Capitalization is WUNDERBAR

Georgetown, July 2011 [click image to enlarge].

These cheerful green buses can be found all around DC as part of Germany's "do Deutsch" campaign: it seeks to promote the joys of learning the German language and pique interest in German culture more broadly.The website promoted on the bus (www.Germany.info) has some interesting links, include a German "word of the week" blog.

The bus itself strewn with various German nouns that have entered everyday English speech. In German, all nouns should be capitalized - but things are pretty erratic here (some words are in all caps, some in lowercase). "Wunderbar" [wonderful] is an adjective, not a noun, but - strangely enough - it's capitalized. Oh those wacky Germans, being so playful with their capital letters!

Obsolete Library Catalog Cards (Library of Congress)

The emergence of the online public-access catalog has largely rendered the traditional library card catalog obsolete. At the Library of Congress, which has a searchable online catalog, this point is made especially clear: old paper catalog cards are unceremoniously stacked among blank pieces of scrap paper. Above is a sampling of old cards I picked up this afternoon (click to enlarge). Counter-clockwise from top left: records for 2 films in English, then other items in German, Spanish, Danish, Russian, and 2 in Hungarian.

For an engaging history of the library card catalog, see here. To see some creative ways of using "retired" library catalog cards, see here.

German, American, and Chinese Poems (Community)

I've walked passed the Goethe-Institut in Chinatown many times (see an earlier post), but usually I keep on walking. A few days ago, something caught my eye: these posters displaying German, American, and Chinese poems. These posters are part of "Time Shadows," an annual competition that features poems from each culture. The theme for 2010 is "Community."

This Chinese poem by a poet from Taiwan is entitled 望夫石 ("Husband-Gazing Stone"). The German translation states that this poem concerns "die Legende von der Ehefrau, die so lange nach ihrem verschollenen Ehemann Ausschau hielt, bis sie sich in einen Stein verwandelte" [the legend of a wife who kept watch for her missing husband for so long that she transformed into a stone]. You can read the poem and its English and German translations at this website.

I found this excerpt from the work of an American poet particularly interesting. This poem, entitled "Locals," reminds us that all of our ancestors ultimately come from "somewhere else," displacing whoever was there before. The poem offers an insightful commentary on the ever-shifting nature of  community and the constant migration of people over time and space. The final 2 stanzas in the original English text read as follows:

Bedouin-Brython-Algonquins; always there
before you; the original prior claim
that made your being anywhere intrusive.
There, doubtless, in Eden before Adam
wiped them out and settled in with Eve.

Whether at home or away, whether kids
playing or saying what they wanted,
or adults chatting, waiting for a bus,
or, in their well-tended graves, the contented dead,
there were always locals, and they were never us.

See this website for the entire poem in English, plus translations in Chinese and German.

For a poem from the "Time Shadows 2009" competition (the theme was "City Life"), see this earlier post or this website.

London: Sundry Items

Continuing my blog entries beyond DC, I include some things from another capital city: London.

Welcome sign at Gatwick Airport. Unusual choice of languages, among them Swedish, English, and (simplified) Mandarin Chinese. Not sure what those other two languages are.

A selection of newspapers in Bloomsbury. I see papers in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, and (perhaps) Arabic.

Elsewhere in London, some silly ethnic stereotyping. Posters on the walls of various tube stations feature celebrity chef Jaime Oliver promoting different "exotic" cuisines (French, Spanish, Italian).

In Southwark, a warning sign on one of the entrances into a mid-day RSC performance of "the Scottish play" (Macbeth) at the Globe. I don't know if this was intentional, but the adjective "gruesome" has been associated with the Scots origins (the Oxford English Dictionary, for instance, cites Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott as some of the earliest quotations). For what it's worth, the verb gruwe(n) does exist in Middle English and the word has even older Germanic origins.

On a side street near the British Library, I spotted this storefront sign. Nice choice for the business name - it signals how the establishment caters to "transvestites, transsexuals, and transgendered" clients (see the website).

This park sign provides many examples supporting the idea that the US and Britain are divided by a common language (click to see larger image). "Whilst" strikes me as a distinctly British usage. Note also "lead" (leash), [trash] "bins" [cans], and "busking" [performing in public places seeking for money - I don't see this term much in the US]. Of course the red "do not X" icons are universal - they work in any language.

I end with this photo I took on the tube (again, click to see larger image). I don't have much to say about it, other than saying I like this poem.

London: Churches and Museums

Various items from churches and museums in London.

This sign for the Chinese Church in London features a nicely stylized form of the Chinese word 華 (huá), which means "China" or "Chinese" in most contexts. Here, a "cross" (or Star of Bethlehem) motif is incorporated into the center of the character.

