Upon the date 01:32 PM 4/21/00 -0400, Roger Merchberger said something like:
>Rumor has it that Sellam Ismail may have mentioned these words:
>>
>>VCF 1.0e is about a week away and plans are rolling right along. It
>>should prove to be a smashing event. My German lessons are
>>progressing nicely and I can now ask for beer in German and get
>>directions to the nearest toilet. Next week I hope to be able to apologize
>>in German for vomiting on your shoes.
>
>Well, a good quick way to practice once you get over there is have a few,
>quick shots of Jaegermeister uninitiated... I don't care if the Deutche
>translation is "Master Hunter" or something like that... I figured out it
>should be more like "Volcano in Stomach" or somesuch... ;-)
>
>'Tis too bad you're not making a pit-stop in Northern Michigan on your way
>back -- I'd pay handsomly for a case of good, German Altbier... :-)
>
>[[ Re: England ]]
>>We can go get one of those big, tall
>>beers at a local pub afterwards.
> ^^^^^
>
>Erm... if you don't want to upset the locals, call it an "ale." ;-)
>Technically, however, beer is made with hops as a bittering agent, ale is
>made with spices other than hops, IIRC.
>
>[[ Oh, and German "sign-language" is a bit different as well - the hand
>sign with the thumb and index finger touching, making an 'O' with the three
>remaining fingers extended and seperated generally used in the USA to mean
>"O.K." means "asshole" in Germany... use the "thumbs-up" which in the USA
>is used to hitch a ride, in Germany means "Number one" / "First-rate" /
>"Top-Notch".
>
>Also, Germans hand-count differently as well - they go by the
>"highest-number finger" method, which means the number of fingers/digits
>extended means nothing, only the "ordinal" of the highest number digit will
>be counted.
-- snip rest of msg --
Very interesting Roger. I usually thought twice about using the "sign
language" whenever I was in Germany. But, if you really wanted Sellam to
see this rather informative message he may not. I believe he's still
unsubscribed.
Knowing him from his past presence on this list, I think you might want to
let him know about some of these cultural caveats lest he gets himself into
trouble ;-) He indicated he should be emailed at sellam_at_vintage.org.
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt_at_netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL:
http://www.antiquewireless.org/
Received on Fri Apr 21 2000 - 21:45:04 BST