Shooting in English

Vor Kurzem hat jemand in einer Facebook-Gruppe für Falkner eine Frage gepostet:

„Gäbe es zufällig Falkner aus Bayern, deren Tiere man für ein Shooting buchen könnte?“

Ich bin Amerikanerin und meine Muttersprache ist Englisch. „Shooting“ ist ein englisches Wort und bedeutet „Schießerei“. Also, nein, ich bin mir sicher, dass keine Falkner – egal wo – würden zulassen, dass ihre Greifvögel und Eulen für eine Schießerei gebucht werden.

Wenn ich meinen Eltern eine E-Mail mit dem Betreff „Shooting at a falconry center“ schreiben würde, würden sie schockiert weiterlesen, um zu schauen wie viele Menschen und Tiere erschossen wurden. Es passiert immer wieder in den USA. Ok, eher in Schulen und Gebetshäusern als in Falknereien, aber du verstehst, was ich meine.

Das könnte ein Fotoshooting sein.

Ich weiß, viele Deutsche denken, "Shooting" ist eine Kurzform von "Fotoshooting". So steht es sogar auf dict.cc. Aber das ist leider nicht so. Und weil Amis (besonders wir aus dem Mittelwesten) so ungeheuer höflich und nett sind, werden wir euch niemals korrigieren. Wir werden kurz mit großen Augen schauen, versuchen das Kopfkino schnell umzustellen, oder, wie immer wenn wir etwas nicht verstehen - lächeln und nicken.

Wir hören "Shooting" und unser Kopfkino fängt hier an.

Aber jetzt sage ich es, meine liebe deutsche LeserInnen…bitte hör auf, „Shooting“ zu sagen und zu schreiben. Es ist „photo shooting“ oder „Fotoshooting“. Ganz ehrlich.

Stell dir vor, wir Amerikaner fangen an, das deutsche Wort „Schießerei“ zu benutzen, weil Fremdwörter cool sind:

• „Are there any dog owners out there who book their pets for a Schießerei? I need some practice!”
  
• “There was a Schießerei before my friend’s wedding last weekend. It was so nice!”
  
• „When we arrived at Ludwigsburg Castle for our tour, there was Schießerei going on!”
  
• “I’m available for Schießereien! Click here for my prices.”

Das könnte ein Fotoshooting sein,
aber kein Shooting!

Ich gebe zu, wir verwenden verschiedene Versionen von "to shoot" auch im Bereich Fotografie und Filme:

• "How many pictures did you shoot today?"  (Fotos machen)
• "Oh, that's a good shot!"*
• "I got a lucky shot of a falcon the other day."   (Foto)
• "How long did the shoot take yesterday?"    (Foto- oder Filmentermin)

*Das kann beides bedeuten: Du hast ein tolles Foto gemacht, oder du hast [mit einem Gewehr] gut geschossen. Aber für die zweite Bedeutung (gut geschossen), würden wir das eher im Präteritum ausdrücken: "That was a good shot."

Aber schau mal. Diese zwei Sätze bedeuten überhaupt nicht das Gleiche!

• “No one was injured during the shooting yesterday.”   (Amoklauf/Schießerei)
  
• "No one was injured during the shoot yesterday.”  (Film/Fotographie)

"Shooting" bedeutet für einen Amerikaner nur eines: eine Schießerei oder ein Amoklauf.

Oder als Verb: In this photo I am shooting at a target.

Es gibt weitere englische Wörter, die Amerikaner anders verstehen, als die Deutschen sie verwenden. 

Beispiele (und zum Schluss ein deutsches Wort, das die Amerikaner falsch verwenden):

• Handy (für Amis ist das ein adjektiv und bedeutet "griffbereit")
• Public Viewing (vor einer Beerdigung, wenn der Sarg offen liegt, damit man dem Verstorbenen seine letzte Ehre erweisen kann)
• Backside (Po;  für "Rückseite" braucht man ein Leerzeichen - "back side")
• Body bag  (Leichensack)
• Football  (amerikanischer Fußball, NFL)
• Foosball, "Fußball"  (Tischkicker)

P.S. Ich begrüße Korrekturen, wenn ich etwas falsch formuliere. Schick mir eine E-Mail (link oben)!

