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 Tue Apr 01, 2008 20:10 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Molly wrote: | | Quote: | | The point of political correctness is to make people feel guilty anyway, |
Another shallow statement. This is teenage rant stuff. |
Here's an approach that may help you prevent your hair turning grey prematurely; whenever somebody writes something you don't approve of, just imagine the person had said "I don't really know whether you approve of what I'm going to say in a minute, but in my humble opinion the situation looks like this:"
This is why Oscar Wilde could get away with simply saying "all art is useless" or any given theoriser -- or theoretist or theoretician or theorist or whatever fitting occupational title or vocational description you can think of -- has managed to keep his work precise and concise. More than one can say about your snappishly snippy sauce.
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Ralf
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lost_soul
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| Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:34 am What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Quote: | | This is why Oscar Wilde could get away with simply saying "all art is useless" or any given theoriser |
Well, I think Oscar Wilde said something or the other about almost everything  |
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daemon99
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| Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:14 am What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Quote: | | Here's an approach that may help you prevent your hair turning grey prematurely; whenever somebody writes something you don't approve of, just imagine the person had said "I don't really know whether you approve of what I'm going to say in a minute, but in my humble opinion the situation looks like this:" |
Have you given that advice to Jamie? He needs it more than I do. And believe me. Jamie is anything but humble.
| Quote: | | More than one can say about your snappishly snippy sauce. |
Going by the length of that post, and some of the grammar, you also are no Oscar Wilde, Ralf. |
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Molly
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| Wed Apr 02, 2008 7:33 am What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Molly wrote: | | Quote: | | Here's an approach that may help you prevent your hair turning grey prematurely; whenever somebody writes something you don't approve of, just imagine the person had said "I don't really know whether you approve of what I'm going to say in a minute, but in my humble opinion the situation looks like this:" |
Have you given that advice to Jamie? He needs it more than I do. And believe me. Jamie is anything but humble.
| Quote: | | More than one can say about your snappishly snippy sauce. |
Going by the length of that post, and some of the grammar, you also are no Oscar Wilde, Ralf. |
That may be so, but at least I knew who he was. And my language is genuine 
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Molly
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Molly
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| Wed Apr 02, 2008 23:21 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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Of course on the Internet there a lists of mistakes commonly made by Germans but one that I keep hearing frequently is 'headquarter' instead of 'headquarters'. Again, this mistake is due to language interference.
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Molly
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| Thu Apr 03, 2008 0:14 am What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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You are right Molly. In addition to the Germans, speakers of other nationalities make the 'headquarter' mistake too. Thanks for the link. (The second one relates to the verb 'headquarter' though.)
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Torsten
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| Thu Apr 03, 2008 0:54 am What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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The first is a link to a Toyota dealership in Florida named 'Headquarter Toyota'. That is not an example of the usage of 'headquarters' as a common noun. Instead, it is an example of a proper name in which the word 'headquarter' basically functions as an adjective. Why they decided on the name is anybody's guess, but it does follow a naming pattern similar to 'instruction manual'. (An instruction manual is usually full of instructions.) On the other hand, maybe the owner of the dealership wanted to make sure the dealership wasn't simply assumed to be Toyota's corporate headquarters.
As Torsten pointed out, your second link is to the definition of the verb 'to headquarter' rather than to the noun 'headquarters'.
Your third link is to a Japanese site. Since the English version of the site has been removed, it's a bit hard for me to comment on it.
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Yankee
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| Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:01 am What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Torsten wrote: | | Of course on the Internet there a lists of mistakes commonly made by Germans but one that I keep hearing frequently is 'headquarter' instead of 'headquarters'. Again, this mistake is due to language interference. |
Besides language interference, I also notice that Germans may use correct expressions too much and in the wrong places because they seem to fall in love with them.
One example is when they talk all the time about their company's "greenfield project". Yes, the term does exist in English, but it's not used nearly as much by Americans as by Germans. Where Americans would just say "the new plant" or "the new warehouse", Germans in the same company will talk only about "the greenfield project", maybe because they're fascinated by the idea of building a new facility on empty land.
One you mentioned is "key account manager". I walk in and out of American, German and Japanese corporations all the time, and I talk to the employees. While Google shows me that the term "key account manager" exists and is used by some companies in the US, I have only ever heard the term pass the lips of Germans. I've never heard an American, a Mexican or a Chinese use the term, but only Germans, at least in the branches of industry I'm close to.
I know I'll think of more of these when I have some unoccupied time. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:59 am What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Quote: | | (The second one relates to the verb 'headquarter' though.) |
Yes, I know. An interesting verb. |
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Molly
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| When and where is one a competent communicator? | Regularising the irregular |
So, there's no mix