{"id":483,"date":"2011-11-30T15:51:31","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T13:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=483"},"modified":"2015-04-21T14:20:45","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T12:20:45","slug":"i-heard-it-through-the-grapewine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/i-heard-it-through-the-grapewine\/","title":{"rendered":"I heard it through the grapewine"},"content":{"rendered":"

German is an easy language to learn, but it’s not an easy language to pronounce. The umlauts and the “ch” are only the first hurdle<\/span>. Letters like “l”, “r” and “y” are tricky<\/span>. You have to know where to split<\/span> compound words<\/span>, and it takes a while to get the intonation<\/span> right. Tourists sound horrible<\/span> when they try to pronounce German names. A large part of the problem is the fact that overseas it’s very difficult to find authentic German to listen to. The airwaves<\/span> are not flooded with German films and music.<\/p>\n

English, of course, has its own problems: the “th” sounds (two of them), bizarre antiquated spellings like “weigh” and “through” that give no clue<\/span> to pronunciation, and letters or combinations of letters that can be pronounced in many different ways. I have great admiration<\/span> for anyone who learns English. I don’t think I’d be very good at it myself if I hadn’t learned it as a baby. The world language should really be something easy like Spanish instead. So, please, make mistakes in English. I won’t laugh. Really. As they say in German, “Nobody’s perfect.”<\/p>\n

In everyday situations, everyone is prone to<\/span> making mistakes. There’s nothing wrong with that when it happens in conversation or in an informal environment like Spotlight<\/i> magazine’s Facebook page<\/a>. Everyone understands, and it makes us seem more human. But if you’re speaking to an audience<\/span> of millions \u2014 as an actor or politician, for example \u2014 you should be extra-careful. I mean, you’re getting paid to do that.<\/p>\n

One mistake that baffles<\/span> me \u2014 because there’s no reason for it \u2014 is the belief that, because the German letter W is pronounced [v], the English letter V must be pronounced [w]. It affects people at all levels of society and all levels of English \u2014 so much so that the word “willage” is a clich\u00e9 among English-speaking foreigners in Germany.<\/p>\n

The voice actors who dub<\/span> TV series, and who otherwise do an amazing<\/span> job, need to pay more attention to their English. We could do without<\/span> the references to “Darth Wader”, “heard it through the grapewine”, “Wampire Diaries<\/i>” and \u201cThe Woice of Germany<\/i>\u201d. The first two are actually not that bad: I can imagine Darth Vader with his mask and robe on, wading<\/span> through some shallow<\/span> water in a quiet moment between rebel attacks; and wine is, of course, made from grapes<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The other two are unforgivable, though. The image of the ’80s pop group Wham! sucking the blood of teenagers is not one I want to have in my head; and millions of people may now be thinking that “woice” is an actual word (and perhaps wondering what it means). As somebody wrote on Facebook, Americans can’t pronounce German either, and maybe that’s why they don’t give their shows names like Die Stimme der Vereinigten Staaten<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Once again: I’m not making fun of anybody; I’m just offering some friendly advice. In America, the best reason not to make the V-as-W mistake is to avoid sounding like this:<\/p>\n