made my day.
Nigel
February 23rd, 2011 at 1:06 am
great article!
My peeve is headquarter there MUST be an s at the end!
Or, davon (translated, of which, of this, of that, thereof (I hate this one) there of
Sales
(of which USA)
(of this Europe)