The misunderstanding about cucumbers

Um desentendimento sobre pepinos gave us enough material to talk about since it has a lot to do with the confusing language context we live in. These days we were looking into some supermarket pamphlets when my husband spotted something he judged to be a translation error. On a pot of pickled cucumber they translated ‘Essiggurken’ (German for ‘cucumber in vinegar’ or ‘pickled cucumber’) into English ‘cucumber’, which according to my husband is a mistake since cucumber and Essiggurken are not the same thing. I retorted saying that for me they are the same thing. He insisted in saying they are not, since ‘cucumber’ is a fresh vegetable used in salads and Essiggurken are ‘Essiggurken’ drenched in vinegar, or better, they are two different vegetables. Well, that is really confusing. I also did not get his point until he told me they should have translated it as ‘pickles’. But pickles, I told him, can be any vegetable in vinegar, not only cucumbers… well, to make it short: I only knew one kind of cucumber, the small, dark green, thick cucumber, which in Brazil we use for salad as much as for pickles (the stocky pimpled ‘pepino’). He on the other hand has two images of ‘cucumber’, the one in the pot and one twice as long as the Brazilian, used only for salads in Germany. It was hard to convince him that the thing in the pot (from my point of view and also the pot’s translation’s) is a normal cucumber laid in vinegar. Well, he had to check in the Internet, and as I expected, I was found to be right. Nevertheless, I guess he is also not wrong… since the cucumber he knows (the one for the salad) does not go into vinegar. Well, I hope this confusing narration was enough to show that words do not always match their meaning in different languages. Even though they convey ’similar’ images or meanings, they might diverge due to culture specific referents that do not exist everywhere. Enough to say that Eskimos have several words to refer to different forms of snow/ice because they need and can distinguish among them all. As a Brazilian I only know one (‘neve’ for snow) and I might say I get really puzzled when Germans distinguish between two kinds (Schnee and Schneeregen). (ariadne)

Die Gurke des Missverständnisses actually does not have anything to do with cucumber per se, but rather with a sales promotion we received last weekend. The ad of a supermarket contained Essiggurken (pickles) but in the picture of the jar of pickles you could see that they translated the German word Essiggurke with cucumber. Now, my semantic concept of cucumber or Gurke is of this long green vegetable that I really hate and that is used to make salads. Contrary to my opinion my wife thought that it’s perfectly OK to translate the German word Essiggurke with cucumber, because, so she said, after all pickles are made of cucumber any way. Sticking to the concept of cucumber I had in mind I argued against that claiming that no Essiggurke has ever been made of cucumber and that only salads and that kind of stuff is made of it. Well, after some 15 minutes of dicussing and looking in dictionaries, I have to admit that she might be right, although the Oxford dictionary only refers to the kind of vegetable used to make salad in the entry cucumber. But an entry in wikipedia finally proved me wrong. Anyway, now I guess you have a rough idea of how it is to live as bi-lingual speakers in Babel with different native languages…But I still think that cucumber is not the best way to translate Essiggurke! Yes, I am stubborn   (christian)

The book…

O livro is called “Cook with Jamie”, and cooking with the “master” is exactly what my husband has been doing for the last past weeks. I didn’t really like gnocchi neither risotto… well, after “the book” I must admit I’ve changed my mind. Jamie Oliver explains step by step how to prepare each of wonderful, delightful, incredibly delicious recipes. He gives tips on basic ones, then shows how to “pimp” them. I haven’t consulted “the book” yet for I have my reasons: First of all I do not live to eat, I eat to live… and following this syllogism one might realize that I also do not cook for fun, but only for necessity. On the other hand, Christian loves cooking! It’s his hobby. He loves to learn new techniques (I hate people – or books – telling me how to cook. After all, it is an innate skill of mine and I do it by instinct. Well… my food might not be “classic” but it tastes VERY well. Ask Christian when he is not exercising his hobby!). What I wanted to say is short: If you love cooking you must have this book. It is like a magic secret book full of special spells and magic potions. Believe me, you’re going to taste food in a very different way… the way only gods have. Furthermore, you might even change your mind about risotto and gnocchi. (ariadne)

Das Buch I want to talk about today is not a novel, it is not a scientific book and it is not a esotheric book, either. Instead, behold dear reader, it is a cookbook. Yes, you read right! A cookbook. Now, I know that there are thousands and thousands of cookbooks out there on the market, but this one is really something special. First of all, it really gives a deep insight into cooking or better it explains even the smallest things concerning cooking, like sharpening knives, how to choose high-quality food, and all those other little things that are helpful if you are a hobby cook like me. Second, this book, to be more precise, a recipe from this book made my wife like risotto. Before she always would go like: “Are you sure you want to make risotto?”, now she goes: “When are you going to make that risotto again?”. Well, somehow I am getting the impression that the risottos I made before were not that good at all, which I have to admit . But thanks to Jamie Oliver and his lastest book “Cook with Jamie” this changed. So from now on we will have a delicious and succulent risotto with gorgonzola, apples and walnuts very often just to be able to say “Well, I feel full after the risotto.” (christian)

Why? For God’s sake!

