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Monty does Dansk and Deutsch

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montmorency
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 81 of 133
06 September 2012 at 9:00pm | IP Logged 
ummagumma wrote:
Funny reading your posts on Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. I
was never a fantasy
book reader and would have never any interest in books/films with anything got to do
with
magic. I also don't watch cartoons ... until I started learning German! I'm a HP & L of
the Rings fan and watch loads of German dubbed Manga/Anime. It's a funny old world.


Well I first heard "The Hobbit" being read on BBC Radio "Children's Hour" when I was at
primary school, and it made a big impression. Later, when I was a teen and in my
twenties it became fairly cool to have read "The Lord of the Rings". Later on, I read
both to my children as bedtime stories. So Tolkien is pretty much in the blood.

I was much more skeptical of Harry Potter, and wouldn't have bothered, except that my
wife bought them, and as I say, I actually got hooked around book 4 or 5.

There is a home-grown German fantasy trilogy called "Tintenwelt". I've only read a bit,
but it's definitely on my list to come back to.


Quote:

How do you rate Fontane overall? He has been previously recommended to me by a native.
Ich interesse mich fuer deine Erfahrung. Empfehlst du ihn?



I first tried to read him ("Effie Briest") years ago, after he was mentioned with high
praise on part of an OU German course I was doing. I really wasn't ready to read such
books, but I plugged away and somehow got through it, no doubt missing a lot. I also
saw the film version made by Rainer Werner Fassbinder - sehr sehenswürdig, darf ich
sagen.


Over the years, I bought the occasional additional Fontane novel, and slowly plugged
away at them. It's only in the last 2 or 3 years that I would say I've really begun to
get into them properly. Finding an audiobook version of Effi Briest on Librivox last
year was great, and learning about L-R at around the same time also helped a lot.

I would say though, as I've said on HTLAL in other posts, I'd definitely try to find
good translations if you can, and read those as well - after, before, or before and
after, or when listening to the German audio ... whatever works for you.

Having said that, there aren't all that many translations around:

For "Unwiederbringlich", I'd definitely recommend the one by Helen Chambers & Hugh
Rorrison, and they have also translated "Effi Briest".

For "Irrungen, Wirrungen", the one by Peter James Bowman, although the one by another
(unrelated) Bowman is also ok.

And I think that's about it. My next one will probably be "Frau Jenny Treibel", as I
already have the German paperback. I did read it a few years ago, and didn't find it
too bad. It will be interesting to read it along with an audiobook, now I have one.

But no translation. Helen Chambers has written an article and/or a book about the
paucity of good translations of classic German works. Well I hope she or Peter John
Bowman do a few more between them!

It is true that Fontane sometimes writes long sentences, and uses a lot of words you
probably won't find in use today. (That's ok with me though, since I want to read all
of his work, and perhaps other authors of similar vintage). I don't think he
deliberately shows off linguistically, as Thomas Mann appears to do. And he is very
good on dialogue. I think a lot of his books would be quite filmable for that reason,
although "Effi Briest" is the only one I know of.

Also, zur Frage: "würde ich ihn empfehlen?" - Kurz und gut: Ja, ganz sicher und ohne
Zweifel würde ich ihn herzlich empfehlen, obwohl ich hinzufügen würde: find dir eine
Übersetzung, wenn es möglich ist.





Edited by montmorency on 06 September 2012 at 9:03pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



ummagumma
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 Message 82 of 133
06 September 2012 at 10:13pm | IP Logged 
Das interessiert mich.

Ich habe eine Deutsche geheiratet, die deutsche Literatur studiert hat. Ich bin ein
Glückspilz! Wir haben hier Zuhause Hunderte von Romanen. Ich habe schon
vielmals 'Siddhartha' (von Hesse) und 'Die Verwandlung' (von Kafka) gelesen. Die waren
sehr einfach zu lesen und verstaendlich. Gleichzeitig habe ich die Hörbücher gehoert.
Also ein Teil der L-R Methode. Ich habe beides wirklich genossen. Im vergangenen Jahr
habe ich 'Der Prozess' zu lesen ausprobiert und bin gescheitert. Es war damals einfach
zu schwer. Wie gesagt, ich habe bei mir daheim eine grosse Auswahl aber es ist zeimlich
schwer ein geeignetes Buch auszuwählen.

