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Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Woof Woof
A friend of mine sent me this picture of a new dog parlour in Ochsenfurt, Germany.
A shame the proprietor wasn't a better student of colloquial English, eh?
It's the German predilection for "inspection pan" style loos that I can never quite get over. Quite apart from the tendency to make the lavatory a very smelly place, in one German house I visited I noticed a glass jar full of longish lollipop handles placed close to the loo, clearly there for the purpose of analysing the evidence a little closer....
That convinced me that going to the loo for Germans is a medical experience, rather than a chance to read the paper in peace.
At least their students learn foreign languages fairly effectively if not bang up to date.
What I found rather uncomfortable in Germany is the amount of bureaucracy involved in every little enterprise. Fortunately, they are very well organised and, what is more important, you can rely on their word - they will keep it no matter what.
18 comments:
http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/webcam/Germany/Garmisch-Partenkirchen/868.html
A room with a view.
Then again, many Germans have fluent and colloquial English...
I took my kids to Salzburg last Christmas, and found out that the Austrians are even weirder.
"A kingdom for dogs" - who could wish for more?
I was once tasked to design a logo for something similar, called "Dapper Dog", which I thought was also a good name.
I thought that was a bit funny - the change of address notification, with all the numbers. Google has cached it anyway.
Germans do like English-sounding words ending with "y" -- e.g. Handy (mobile phone), Landy (a Land Rover enthusiast club)... and I guess now Doggy!
It's the German predilection for "inspection pan" style loos that I can never quite get over. Quite apart from the tendency to make the lavatory a very smelly place, in one German house I visited I noticed a glass jar full of longish lollipop handles placed close to the loo, clearly there for the purpose of analysing the evidence a little closer....
That convinced me that going to the loo for Germans is a medical experience, rather than a chance to read the paper in peace.
At least their students learn foreign languages fairly effectively if not bang up to date.
What I found rather uncomfortable in Germany is the amount of bureaucracy involved in every little enterprise.
Fortunately, they are very well organised and, what is more important, you can rely on their word - they will keep it no matter what.
There is a similarly-named place in Edinburgh...
There's a group on Facebook called something like "innocent foreign signs that are rather rude in English". This would fit right in.
There's a dog grooming parlour in Brighton called "Doggy Fashion". No further comment needed.
At one time The Dogger Bank was above water level and connected England to Germany.
Woof woof was the name of the dopey musical featured in one of the Bertie Wooster novels.
Gadfly
...except in Munich
I dare someone to roll out the name on British high streets - sponsored by Biteback....
The idea of the Germans naming canine things to look English is intriguing.
On a sort-of related note, I have just bought some French vino called "Longue Dog" that comes from the Languedoc region...
@mandaliet
Willy Supper IS his name, and he IS a tailor
http://supper.at/home.php
I think you would find that the owner knew full what what the name meant in English!
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