Comments on: Spreken Sie Deutsch?

By: Mercy

Mercy — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:09:32 +0000

I’ll see what I can do. Drop me an email, if you’re serious about picking it up!

(use the email I entered for this comment –blame it on the flu I’m fighting, but I typoed my email in the first comment. Whoops.)

By: mo pie

mo pie — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:02:59 +0000

Well, if you could find a copy of the paper, that would be great! I’ll be in Munich next month, I can just come pick it up, and buy you a beer! :)

By: Mercy

Mercy — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:54:45 +0000

I live in Munich, and I missed it! Arrgh!

My husband and I don’t get a daily paper, but I can ask around and see if anyone I know still has theirs from last week if you want a paper copy –or actually find the public library and see if it’s got one I can photocopy.

I’d offer a translation, but I suspect that Karin might have better german than mine.

(Karin: I had thought that Germany was a bit better than the US about the thin=healthy=pretty thing. They certainly seem to be less prone to the advice-from-strangers syndrome, and while I’ve seen weight-loss ads on TV, nothing like the crash diet ads I saw daily in the US has shown up yet.

Although I did realize this weekend that Weight Watchers ads here use the line “Because I want to lose weight, but I don’t want to change my lifestyle” among others. So they’re still openly fad-dietish here.)

By: mo pie

mo pie — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:06:33 +0000

I speak Dutch, but I still don't know enough to translate this article very well. Google translator gives me:

In America, there is the mouth full of dieticians, workouts, afvalkampen, healthier lifestyles and the like. A range fatblogs suggests that thick, beautiful: "Long live the whales! Ge have a lot of 'suits'! "They are so proud of them erotic photographs of moddervette people on the mainpage. The land of the free has always suffered a large percentage of population that volslank. Mja, where is Mc Donalds arise? For me like a Big Mac Menu, with mayonnaise, a cola and salt on the fries. And give me but especially people who feel good in their skin. You live only once. Below, a thick volslanke ode to all people.

I could probably do a better translation, given some time. But I do enjoy "Long live the whales! Ge have a lot of 'suits'!"

By: Karin

Karin — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:10:03 +0000

What a positive article! I’m surprised, because it often seems that the German media (I live in Germany) is even more obsessed with “thin = healthy = pretty” than the American media. Bleh…

Mo, if you want a full translation of the article, please let me know! :-)

By: Wendy Withers

Wendy Withers — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:38:28 +0000

I know this blog gives me positive body-feelings. If you ever need someone to translate a Hebrew article, I can put my three-year-old reading level in Hebrew to the test.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:18:17 +0000

Eh, I took Spanish, not German. But my Gay Boy Friend is a German major and speaks it. I’ll see if he can’t do more translating for us.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:55:51 +0000

I personally love this line

anti-Fettleibigkeits hysteria so far

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:16:41 +0000

Hmm, re-reading that second one, I’m not sure the tone comes across in translation–the intended reading is something like “Gee, bulimics and anorexics must be really excited to hear how healthy they are.”

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:55:53 +0000

Bah ha ha, and here’s another good line, from the first paragraph:

Germany should slim down, is the message [from TV, radio, newspapers, and the Internet], because thinner means healthier. Bulimics and anorexics must be really having a party right now.