Book Review: The Awful English Grammar

"If I looked like Mr. Bean, I would cry myself to sleep every night."
"Too true."
"This is an example of the second conditional."
"It is?"
"Yes, it is. We use the second conditional when we're talking about a situation in the present that is plainly untrue or very unlikely."  

I have written before about how much I love bookshops and how important I think it is to shop locally rather than always using the convenience of Amazon. This week I took the bus to Nagold to have coffee with an English teacher friend of mine who had just returned from the US with students, and since I had an hour to kill before my bus back, I treated myself to a wee peek in the bookstore. I left the store with four new books and had finished one before the afternoon was over.

The Awful English Grammar/Die schreckliche englische Grammatik, by Jeremy Taylor, is a bilingual book with the English text on the left-hand pages and the German text on the right. I added the book to Goodreads, and you can read my description and review of it there. The book is a conversation between a British guy (Barry Buggins) who wants to teach English in Germany but realizes he doesn't know how to teach English despite being a native speaker, and a teacher trainer (Mr. Sully) who helps him prepare to teach.

I find this to be a brilliant book for anyone who teaches English to German speakers, a German speaker who wants to brush up on her English, and English-speaking expats living in German-speaking countries. Since Goodreads doesn't allow half-stars, I gave it four because of a few glitches I would consider mistakes: 2-3 typos, an incident of "There's a bunch of students...", and the translation of "No, really" as "Nicht unbedingt" (not really). Those are minor, but in a book about language, I'd rather there were no mistakes. And yes, I realize that is pedantic.

The conversations are mildly amusing at times, realistic in that they get off topic briefly now and then, and enlightening. The teacher's explanations are simple and easy to follow, and I like the way he leads Barry to his own understanding by asking "checking questions" and making mistakes Germans commonly make, getting Barry to correct him. Then they discuss why something is correct or incorrect.

The genius of this book is in its bilingualism. I have taught German to many Americans who are not experts in their native language. For a student of German reading this book, when he comes to a complicated construction ["If I had known how difficult English grammar was I wouldn't have taken this bloody course."], he can look on the right-hand page and find that sentence in German [Hätte ich gewusst, wie schwierig die englische Grammatik ist, dann hätte ich diesen verdammten Kurs niemals belegt."] That construction is called "third conditional," by the way, which is something a TEFL teacher (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) needs to know!

Yeah, I'm one of those who highlights and makes notes in my books.
M calls this "vandalizing," but please don't judge me. It's how I learn.

The grammar topics covered in the book are:

• verb tenses: forms of future, present and past
• conditionals, or the subjunctive mood
• prepositions (only a few because they'd require a whole book)
• countable vs. uncountable nouns
• mistakes commonly made in English by German speakers 

Lastly, the two characters use idioms throughout the book that are interpreted very well, which language learners can adopt. Idioms are fun! "You're pulling my leg!" Every native English speaker knows what that means, but a learner of English would picture the action literally. The German equivalent is (this was new to me) "Willst du mir einen Bären aufbinden?" An English speaker learning German would see that as "Do you want to untie a bear on me?" 

Both characters are British, so there are several moments where American readers will wonder. Here's one example where Barry corrects a "mistake" Mr. Sully makes:

  "Does [your sister] go to school on the weekend?"

  "You mean AT the weekend!"

Americans say "on the weekend" and Brits say "at the weekend."

If you are an English speaker learning German, a German speaker learning English, or a native English speaker considering teaching English to Germans, I encourage you to read this book. It doesn't take long - I read the English half in a few hours with interruptions - and it's a fun read for a linguaphile.

I even learned some things I didn't know before. For instance, English is one of the few languages with two forms of the present tense (p. 60). Can you name them or give examples? I also learned how to explain the subtle difference in meaning between "I work at McDonald's" and "I am working at McDonald's," which is something I'd never thought about before. 

"I think you'll find [German learners of English] are very smart people, and many new English teachers get eaten for breakfast by German students who know a lot more about English than their English teachers." ~Mr. Sully (p. 198)

I was like...STOP IT!!

