Sorry for my bad english

[Vosla]

See Vosla, that's what I mean. Why?

"Why" as in the threads intention ?
Well, it's embarrassing how lousy I speak English because regarding the years I had English in school and practised English on- and offline. It's practically useless in direct communication. And I'm supposed to use English in my job. But I can't properly talk English if I'm not thinking English. I need a lot of time to switch languages in my mind. Reading an english book beforehand really helps but then I can't switch back to German so fast. Sounds funny and I mix up grammar.

As for the translation of our webshops : I stumble upon terminology everywhere from tents to weapon crafting. So I have to improvise most of the time and that looks like the ramblings of some illiterate. And I'm without a clue WHAT is wrong. Aside this, complete morons or trolls try to correct me on a daily basis and most of those suggestions (>96%) are even worse than my version. And then there are people who confuse bad translation with errors in content.

Have a look at the webshops linked in my signature. I translated roughly 90% of the first one and 99% of the second.

To sum it up :
I don't say sorry for my bad English as per se. It's more like a warning.

[LMan]

Yeah but being imperfect does neither stop you, me, Necropolo or anyone else of the non-native-english speakers to post at this forum, nor does anyone really mind these imperfections. I mean, even the vast majority of native speakers of any language do not master it to perfection. So IMO there's no need to be sorry or to issue a warning, or to feel embarrased. Even if it's just "hello" and "good bye" you can say.

[tas]

There's never a need to apologise. As an English man (like most englishmen and women) who cannot speak another language I am always impressed that non native people can even speak English at all. Since in this country were are pathetic at speaking a different language!

[Analog-X64]

I find it amazing, how well people here who's native language is not English, do communicate in English. English is the 4th language, I learned to speak and write.

[analoq]

Well I, for one, wish my German was even half as good as most Germans' English.

[Vosla]

When describing a piece of cloth that could be used as a sun screen or makeshift tent -
would you call that a tarp or an awning ?

If writing for an international audience -
would you stay with Oxford English or go for American English ? => e.g. colour vs. color, armour vs. armor

[merman]

When describing a piece of cloth that could be used as a sun screen or makeshift tent -
would you call that a tarp or an awning ?

If writing for an international audience -
would you stay with Oxford English or go for American English ? => e.g. colour vs. color, armour vs. armor

I'd probably use awning in the first case.

As for the second, I'd always use the English spelling personally.

[putzi]

Nice topic! And it is well-located in the "Fun" forum, as I had to laugh myself about some posts...
I think the root of all evil for at least Germans is really the dubbing of TV/movies, as mentioned already. AFAIK, in France and Italy TV is also dubbed, could someone please confirm (and how about your confidence when writing English, if you are French/Italian?).

When I visited Sweden 6 years ago, I was fascinated by the fact that absolutely everybody speaks English there. Ofcourse, there is no dubbed TV in Sweden except for children programming. The same in the Netherlands.

And after all, dubbing kills so much detail and sometimes even the storyline. And introduces "funny" problems like Arnold Schwarzenegger talking with the same voice as Silvester Stallone and Terence Hill and... not sure how many actors are dubbed by this German guy.

I started watching ONLY the original soundtrack 4 years ago and it was the best decision I can think of. I'd have missed so much fun in Stargate Atlantis when I think of the dubbing I sometimes saw on regular German TV. It is the same for every series or movie: when I stumble upon a dubbed scene I already know in English, it feels like a headache.

My fave wrong translation was in Futurama season 1... for the Germans: "Das ist Tiefblau, unser Ferien-Praktikant" ("this is Deep-Blue, our apprentice"). You have to hate dubbing studios for their mindless work, after all!

[Marcel Donné]

Well, in that case,let me bore you all with an anecdote about what happened to me during BITLive in Hamburg many many moons ago switching between German and English most of the night (which usually isn't a problem as I'm used to doing that).
The real problem started when the lovely Mr. Tron came on the scene with his buddies and I then had to switch between 3 languages, German, English and Dutch. I think I was able to keep that going for about 45 minutes and then my brain went "BZZZRT-T-T-Zmurch", possibly enhanced by a few beers but I can tell you that I was exhausted by the exercise and I ended up speaking English the rest of the evening

[putzi]

Are you sure it wasn't the Guinness? I took some revealing photos, and you're on them...

[Marcel Donné]

Are you sure it wasn't the Guinness? I took some revealing photos, and you're on them...

Was it Guinness really? Guinness and me are great buddies so we are

[putzi]

My memories made me think Guinness, but that's because it was printed on your shirt. Actually you're holding a Beck's-bottle.

[Chris Abbott]

When people find out that I'm married to a Russian lady, they always ask "How's your Russian".

"She's fine", I reply

[Vosla]

@Chris: