Aluminum "the word"

[RebHawk]

A few of language conventions that I find mildly humorous:

When the Japanese don't have a work for some technical item, they just use the English word. You will hear them going on about something, then all of a sudden an English word pops up amongst the Japanese words.

When the Germans are in a similar situation, they just string a bunch of existing German words together to make a new, very long word, to describe it.

Once a colleague of mine (who is not a native Spanish speaker) was giving an interview to a Chilean reporter during an eclipse expedition, in Spanish. Whenever he came to a word he didn't know in Spanish, he would use the French word without missing a beat. It was hilarious to us on-lookers, as it was totally baffling the reporter, who spoke no French.

Cheers,
--Hawk

 

[RebHawk]

So you didn't understand the joke you liked. *)
It was "Porche" is pronounced the same way as "Seimens". The answer would have been "wrong".
Because it is Porsche and Siemens.

*)
Now who is the one who doesn't make/understand jokes? Remove at least one from that list (me).
You can have a Becks beer on that (I won't).


Nick

Ahh yes, the well-known German wit. FWIW I got it, but it wasn't actually what an English speaker would call a "joke"....

Monty Python's Take on German wit:

Colonel: All through the winter of '43 we had translators working, in joke-proof conditions, to try and produce a German version of the joke. They worked on one word each for greater safety. One of them saw two words of the joke and spent several weeks in hospital. But apart from that things went pretty quickly, and we soon had the joke by January, in a form which our troops couldn't understand but which the Germans could.

(Cut to a trench in the Ardennes. Members of the joke brigade are crouched holding pieces of paper with the joke on them.)

Voice Over: So, on July 8th, I944, the joke was first told to the enemy in the Ardennes...

Commanding NCO: Tell the ... joke.

Joke Brigade: (together) Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! ... Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

(Pan out of the British trench across war-torn landscape and come to rest where presumably the German trench is. There is a pause and then a group of Germans rear up in hysterics.)

Voice Over: It was a fantastic success. Over sixty thousand times as powerful as Britain's great pre-war joke ...Cut to a film of Chamberlain brandishing the 'Peace in our time' bit of paper ... and one which Hider just couldn't match.

Film of Hitler rally. Hitler speaks; subtitles are superimposed.
SUBTITLE: 'MY DOG'S GOT NO NOSE'
A young soldier responds:
SUBTITLE: HOW DOES HE SMELL?
Hitler speaks:
SUBTITLE: AWFUL'


The German joke in reply:

Voice Over: But at Peenemunde in the Autumn of '44, the Germans were working on a joke of their own.

(A German general is seated at an imposing desk. Behind him stands Otto, labelled 'A Different Gestapo Officer'. Bespectacled German scientist/joke writer enters room. He clean his throat and reads from card.)

German Joker: Die ist ein Kinnerhunder und zwei Mackel uber und der bitte schon ist den Wunderhaus sprechensie. 'Nein' sprecht der Herren 'Ist aufern borger mit zveitingen'.

He finishes and looks hopeful.

Otto: We let you know.

(He shoots him. Film of German sdentists.)

Voice Over: But by December their joke was ready, and Hitler gave the order for the German V-Joke to be broadcast in English.

(Cut to 1940's wartime radio set with couple anxiously listening to it.)

Radio: (crackly German voice) Der ver zwei peanuts, valking down der strasse, and von vas... assaulted! peanut. Ho-ho-ho-ho.


--Hawk

 

[Nick Mueller]

FWIW I got it, but it wasn't actually what an English speaker would call a "joke"....

So it are the English speakers that don't understand jokes.

The rest of your posting was utter gibberish.
You have earned a Becks!


Nick

 

[RebHawk]

So it are the English speakers that don't understand jokes.

The rest of your posting was utter gibberish.
You have earned a Becks!


Nick

No, it's the Germans who have no idea how to construct or tell a joke that is actually funny.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

So it are the English speakers that don't understand jokes.

The rest of your posting was utter gibberish.
You have earned a Becks!


Nick

Stop digging Nick, you're making their point for them. Regards Tyrone.

 

[Zonko]

Atomwitz - Alle strahlen.....

This is one of those threads.....its so bad that the sheer badness stretches around the entire universe and comes home through the back door as a good thread...

 

[Nick Mueller]

Maybe you start with this: Numberphile
There are also explanations. After you understood all of them, you can work your way up.


Nick

 

[RayG]

So you didn't understand the joke you liked. *)

Now THAT's funny.... well no actually, it's schadenfreude...

Ray..
PS.. I didn't get i either..

 

[RayG]

But there ain't no F in cod...

Yes, they are in the far canal.

Ray

 

[Mark Rand]

To be fair, jokes based on puns, synonyms and antonyms etc. are always going to be language specific and, usually, not funny at all to a speaker of another language.


