Subject:
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Re: Update - CEO Letter.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.color
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Date:
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Wed, 9 Feb 2005 04:46:19 GMT
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Viewed:
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1217 times
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In lugnet.color, Reinhard "Ben" Beneke wrote:
> Dear Fans of the System colours,
>
> thanks to all who have signed the letter, which I have published a short while
> ago at this place. This letter has now been printed on paper (yes, even the
> German one fit to one sheet of A4-Paper when printed in 12point letters) and
> sent to Jan Beyer of LEGO.
>
> He also got a (slighly) modified version of the English translation (after
> rereading that one once again, I found a few probably too harsh expressions
> which differed evidently from the more vaguely written German letter). And of
> course that letter is not speaking for the whole community. This has been a
> unlucky mistranslation as mentioned some times before.
>
> Just to make my point clear: in this very important case I wanted to have a very
> well done letter and so I asked for a professional translation. Of course the
> translater was no AFOL and he was not involved at all in the bley story. So the
> letter might have been written in a better English than my humble school time
> English, but it missed some of the content of the German letter as posted on
> 1000steine. And of course that is not to blame on the translater, but on me. I
> should have spent more time into proof reading.... I feel sorry for the fire
> storm this caused here at Lugnet - formerly the friendliest place on earth.
>
> For now, Jan Beyer got the German letter, the improved English translation and
> the list of people who have signed the letter. He promised to put it into the
> right context and he will do the best to hand it out to the CEO as soon as
> possible, but we might not expect any reaction within the next 4 weeks as he
> mentioned.
>
> *********
>
> Just for your information:
> There have been 186 Fans of LEGO who have signed the letter.
> apprx. 140 of those have been members of the 1000steine community
> a dozen people have supported the letter via e-mail
> less than 40 people supported the letter at Lugnet
>
> Nearly 60 people gave feedback about their buying behavior. They spent less than
> approx 60000 Eur in 2004 but more than 150000 Eur in 2003. This makes a drop of
> sale of more than 60% in that group.
>
> With kind Regards,
>
> Reinhard Ben Beneke
Hi Ben,
As you already know, translating between German and English (and vice versa),
can be very tricky. I know a lot of USA AFOLs thought that the letter was too
harsh. But I was sure that it was just translated without getting the spirit of
a polite business letter. Having been born in Germany, I personally know how
easy it is to "lose something in the translation". One would think that with
both English and German being Germanic Languages, it should be very easy to
translate. But you can thank the Normans when they invaded England in 1066 for
adding a lot of words and sentence structure that makes this difficult.
In one of my trips to Europe I picked up a Salzburg Austria travel brochure. In
it was a description of the "Salzburg Nockerl", an Austrian souffle dessert, and
it was translated from German to English almost verbatum. Here is how awkward
an exact translation sounds:
"The Salzburg Nockerl, a specialty of the Salzburg region, is a treat that those
visiting the area around Salzburg for the first time, should not fail to try".
:-)
Gary Istok
Born in Coburg Germany
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Update - CEO Letter.
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| Dear Fans of the System colours, thanks to all who have signed the letter, which I have published a short while ago at this place. This letter has now been printed on paper (yes, even the German one fit to one sheet of A4-Paper when printed in (...) (20 years ago, 8-Feb-05, to lugnet.color)
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