Near the church, in Chinatown, I saw this poster that teaches children the Pinyin romanization scheme for Chinese. Each sound in Mandarin is assigned a corresponding Roman letter. Most of the words chosen are simple, everyday ideas or objects: 大 (dà) = big, large; 土 (tǔ) = earth, dust. I'm confused by the image for for 你 (nǐ) - I always thought it just mean "you."

St. Dunstan in the West is a church that caters to the demographics of its congregation in a variety of ways. Here, an entrance sign asks visitors to pray for peace (in English, French, German, Russian, Greek, and Romanian). Although the church is Anglican, I noticed many (Greek and Romanian) Orthodox icons and motifs inside. The praying hands are, I suppose, German in origin, after Betende Hände by Albrecht Dürer (c. 1508).

All Hallows by the Tower isn't one of London's most famous churches but it's worth a visit (check out the crypt and the brass rubbing center). Some notable people associated with the church include William Penn (baptized here, 1644) John Quincy Adams (married here, 1797), and Thomas More (beheaded near here, 1535).

The crypt underneath the church allows you to view centuries of treasures. The medieval livery companies of London contributed funds to develop this space to display valued artifacts and documents. Appropriately, a French inscription reads "Conservez ce qu'ont vu vos peres" [Safeguard those things upon which your fathers have looked]. Why French? It's the language medieval guilds used in most of their administrative and civic documents.

There are maritime motifs all throughout the church itself (among other things, there's a Mariners Chapel). This heraldic device is the emblem of the old Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, which bore the Latin motto "Per Mare Ubique" [Everywhere By Sea]. What I find most curious is the use of sea horses as supporters for the shield device! Apparently sea horses do appear elsewhere in heraldic insignia but in more imaginative and stylized forms; see this website (scroll to "sea-horse") for other examples.

I end with this curious detail from a medieval comic strip (or "graphic novel") version of the Book of Revelations. This panel depicts Rev. 16:13-16, when the text describes "three unclean spirits like frogs" coming out of the mouth of the False Prophet, Dragon, and Beast. Read (and hear) more about this artwork, with larger image, at this Victoria and Albert Museum website.

Florence: Strange Stuff

This is my final entry about Florence - saving some of the best stuff for last!

Sign outside a door on the train into Italy. This looks to me like a really bad case of inter-linguistic "telephone" - the Italian was first translated into French, and then the French was used as the basis for the (pretty unintelligible) English translation.

A trilingual sign (Italian, English, Spanish) warns people not to buy counterfeit goods. The Italian and Spanish say "it's forbidden to buy fake merchandise or knock-offs (imitation items) from unlicensed vendors" but the English truncates things a bit. Note that "abusivi" doesn't mean "abusive" but rather "unauthorized."

An old clock inside the Duomo. It's a 24-hour clock in with hours as Roman numerals, plus the one (I) is in the 6 position and the hand moves counter-clockwise.

Hotel sign says "breakfast" in Italian, English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, and Japanese. A few diacritical marks are missing in the European languages (e.g. should read Frühstück, petit déjeuner and pequeno almoço) and the sign gives the romanized pronunciation of the Japanese characters 朝食 but overall this one is pretty good.

Lovely museum across the street. "Serial Killer" needs no translation, but "Jack lo Squartatore" [Jack the Ripper] does. (Why not "Giacomo lo Squartatore," I wonder?)

Taiwan Consulate Visit

For a variety of complex reasons, Taiwan does not have an official "embassy" in DC; instead, there's something called the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO). Today, I visited the Consulate Division today to do some business. Above, the entrance sign (note the American U. sign reflection in the background) - don't really have much to say other than I think this image looks cool.

A little bit about languages on US and Taiwan passports. It used to be the case that only English and French (for a long time the international language of diplomacy) were used on US passports, but a Bill Clinton-era decision added Spanish to the mix. The Taiwan passport uses Chinese and the the more recent global "lingua franca," English.

Here's a selection of the various US- and Taiwan-based publications in the waiting area (some in English, some bilingual, and Mandarin Chinese only).

One fun thing about Taiwanese visual media (newspapers, TV) is that a reader/viewer may be forced to scan text in many directions simultaneously; here, the text on left was in motion scrolling "up" (i.e., to be read from up to down); at bottom, static yellow test reads left to right, and the white text below was in motion scrolling right to left. Meanwhile, Arabic numerals and Roman letters read left to right.

One last item of interest on the wall: a poster bearing a poem about city life in Taipei (originally written in Chinese) is rendered into German and English translations, each by a local translator. As far as I could tell, the translations were perfectly fine (the poem itself didn't strike me as too complex).