I overheard a conversation at dinner the other day, mainly because I cannot block out American English like I can block out German. That probably has something to do with one's native language versus a second language. Even though I can understand German, I still need to concentrate and pay attention, so it's easy not to eavesdrop. When I hear American English, especially over here where it's not entirely common, it's unfortunately harder to ignore.

I do believe the speaker is a college student who is here for an intensive German immersion experience, although the only German I heard her use was "Hallo" and "Tschüß." Every time she stepped away, the people she was talking with spoke German to each other. When the American returned, the conversation switched back to English. I have no doubt she's very nice, and what follows is not a personal attack on her. Hearing her reminded me of conversations I have not been able to block out on airplanes, in restaurants, and in school in Wisconsin.

This is what part of the conversation would have sounded like in German (I'm making up the actual content of what was said; the point is how she spoke):

"Ich war wie, 'Du bist, wie, in meiner Klasse und weißt, wie, nicht mehr als mich [sic], weißt du?' Und sie war wie, 'oh, es tut mir leid. Ich wollte nur helfen,' und ich war wie, 'verbessere mich nicht mehr, ok?'  Das war, wie, SO nervig! Und die Lehrerin war wie, 'Was ist los?' und ich war wie, 'Nichts, alles klar.'"

The American-English original:
"I was like, 'You're like in the same class as me, and like, you don't know more than me, you know?' And she was like, "Oh, sorry. I was just trying to help,' and I was like, 'Just don't correct me anymore, ok?' That was like, SO annoying! And the teacher was like, 'What's wrong?' and I was like, 'Nothing, it's all good.'"

I realize the whole "I was like" (meaning "I said" or "I thought") thing is just a habit, and if I'm being honest I'm sure I use it too when I am with native English speakers (hopefully only occasionally). But Americans (I don't know if Brits do this, too) need to be aware of this little quirk and not use it with people who are translating into their own language.

The German translation of that little speech sounds absolutely stupid (as do most other grammatical mistakes native English speakers make if you translate them into German - case in point, "Mich und mein Freund fahren nach New York" - Me and my friend..." - and "Ich bin diese Woche schon 2 Kilometer lief" - "I have already ran 2 km this week"), but the English original does too, especially to an outsider who is sitting close enough that it's impossible not to overhear.

The thing that bothers me most when native speakers of English speak like this in a foreign country or to foreigners in America is that it is teaching or spreading crappy English. I do not want exchange students spending six months in America to return to their home country inserting "like" three times into every statement. "I stayed in like a really nice house with like a super nice family and like...it was like the best time of my life!"

Oh, and in case you were wondering, it is creeping into students' writing assignments. They use it on Twitter and probably in text messages (SMSs) as well, so it should come as no surprise that I saw this in high school essays. I typically drew a dark circle around the word (though in happy purple, not red) and wrote "Seriously?!?" in the margin - because "WTF" wasn't appropriate - with an arrow pointing to the word. It started happening more and more frequently, so I fled the country.

Someone needs to figure out how to surgically remove that word from the English language. Or develop a pill that stops its use.

"Knock. It. OFF!!!"

Speaking English

Forgive me for this rant. I taught English in an  American high school for 16 years before I packed up my furniture, my clothing, and my dried-up once-idealistic dreams and left the country for good.

I can't stand it any more. I'm trying to be kind. I'm trying not to complain. I'm trying to accept that many of my Landsleute just aren't good at English. I know that normal people don't consider it important to use standard language skills when writing publicly (social media, comments on news stories, etc.) in their native language, but as a former English teacher I'm tempted to scratch out my eyes and turn up my tinnitus.

If an American attended grade school - and most of those alive today did - he or she learned was taught proper standard English. Alongside basic addition and subtraction, third grade teachers teach their students the difference between "me" and "I" and when each is needed. We ALL learned that, when in doubt, remove the other person and see how the sentence makes sense. For instance:

The police want to talk to Chuck and I. (Removing "Chuck," does it make sense?)

Sam and me are going to the beach today. (Removing "Sam," does it make sense?) 