Im Moment wiederhole ich Assimil und schaue mir Anime an. Vielleicht sollte ich mehr L-
R machen. Es ist toll, deutsche Literatur zu lesen. Die Bücher warten bloß auf mich
im Regal! Danke für deine obigen Empfehlungen. Sie sind sehr hilfreich.

Viel Spaß beim Deutschlernen.

(Edited mistakes. Danke フィリップ)


Edited by ummagumma on 07 September 2012 at 9:13am

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montmorency
Diglot
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2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 83 of 133
07 September 2012 at 11:42pm | IP Logged 
2012-09-05 Donnerstag| torsdag

Dansk

CC days=25 cn=20=tyve (tyvende)
>10 words unit 15

Mostly word-listing; some HP (="Harry/Palmer"). (n.b.HP in this context does not refer
to Harry Potter! Not that I have anything against reading him, and plan on doing so in
German, and maybe Danish one day, but that's not what I'm doing right now. :-)


Deutsch

"Unwiederbringlich":
cd8.3 ch 32
cd8.4 ch 33
cd8.5 ch 34.
>>>Das Ende<<<

I said I wouldn't give away the ending, and I won't in English, but (if I can summon up
the energy, probably tomorrow as my eyes are tired tonight), I will transcribe a letter
Fontane wrote to his publisher which documents where he got the story from. People like
Fontane were great letter writers as well as great novelists, and they help to document
the progress of many of his novels. When you know the original story, you pretty much
know the story of "Unwiederbringlich". Only the location and details were changed. It's
also interesting to see how he writes when he doesn't have his novelist's cap on. It is
simpler, although I am sure still fairly elegant prose.

Helen Chambers' professional home page:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/modlangs/People/German/Chambers/

Her book on the changing image of Fontane is now incredibly expensive, and I don't
suppose I will be buying it, but some of it can be seen on google books. She has
written loads of relevant papers, but the contents are not online, or only in journals
I don't have access to.

However, found some interesting Fontane stuff on someone else's PhD Thesis. There is a
lot of symbolism in the book, a lot of which I had missed. e.g. the relationship
between Holk and Christine relates to that between Denmark and "Germany". Even their
names are symbolic, e.g. "Christine" suggests her piety. One thing I had forgotten or
not fully appreciated was that there were people who hoped Schleswig-Holstein would
remain Danish, and others who hoped for an independent German Schleswig-Holstein (i.e.
not part of Prussia either). Both were doomed to eventual disappointment as Prussia got
it in the end, after the time this book is set, but only just after. (1864 I think). Of
course Fontane knew that when he was writing it in the late 1880s.

I typed the following on Friday, but logically it belongs under Thursday's entry: 2
letters from Fontane. Only one of which explains the story, but I put the poem in just
because I like it :-) Transcribed by hand for an exercise then retranscribing it by
fingers:

"An Emilie Fontane          ;           ;           ;           ; Berlin zum 14
Dezember 1887

"Der neue Roman ich hab ihn fertig
Wenn auch nicht in allen Stucken
Er ist doch Deines Abschrift gewärtig
Dann kann ihn Kröner drucken

Unwiederbringlich sein Titel ist
Unwiederbringlich ist vieles!
Doch lassen wir das zum heiligen Christ
Und gedanken wir unres Zieles
                     (Bri efe   2, S. 340: vgl. Bd23 S134)

An Julius Rodenberg        &nb sp;    Berlin 21 Nov 1898

Den Stoff der Novelle gab ich Ihnen in der Beilage.

Vor drei, vier Jahren, schrieb mir Frau Geh. R Brunnemann, geb. v. Mayerinck,
(Schwester der mal so schönen Geh.R Böhm, der Ihnen gewiß bekannt ist), einem langen
Brief aus Italien und darin - angeregt durch eine Novelle von mir - folgende Familien
Geschichte.

