Hi Robert, I love that story; saved it in my Documents folder! :D
When one of my female friends refers to me or another male friend, they usually use "Kumpel" (buddy) as workaround term for this problem. Another possibility is: "Das ist ein Freund von mir" (that's a friend of mine) The "ein" (a / one) in this example sentence implies that it won't be a boyfriend (because that usually wouldn't be one of many other boyfriends). For female friends, I have no equivalent to "Kumpel" which I could use as replacement. Instead, I either try to use the female version of the example sentence above: "Das ist eine Freundin von mir" (that's a [female] friend of mine) ...or, if that is applicable, I use "gute Freundin" (good [female] friend), which also implies that I'm not referring to a girlfriend. :) Best regards, Tobias Frei Am 20.04.2014 17:43, schrieb Robert J. Hansen: >> "You've seemingly overlooked that the message was typed on a cell and >> the autocorrect isn't designed for English. 'This message was sent from >> my Android phone via K-9 Mail.' And because you instantly become >> personal in your first post and aren't engaging with the real issues, >> you're dead as a conversational partner to me." > > Ah, thank you for the correction! :) > > With respect to the German language -- I spent a good bit of my 18th and > 19th years in Saxony, and it literally changed my life. I found Germany > to be a warm and welcoming place, and the vast majority of your > countrymen were kind to me. I haven't been back since, although I'd > like to. > > And what the hell. This list has had enough drama and bad feelings as > of late, so I'll share a funny story from Hildesheim. > > --- > > I was on a bus with my host sister, who had a major English test the > next day. She asked if we could speak English so that she could get > some practice in before the Prüfung, so there we were chatting away. > Sitting across from us was a mother with her young daughter, and the > girl's eyes were wide as saucers as she watched me. > > She tugged on her mother's sleeve and whispered to her, "Mutti, Mutti! > Ein Ausländer! Hier! Er ist Ausländer!" > > For non-German speakers, that's a pretty rude thing to say. "Mom, Mom! > A foreigner! Here! He's a foreigner!" My host sister and I gave her > a quizzical "we're right here and we can hear you" look, her mother made > fulsome apologies, and tried to hush her daughter. > > The daughter just repeated it, louder, so everyone on the bus could > hear. The mother looked as if she was about to die of embarrassment. > > Finally I spoke to the little girl directly. "Ich bin nicht 'ein > Ausländer,'" I said, scare-quoting the phrase with my fingers. "Ich bin > Amerikaner, ein Exchangestudent, und ein Freund zu meiner Freundin." > > My host sister elbowed me suddenly and I knew I'd committed some gaffe, > but I went on anyway. > > "Ich bin Robert. Was ist deine Name? Wer ist deine Mutti?" > > The little girl looked as if I'd just slapped her. She turned away, > stuck her nose high in the air, and said in an imperious voice -- > "/That's/ all right. /I/ speak /English/." She looked like a little > queen, really, and her accent was straight-up Alistair Cooke. > > The entire bus broke out laughing. After the laughter subsided I asked > my host sister what was wrong. "Nothing," she said irritatedly. "You > just kind of implied we're dating. I'm your Freundin?" > > I blinked. "What? It's the feminine of Freund..." > > "Yes, and it's used for girlfriends." > > "So what's used for friends who happen to be women?" > > "Freundin, of course." > > I shook my head. "But it's the /same word!/" > > She shrugged. "It's more about how you say it, I guess." > > I stared at her a moment. "Your language makes absolutely no sense, you > know that?" > > She gave me a glower and a smile. "This, from the English-speaker." > > The bus had a second round of laughter over that. :) > > _______________________________________________ > Sks-devel mailing list > Sks-devel@nongnu.org > https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/sks-devel >
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