This is not rocket science, folks. It's American English, and it's your native language. I get it that foreign languages are just too hard, and too expensive to teach judging from the amount of school districts eliminating them from their curricula due to budget cuts. But should people not be expected to at least know and speak their own language better than a non-native speaker?

I will never - NEVER - fault a non-native speaker of English for making mistakes in this crazy language. But most mistakes Germans (for instance) make when speaking English are vocabulary, word order, or pronunciation errors. I have never heard a non-native speaker say "Me and Frank..." as a way to start a sentence, as I have never heard a native speaker of German say the equivalent = "Mich und Frank..."

Side grammar note: Do not EVER say "me and...". It is NEVER correct. Please trust me on this.

Americans say "me and..." all the time. The Germans even have a saying for that one:

"Nur ein Esel nennt sich selbst zuerst." ("Only an ass mentions himself first.")

When exchange students head over to the U.S., I'm tempted to beg them "Do not copy the English of the people you'll meet or what you hear on TV!" They will return to their English classes at their German schools and fail tests because crappy English will sound ok to them. I am not talking about accents or dialect; I'm talking about "I have went," "lay down," "less friends," and "there's three..." among others.

The other day I went to a German Facebook group I follow where the main language is German, and I saw a post in English. It happens now and then and is not a problem. But this guy's post was a poor display of English, and when a German responded to his question, her English was just fine. The American responded with worse English, erratic capitalization and little punctuation creating a run-on sentence, and the German responded again briefly in perfect English, using standard punctuation and capitalization as well as nailing the correct use of "you're."

I realize the guy who set me off this time might have a disability, and I shouldn't judge. M asked me if I'm sure he's American, because a German could have written his question as well. While he was asking me that I clicked on the guy's name and showed M his title picture - a big ass bald eagle. "Well, ok then."

There are too many American TV shows aired in Germany, and although the voices are dubbed into German, you can often still hear the American English in the background. The German speakers actually correct the grammar in the voice-over translations. "Me and Sam know each other real good" becomes "Sam und ich kennen einander sehr gut" (Sam and I know each other very well). "Him and I's first truck was a Ford" becomes "Unser erster Lastwagen war ein Ford" (Our first truck was a Ford).

"Him and I's truck"?!?!  What the hell?  I do not care if you didn't go to college. I do not care if you didn't graduate from high school. In third grade you were taught how to use possessives, and "I's" was not on the list.

We English teachers can only do so much. We have our students' attention for at most 20 minutes a day during the nine-month school year (not including Homecoming week, March Madness, Prom week, or days right before and after long weekends or holiday breaks). During the rest of their day and days they are hearing their friends, siblings, and parents speak and listening to songs written by people who don't know the rules of English grammar any better than they do. Just the other day I heard "In the end it's just me and you" sung repeatedly in a song my husband said is on the radio all the time. Super.

(found on google images - sorry for the totally lame attempt at citation)

While the above graphic makes me grin a little, it's really not one's education that is "at fault." I use standard (American) English because it was important to my family and because I care enough to do so. If it hadn't been important to my parents and grandparents, perhaps I wouldn't know the difference between its and it's or how to use I and me. Perhaps I wouldn't look up the spelling of a word when I'm not sure. And perhaps I wouldn't proofread what I write.*

But I do, and hearing and seeing so many errors so frequently bothers me as much as it would bother some people to look at someone with a mis-buttoned shirt, to hear metal scraping on concrete, or to watch an entire movie with the lip-sync out of whack. We all have our quirks, and I guess this is mine.

My mom patiently explains why it's not ok to say "Me and my brother..."
while my brother whispers, "Learn it now, Kid. It'll make your life a lot easier later on."

Please know: it is never too late (or too early) to learn your own native language and how to use it well.


*Do I still find mistakes after sending or publishing something? Darn it, yes. Where possible, I go back and fix them. Occasional mistakes and typos are one thing (or two). Not knowing or not caring how to speak and write your native language correctly is something else that we English teachers and language lovers just can't understand.

So much irony...

If you see anything awkward or a typo in one of my blog posts, do let me know! My parents quickly catch most of my mistakes, though. :-)