Baron Plessen-Ivenack, auf Schloß Ivenack in Streliz, Kavalier comme il faut,
Ehrenmann, lebte seit 18 Jahren in einer glücklichen Ehe. Die Frau, 37, noch schön,
etwas Fromm (die Strelitzer tun es nicht anders). Er Kammerherr. Als solcher, wird er
zu vorübergehender Dienstleistung an den Strelitzer Hof berufen. Hier macht er die
Bekanntschaft eines jungen pommerschen Frauleins, v. Dewitz, eines Ausbundes nicht von
Schönheit, aber von Piquanterie.
     Den Rest, brauche ich Ihnen nicht zu erzählen. Er ist behext. Kehrt nach Ivenack
zurück und sagt siner Frau: sie müßten sich trennen, so und so.
     Die Frau, tödlich getroffen, willigt an alles und geht. Die Scheidung wird
gerichtlich ausgesprochen. Und nun kehrt der Baron nach Strelitz zurück und wirbt in
aller Form um die Dewitz. Die Lacht in aus. Sie steht aber auf dem Punkte, sich mit
einem ebenso reichen aber unverheirateten Herrn aus der Stelitzer Gesellschaft zu
verloben.
     Der armer Kerl, er hat die Taube auf dem Dach gewollt und hat nun weder Taube noch
Sperling. Er geht ins Ausland, ist ein unglücklicher blamierter und halb dem Ridikul
verfallener Mann.
     Inzwischen aber ist die älteste Tochter die beide Eltern gleich schwärmerisch
liebt, herangewachsen, es spielen allerhand Szenen in der Verwandtschaft
Versöhnungsversuche drängen sich, und das Ende vom Liede ist: es soll alles vergessen
sein. Zwei Jahre sind vergangen. Die Frau, willigt ein, und unter nie dagewesener
Pracht, darin sich der Jubel des ganzen Landes Strelitz mischt, wird das
geschiedene Paar zum zweiten Male getraut. Alles steht Kopf, der Hof nimmt
Teil, Telegramm von Gott weiß woher.
Musik und Toaste.
     Plötzlich aber ist die wieder Getraute, die wieder strahlende, die wieder
scheinbar Glückliche von der Seite ihres Mannes verschwunden, und als man nach ihr
sucht, findet man sie tot am Teich.
   Und auf ihrem Zimmer einen Brief der nichts enthält als das Wort:
Unwiederbringlich.
     Dies ungefähr das, was mir Frau Brunneman in Damestil und Damehandschrift schrieb.
>>Ich könne damit machen, was ich wolle - ich hatte es zu freier Verfügung <<
(Sie ist Cousine des Hauses) Ich bin doch klüger Felderr gewesen, was ihr nachträglich
sehr lieb zu sein scheint, und habe die Geschichte nach Schleswig-Holstein und
Kopenhagen hin transponiert, so daß sie jetzt zu kleinem Teil auf einem Schloß in der
Nähe von Glücksburg zu größrem in Kopenhagen und auf der Insel Seeland spielt. Solche
Transponierung ist nicht leicht. Ich ging sämtliche deutsche Höfe durch, nichts paßte
mit, als ich aber Nord Schleswig und Kopenhagen gefunden hatte, >> war ich raus << .
Nur Strelitz selbst wäre vielleicht doch noch besser gewesen und hatte meine Geschichte
den Ton des politisch Satirischen gegeben, nun? klingt nordisch Romantisches mit durch.
Geschrieben habe ich die Geschichte jetzt vorm Jahr in den Wochen und Monaten, die dem
Tode meines Sohnes folgten. Ich habe mich unter der Arbeit bei Trost und Frische
gehalten. Natürlich ist nichts fertig, aber die Geschichte ist doch da, und was fehlt,
ist nur Korrektur. Freilich immer das Mühsamste unz Zeitraubenste.

(Briefe an Rodenberg S. 27 ff )"


[Any grammatical, spelling, etc, errors, are mine and not Fontane's! Apologies: could
not read my own writing, and was a bit tired when typing this. Will hopefully correct
later]


Edited by montmorency on 08 September 2012 at 1:47pm

1 person has voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4772 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 84 of 133
08 September 2012 at 12:13am | IP Logged 
ummagumma wrote:
Das interessiert mich.