I do find, in my employment, that my German colleagues and managers have a very similar (lack of) sense of humour regarding our mutual French lords and masters...

 

[Nick Mueller]

PS.. I didn't get i either..

So ...
As he was kidding who to propperly pronounce Porsche and misspelled it to Porche and me knowing that Siemens is often misspelled as Seimens and consequently pronounced wrong ...
... saying that they are both pronounced the same was a joke and a trap. He took the trap as he explained how well he can pronounce both and that he has been in Germany and Austria and learned some German text and is of German origins.

So for him, it turned out to be Schadenfreude (not my fault) and I got my jiggles no mattern wether he understood or not.
So much for constructing a joke.

Nick

 

[RayG]

So for him, it turned out to be Schadenfreude (not my fault) and I got my jiggles

I thought that was a nice bit of fun.... made me laugh, perhaps I have a sick sense of humor...

Ray

 

[oldbrock]

The way it was explained to me was that the first Aluminium company in the U.S.A. when going into business had millions of brochures printed and the printers made a misprint forgetting to put in the last "i" and no one caught it and out they went. Shoulders were shrugged and it became Aluminum and thus the name change. That's how I heard it explained anyway.

 

[Robert Robles]

Alcoa Aluminium Company makes aluminium tin foil.

 

[Robert Robles]

Ahh yes, the well-known German wit. FWIW I got it, but it wasn't actually what an English speaker would call a "joke"....

Monty Python's Take on German wit:

Colonel: All through the winter of '43 we had translators working, in joke-proof conditions, to try and produce a German version of the joke. They worked on one word each for greater safety. One of them saw two words of the joke and spent several weeks in hospital. But apart from that things went pretty quickly, and we soon had the joke by January, in a form which our troops couldn't understand but which the Germans could.

(Cut to a trench in the Ardennes. Members of the joke brigade are crouched holding pieces of paper with the joke on them.)

Voice Over: So, on July 8th, I944, the joke was first told to the enemy in the Ardennes...

Commanding NCO: Tell the ... joke.

Joke Brigade: (together) Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! ... Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

(Pan out of the British trench across war-torn landscape and come to rest where presumably the German trench is. There is a pause and then a group of Germans rear up in hysterics.)

Voice Over: It was a fantastic success. Over sixty thousand times as powerful as Britain's great pre-war joke ...Cut to a film of Chamberlain brandishing the 'Peace in our time' bit of paper ... and one which Hider just couldn't match.

Film of Hitler rally. Hitler speaks; subtitles are superimposed.
SUBTITLE: 'MY DOG'S GOT NO NOSE'
A young soldier responds:
SUBTITLE: HOW DOES HE SMELL?
Hitler speaks:
SUBTITLE: AWFUL'


The German joke in reply:

Voice Over: But at Peenemunde in the Autumn of '44, the Germans were working on a joke of their own.

(A German general is seated at an imposing desk. Behind him stands Otto, labelled 'A Different Gestapo Officer'. Bespectacled German scientist/joke writer enters room. He clean his throat and reads from card.)

German Joker: Die ist ein Kinnerhunder und zwei Mackel uber und der bitte schon ist den Wunderhaus sprechensie. 'Nein' sprecht der Herren 'Ist aufern borger mit zveitingen'.

He finishes and looks hopeful.

Otto: We let you know.

(He shoots him. Film of German sdentists.)

Voice Over: But by December their joke was ready, and Hitler gave the order for the German V-Joke to be broadcast in English.

(Cut to 1940's wartime radio set with couple anxiously listening to it.)

Radio: (crackly German voice) Der ver zwei peanuts, valking down der strasse, and von vas... assaulted! peanut. Ho-ho-ho-ho.


--Hawk

I don't know what was so funny about the Monte Python bit, but they are comedy masters and my wife and I laughed our asses off. I must have needed a good laugh and maybe she was laughing at me. Thanks

 

[flutedchamber]

How about anumenum? Pronounced Ah-noom-ee-num.

 

[Greenwud]

Yes, they are in the far canal.

Ray

One can join the far queue to see them.

 

[RayG]

One can join the far queue to see them.

In the same vein, I'm sentimentally reminded of that classic comedy F troop, the Hekawi tribe was originally called the Fugawi tribe until the censor spotted it...

Ray

 

[NAST555]

Must be sumthin' to that 'Southern' thing when it comes to the variants of English.

Tasmania, New Zealand, former Rhodesia or South Africa produce some of the most interesting of flavours..

I have been told that we have really "flat" accents and can apparently be understood really easily.
Over here it's Aluminium as in AL (Short for Albert) -A-MINIUM and funnily enough every time I hear someone from the states say Aluminum is grinds my balls. Each to their own I suppose.