Extraneoüs üse of ümlaüts

A few days ago, near McPherson Square Metro. Extraneoüs üse of ümlaüts in poster for "Yogen Früz" (frozen yogurt establishment). Here, the umlaut mark (i.e., double-dot above a letter) evokes certain vowels in Germanic languages, perhaps along the lines of "Häagen-Dazs" ice cream?

(Little bit of trivia: "Häagen-Dazs" is an invented name that does not actually exist in any Germanic language).

German Chinese Restaurant

December 31, 2009. I haven't posted anything in a while because of holiday travels (spent a few weeks in Europe). Before I resume my regular postings, I thought I'd share a particularly memorable experience: eating dinner in a Chinese restaurant in a small German village.

Here's a picture of what was on the table when we arrived: each setting included a quintessential German beer coaster and a napkin teaching Germans various Chinese phrases. Left hand column: "Guten Appetit" = 請您慢用 (qǐng nín màn yòng) - more literally, "please eat slowly." Note the German orthography here: "jon" = "yòng" since J = Y sound.

Our fortune cookies came with fortunes in 4 languages (English and German on one side, Dutch and French on the other).

Here's a picture of the spread. The duck, in foreground, was eine Haus-Spezialität (house specialty). Yum!

Eastern Bloc Posters and Photographs

More images from GW's Global Resources Center. Here, a Romanian poster bears the words "Goodbye Comrade." An informational pamphlet from this exhibit's 1999 manifestation has more on this particular poster.

Above, a German dissident poster, fall 1989. The chant "WIR sind das Volk" (WE are the people) eventually morphed into "Wir sind EIN Volk" (We are ONE people), expressing desire for the reunification of East and West.

Here, a Czech poster celebrates "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989; the subtitle apparently reads "it's already here."

The caption next to this poster in the exhibition reads "no caption necessary." Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

P.S. For related postings, see here and here.

Berlin Wall, Pieces of History

Global Resources Center, Gelman Library, George Washington University. An exit sign for the American sector of Berlin bears an inscription in four languages: English, Russian, French, and (in much smaller sized writing) German. English-language graffiti adds another layer of textual complexity.

P.S. The Global Resources Center at GW has organized a series of events to commemorate the Eastern Bloc revolutions of 1989. Other related DC resources: "Making the History of 1989," a website maintained by George Mason University in conjunction with the NEH, CHNM, and German Historical Institute; see also the German Embassy's "Freedom Without Walls" website and my previous post; see this posting too.

P.P.S. Here's a clean version of the sign above, from the display at the Newseum:

Berlin Wall, 20 Years Later

Pieces of the Berlin Wall, NMAH, November 2009. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. A few remnants of the wall now are scattered around DC. This NMAH display houses a few original fragments of the Berlin Wall within a concrete "replica" segment that bears the German word "Freiheit" (Freedom) as well as the English words "Torn Apart."

P.S. Large segments of the original Berlin Wall and a guard tower are on permanent display in the Newseum (see this online exhibit for more). DC is commemorating the Eastern Bloc revolutions of 1989 in a variety of ways; see my subsequent posts (here and here).

Chinatown: Vapiano

Say hello to the newest German-based Italian restaurant in Chinatown: Vapiano!

Vapiano's "gimmick" = a pasta bar where your order is cooked on the spot before your eyes. The sign reads 麵食 (noodle, pasta) 披薩 (pī sà = pizza) 酒吧 (bar), i.e. no attempt to render "Vapiano" phonetically.

A few notes: the restaurant chain is based in Germany and its website boosts locations in many countries. It's interesting to see that this establishment has done a better job with its use of Chinese than the banners at the Goethe-Institut a few blocks away.

P.S. The name "Vapiano" is apparently a compression of the two Italian words va + piano ("go slowly, take it slow"). Vapiano's UK website claims the name "Vapiano" comes from the Italian proverb "chi va piano va sano e va lontano," which  "translates as: people with a relaxed attitude live a long and healthy life."

A Missing Language

Yesterday I took a trip to the National Gallery of Art. I noticed that the museum provides guide maps in seven languages including English and (L, front to back) French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese. But the sign (R) only states that guides are available in six languages (i.e., Chinese is missing).

Was this sign produced before Chinese was added to the pantheon of guide map languages? Or is this discrepancy just another bureaucratic error?

Chinatown: Goethe-Institut

The Goethe-Institut takes the innovative strategy of alternating German and Chinese signs. This Chinese sign reads "German Cultural Center" ( 德國文化中心) but the textual layout requires you to read left to right, scanning vertically from the bottom to the top of the banner.

Strictly speaking, the characters should be reversed and rotated clockwise 90 degrees so they can be read from up to down along the banner.

Of course, the Germans are well-known for sloppiness and imprecision so these oversights aren't surprising.