Ich habe eine Deutsche geheiratet, die deutsche Literatur studiert hat. Ich bin ein
Glückspilz! Wir haben hier Zuhause Hunderte von Romanen. Ich habe schon
vielmals 'Siddhartha' (von Hesse) und 'Die Verwandlung' (von Kafka) gelesen. Die waren
sehr einfach zu lesen und verstaendlich. Gleichzeitig habe ich die Hörbücher gehoert.
Also ein Teil der L-R Methode. Ich habe beides wirklich genossen. Im vergangenen Jahr
habe ich 'Der Prozess' zu lesen ausprobiert und bin gescheitert. Es war damals einfach
zu schwer. Wie gesagt, ich habe bei mir daheim eine grosse Auswahl aber es ist zeimlich
schwer ein geeignetes Buch auszuwählen.

Im Moment wiederhole ich Assimil und schaue mir Anime an. Vielleicht sollte ich mehr L-
R machen. Es ist toll, deutsche Literatur zu lesen. Die Bücher warten bloß auf mich
im Regal! Danke für deine obigen Empfehlungen. Sie sind sehr hilfreich.

Viel Spaß beim Deutschlernen.

(Edited mistakes. Danke フィリップ)


"Glückspilz" :-) Das war neu für mich; auch "obig". Ich brauche noch viel Arbeit zu
meinem Wortschatz.

Ich muss wahrscheinlich meine Wahl von Autoren ausbreiten, aber Kafka klingt ein
bisschen zu weit für mich!



Von späteren Schriftstellern, würde ich von Günther Grass, Heinrich Böll, und Erich
Kästner viel halten.

Ich finde Christa Wolf (ursprünglich von der DDR) interessant, aber irgendwie
schwierig.
Sie besiegt mich immer :-(



Edited by montmorency on 08 September 2012 at 12:15am

2 persons have voted this message useful



ummagumma
Senior Member
IrelandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5200 days ago

217 posts - 241 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

 
 Message 85 of 133
08 September 2012 at 10:56am | IP Logged 
Der Begriff "Glückspilz" gefaellt mir sehr.

Ich habe ihn, und manche andere, hier gelernt:

DW - Wort

DW.de ist eine wahre Goldgrube an Lehrmaterial.


2 persons have voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4772 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 86 of 133
08 September 2012 at 9:58pm | IP Logged 

2012-09-07 Freitag| Fredag

Dansk

CC days=26 cn=21=enogtyve (enogtyvende)
>10 words unit 15

Mostly word-listing.

Gave more time to German, especially Fontane today.

Deutsch

Read some more of Fontane's letters and the notes in the back of "Unwiederbringlich",
Did some vocabulary work.

1 person has voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4772 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 87 of 133
09 September 2012 at 1:02pm | IP Logged 
2012-09-08 Lørdag

Fru M. returned from Istanbul/Ephesus. She said the language sounded very strange, but
occasionally she would hear "merci" and "pardon", suggesting some French influence at
some time.

Dansk

CC days=27 cn=22=toogtyve (toogtyvende)
>10 words unit 15

Some fun words: "overdrive": to exaggerate; similar to German "übertreiben".
Also: "æggetefælle" (n,r) - spouse. The feller who gets egg poured over his head when
marital harmony goes out of tune? (but also means a female spouse, of course).

Hate to whinge, but this book could really do with a decent summary of all the numbers
in a table at the back. It's fine introducing it in stages, but sometimes you just want
a quick reference, and as far as I can see, they never actually teach "enotyve"
explicitly, although you can deduce it from "enotyvende" which they do teach, and in a
reference to a clock time which is there somewhere you wouldn't quickly find if you
were scanning for it. My book is now scribbled over with notes to help me find all the
number stuff, and maybe I should write my own summary and stick it in the back.
[/rant]. :-)

