←back to thread

The Awful German Language (1880)

(faculty.georgetown.edu)
186 points nalinidash | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.232s | source
Show context
rawbert ◴[] No.44002326[source]
As a developer working in a German company the question of translating some domain language items into English comes up here and there. Mostly we fail because the German compound words are so f*** precise that we are unable to find short matching English translations...unfortunately our non-native devs have to learn complex words they can't barely pronounce :D

Most of the time we try to use English for technical identifiers and German for business langugage, leading to lets say "interesting" code, but it works for us.

replies(18): >>44002397 #>>44002459 #>>44002514 #>>44002534 #>>44002678 #>>44002701 #>>44002803 #>>44002985 #>>44003209 #>>44003272 #>>44003276 #>>44003429 #>>44003432 #>>44005478 #>>44005580 #>>44006867 #>>44007883 #>>44008646 #
Fokamul ◴[] No.44003209[source]
In my experience, problems is not with German as a language, but with Germans requiring to use their hard language, I live in neighboring country and since like 2010, nobody bothers to learn German anymore, (some small percent still learn, ok) and everyone who I know rather works in different country because of this. Like Netherlands, still hard language (multiple) but they don't expect you to learn it when working for multi-national company.
replies(5): >>44003405 #>>44003554 #>>44004772 #>>44005295 #>>44008987 #
1. Bost ◴[] No.44005295[source]
"problems is [..] with Germans requiring to use their hard language [..] nobody bothers to learn German anymore, (some small percent still learn, ok) everyone who I know rather works in different country because of this"

I assure you, as a matter of fact, (A) the size of your social circle is very limited, and (B) such an attitude as yours could safely be labeled as cultural ignorance bordering on cultural arrogance.