Por quê, meu Deus, people have to use technology against themselves? Second Life, the famous on-line virtual universe, represents one step ahead into the future. Not because people can literally experience another – free of rules and regulations – life, but because a whole virtual universe gives opportunities to meet other people, exchange information, have a nice conversation, even if that means simply meeting some celebrities for a press conference, which happened with the cast of “300”, or visit an exhibit with pieces of art created specially for that universe. Today the graphics aren’t the best, yet it is the first move to the development of a “real”, hopefully less decadent, Matrix (from the movie, where people live through their avatars). But already today people have started to turn “paradise” into a mundane hell. They started with virtual terrorism and have since fallen into pedophilia. Unfortunately, these are the last news from the virtual front: people having “realistic” sex with pretty realistic children inside Second Life. The realism of the scenes has shocked many. The police, they say, have found those held responsible, who according to specialists are “potential” offenders to the real world. Well, let’s hope they’re only wannabees. But we can’t hope that the world will be free of them. We can’t hope the Internet will be clean of photos of real crimes. Sad that we can’t hope for all children to be safe and able to grow with dignity. (ariadne)

Warum um alles in der Welt, would I want a second life? Isn’t the first one, we all have to pass through, more than enough. Or is it just so tempting to merge with a virtual microcosmos without any boundaries and settled rituals, that people flock on the SecondLife servers like moths in the beam of a bright light? Well, if you ask me, I think it is just such a lame attempt to make something out of your life, because you are not able to get anything going in your real-world life. Of course I don’t care if somebody enters Second Life every once in a while just to have some fun. But what really puzzles me is that there are people who open stores there and, what is much worse, there are people who pay real money to buy virtual, i.e. non-existing (!), things in a virtual world. And something that really gets me going is that some really brain-fuc!ed and sick people go there, to rape children! I mean it’s virtual, but as has been proven by psychologists, living one’s (really sick) fantasies online/virtual just increases the probability of doing it in the real world, that is without any computer. Now, I suppose that the “children” in Second Life, that were raped probably were some really disturbed adults too or maybe some even sicker and more disturbed teenagers, who entered this situation voluntarily, but that just doesn’t make it less sick! (christian)

Yesterday evening we watched Spider-man 3

Ontem à noite assistimos a Spider-man III after having some discussions about “pastéis” and “Inland Empire”. I will explain myself… The thing is: I love watching blockbusters like Spider-man, Batman, Superman and so on, because those characters made part of my childhood and thus are very significant for me, since they helped to build part of my world of fantasy, action and romance. I admit to never having read the actual comic books, but I spent lots of time watching the cult movies (Superman and Batman) and TV animated or live-action series. My husband, on the contrary, dislikes those characters and the “blockbuster” concept that supports them, and for this reason I had to convince him, once again, to go with me to see Spidey on the big screen. Well, I have succeeded in making up his mind for about 10 times (as when we went to watch Batman, Spiderman I and II, Superman, and all the Harry Potters) so why would I fail now? Than I came up with a drama about how I did’t want to watch “Inland Empire”, but this didn’t work out very well… so I promised I would prepare him some “pastéis”… but I guess he gave in because he actually hates the idea of letting me go all alone. Now, about the movie: It was lots of fun! Like usual, not as cool as the first part, but still full of humor, romance and action. Something to eat pop-corn with, have a good time, and forget the morning after. I liked “Inland Empire”, but there’s nothing like a good fantasy movie to make my worries blow away (ariadne)