Deutsch


Took down my copy of "Die Pogenpuhls", which I had forgotten having read, but pencilled
notes make it clear that I read it for the 2nd time last year, and I'd also made a lot
of vocab notes. Bit worrying that I barely remember it! It's only a short book. I'll
have a look through the notes ("Anmerkungung") and letters("Briefzeugnisse", and also
the "Nachwort" at the back, which are often as interesting as the book itself. I
decided that I needed to get more Fontane books in actual book form, and sent off for
modestly priced used copies of several from abebooks and one from amazon. I know that
theoretically I could get a lot free via kindle (for the PC) via amazon (I don't
currently have a kindle and have no plans to get one at the moment), but I'm kind of
reluctant to commit myself to reading them that way, although I have actually read
plenty of e-books on the laptop in my time, and they do have advantages, but I really
like paper books as well, especially when they are well-made and in reasonable
condition. (Regrettably, Penguins, at least the ones sold in the UK, are often of
lamentably bad quality IMO, even when new. It's not as though they are particularly
cheap to buy. For new books, I'd take an Angel Books copy any time over Penguin,
although there aren't that many). Don't think I'll read "Die Poggenpuhls" again at the
moment, and will revert to my plan of reading "Frau Jenny Treibel", along with the
audio. However, I'll also have a more modern German one going at the same time. I think
I know what it will be, although I'm almost spoilt for choice at the moment. It seems
like Fontane had fun with the title he chose, being a mixture of actual place and
family names, apparently. I suspect he had a quiet sense of humour behind that rather
gruff exterior we usually see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_
Fontane


An interesting point for language learners is that he is supposed to have taught
himself English by reading English literature (and translating it), although he later
lived and worked in England for several years, and no doubt became competent in the
spoken language. Someone told me that he had also taught English, although I have yet
to see that in any biographical notes.


Edited by montmorency on 09 September 2012 at 1:06pm

1 person has voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4772 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 88 of 133
10 September 2012 at 11:48am | IP Logged 
2012-09-09 Sondag

Dansk

CC days=28 cn=23=treogtyve (treogtyvende)
>10 words unit 15

Bought "Kvinden i buret" (Jussi Adler-Olsen) in Epub format from Mibook.dk, who were
marginally cheaper than Saxo.dk, although they are significantly cheaper for some of
the audiobooks I'm potentially interested in. The process of account creation and
purchase was smooth (I used google translate to be on the safe side), and the email
with the download link came right away, and it worked with no problems. I'm using the
free FBReader to read it. It works OK, except the "next page" arrow doesn't seem to
work. PgDn or down arrow or the mouse wheel works OK. I thought the next page arrow had
worked on other books, but need to check. Not tried ADE or Calibre on this, although I
expect Calibre not to read it because of DRM silliness. The good news is that the
audiobook seems to be the full book, and not an adaptation. I am not sanguine that this
will be true of the others; will just have to see. And I'm understanding a reasonable
amount ... from cognates, memory of reading it in English, and (I'm glad to say)
because of words I actually know. The main thing at the moment is to associate the
written words with the sounds, and that's coming on ok, although the (female) reader is
rattling along at a fair old pace. It's not an unpleasant listen though, by any means.
The chapters are of manageable length, I would say - variable - the flashback ones seem
to be shorter.


Deutsch

Looking at "Die Poggenpuhls" notes again + vocabulary.

Read Ch1-3 of "Erbarmen" & listened to audio. This is the German translation of
"Kvinden i buret". Slightly annoying that the text and audio are not identical. I guess
the audio is an adaptation, although so far, only small bits are missing, but
occasionally, some bits seemed to be in the audio and not the text, so not quite sure
what is going on. Perhaps they are just based on different translations??? And we know
that sometimes translators take liberties. Quite a good reader though; two actually,
one female, representing Merete, one male representing Carl Mørk (or rather the police
side of the story).
The e-book has: "Aus dem Dänischen von Hannes Thiess".
hmm...according to the "end credits" of the audiobook, it's from the same translation.
Well, I think the best thing to do is just to listen to the audiobook, and not worry
about the text.
It might be interesting to borrow the printed text from the library again, and compare
it with the e-book.


Edited by montmorency on 10 September 2012 at 11:52am



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