I'm currently struggling to get through The Downfall of Money: Germany's Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class by Frederick Taylor. It's hard because there is just so much detail contained in this blow by blow account of how Germany got into such a financial state that, at one point, on 1 November 1923, one US dollar was worth 133 billion marks and on 15 November 1923, just a fortnight later, approximately 2.5 trillion marks.
The most interesting bits describe how people of all walks of life and classes actually coped with everyday life.
One detail mentioned was that schoolchildren had to attend school on Saturday mornings, which they no longer have to do. Even I, however, remember that this was still the case until a few decades ago: school until about lunch time on Saturday.
As I went to school in Wales, when I visited my grandparents in Berlin, the schoolchildren there were often still in school, their holidays starting a few weeks later. One year, when I was maybe in my early teens, Claudia Lehmkuhl, my friend from the next apartment building to my grandparents', invited me to join her on the last day of school as her English teacher wanted to have me in her classroom.
When I was there, I was asked various questions and I'm not sure how many I managed to answer successfully, but I do remember one question that had me stumped.
The German English teacher fixed me in her gaze and said, "I've always wanted to know something. What's the difference between a sweater, a pullover and a jersey?"
I had no idea. I don't think the English teacher was impressed by my lack of knowledge.
When I returned home and reported back to my parents, my dad said: "She left one out: jumper."
Maybe today is the day that I should look up the definitions of these words and see if there are any major differences. From The New Oxford Dictionary of English:
Sweater: a knitted garment, worn on the upper body, typically with long sleeves, put on over the head.
Pullover: a knitted garment put on over the head and covering the top half of the body.
Jersey: a knitted garment with long sleeves, worn over the upper body.
Jumper: Brit. a knitted garment, typically with long sleeves, worn over the upper body.
Conclusion? No difference whatsoever.
And then there are Germans who want to argue with me that German has more words than English...https://dict.leo.org/german-english/pullover
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
A few days ago, Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat , had an article published in The Guardian . https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/20...
-
You might have recognised the line from the musical of Oliver! that I have appropriated and amended for my own purposes in the heading for ...
-
Back about 20 years ago, "road rage" - uncontrollable anger as experienced by drivers culminating in violence - was all the rage. ...
I've read that book. I loved it. I bought the German translation for Schatz' dad. He also loved it.
ReplyDeleteWell, I wouldn't say I loved it. I found it very hard going. But I am now going to tackle "Berlin, Alexanderplatz" by Alfred Döblin. I read it at uni but my German was only a quarter as good as it is now, so it'll be interesting to see what impression I get of it this time round.
ReplyDeleteAs an avid knitter, I've found that 'jumper' is very much British English, and that 'sweater' tends to be used as a hypernym for all sorts of knitted upper-body garments, whether 'pullovers' or having a front opening, including tunics, cardigans, slipovers/vests and boleros. It doesn't seem to include knitted coats, jackets and dresses, but I'm currently puzzling over the apparent interchangeability of (Norwegian) jakke (jacket) and kofte (cardigan). (why? - that's a whole other story!)
ReplyDeleteAnd imagine how hard it is to a person, trying to cope both in English and in German, and being a native Finn! - I even studied French when living in Germany.... / M.
ReplyDelete