Gestern abend waren wir in Spider-man, and I have to say, that it was probably the best movie ever. They re-employed the old – and very creative – villain vs superhero theme mixed it up with a lot of unnecessary teenage problems and spiced it with a bunch of fortune cookie wisdom. I just wonder how many fortune cookies the writers must have eaten to have been able to come with such a really deep and profound movie. For those of you who might not have realized: this was actually sarcastic and not really the truth. I promised my wife to watch the movie with her and I was pretty sure that I was going to be disappointed. And right I was! Well, the story was more than lacking creativity. Moreover it was pretty boring showing a little boy’s relationship problems who really were not at all new for a standard Hoolywood filminho (pt. derogative for movie). So one question comes up during watching this movie. Why is he called Spiderman?! Instead he should be called Siderkiddy or Spiderboy. And all this deep wisdom like: friends will be friends or everybody can change the world! WOW! Tell me more about things I really never heard before! Plus, not even the part with the black Spiderboy, in which I had put so much hope before, were thrilling, instaed it was just like the rest of the movie. Pretty dull!
Concluding, I can say that Spiderman 3 was exactly like Spiderman 1 and Spiderman 2 and Batman and Robin and Batman Begins and Superman 1 and Superman 2 and Superman Returns and Daredevil and all the other movies that use the villain vs hero thingy. Why not let the villain win once? So my last words: PLEASE SPARE US MORE OF THAT JUNK or at least make it interesting! (christian)

Last Friday we watched “Inland Empire”…

Sexta-feira assistimos a “Inland Empire”, David Lynch’s new masterpiece. I must confess I didn’t really want to go: three hours of potential boring frenzy weren’t my plans for the weekend. But Christian insisted so much and mentioned all those movies I forced him to watch… so I gave in. And I do’t regret it. The movie is simply overwhelmingly amazing! A Critique to Hollywood, a movie about a movie, a thriller teeming with suspense and horror, a dream… or a nightmare? Hard to say, yet marvelously filmed, edited, acted. Oh, and the sound track… infuriatingly frightening. With this film Lynch shows what “cinema” is about, and laura Dern, the actress muse of a movie within the movie shows for it. Her acting is, not to fall into deviances, perfect. The film is… a must go. More I can’t say, for my opinions are mere delusions of a disturbed mind affected by Lynch’s world. Go watch it and make up your own conclusions. (ariadne)

Letzten Freitag haben wir uns “Inland Empire” angeschaut. Well, what could I say about that movie. It is certainly the most interesting movie I have watched so far this year. It is an excentric movie in which the spectator lives through a seemingly never-ending nightmare. No, the movie itself is not the nightmare, but the movie shows us a nightmare. The nightmare that is being dreamt and felt inside the protagonists head. It is displayed so vividly and strongly that sometimes it is really hard to keep watching because one feels just too tense. The way of filming combined with strong contrasts between light and shadow and the soundtrack create a constant feeling of helplessness and fear – just like when one has a real nightmare. The plot of the movie is just like a nightmare too. At one point the protagonist (Laura Dern) is in one subplot and all of a sudden she enters the next confusing surreal subplot without finishing the first plot. Actually, it is really hard to describe a movie like David Lynch’s masterpiece adequatelly, so i summarize it for all of you in a few words: Surreal nightmare! That’s what it is and that’s what makes the movie so good.
One last thing: Thanks to Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons and all the other actors and actresses for participating in this movie, because it certainly will not be a major box-office hit, and I really appreciate that people like David Lynch have the courage to make a movie so good but so very different from all the other Hollywood standard productions which constantly lack even the slightest trace of creativity. (christian)

we are…

 

We are a bilingual couple living in a babel-like relationship. This means that besides ordinary communication misunderstandings that often entangle committed men and women, we still have to deal with translation inconsistencies, generally unfunny culture-specific humor and meaningless expletives. Here we intend to write our opinions on the most general topics and events that populate our life together from a two-sided point of view. We’ll always offer two texts on the same topic. These will begin with the same introductory words and will be composed either in German, Portuguese, English… and occasionally with a touch of Spanish and Bavarian, all depending on the mood. And we WON’T take a peek on each other’s opinion before posting. This intro has been composed on these guidelines and, for starters, I hope our descriptions won’t have diverged too much. (ariadne)

We are a bilingual couple, who actually happens to be trilingual:-). I, for my part, speak German, whereas my wife happens to speak the melodious Portuguese language. In order to communicate with each other we have come across the oh so widespread English language. Despite having one language in common, it happens quite regularly that we both end up talking completely different about the same things. And this is what this blog is supposed to be about. Two people sharing their thoughts and feelings using a linguistic melting pot with the heat and rhythm of Brazil, the harshness and efficiency of Germany wrapped into English words sometimes losing the actual meaning of what we are trying to communicate. We planned for our common blog to try to bring across the linguistic amalgamation we live in by writing about the same topic in all our 2-3 languages. Of course, each topic will have one entry from each one of us. So I hope you stay tuned and enjoy our little experiment…(christian)