One of my German PhD students who is working abroad sent me something very interesting: There is an American guy, John Madison, who lived and worked for a while in Germany. And he wrote down his observations in his blog Nothing For Ungood. This term "Nothing For Ungood" is a German expression "Nichts fuer ungut", mostly used in Southern Germany when you want to indicate that you did not really mean an insult with what you just said...
Really brilliant reading! As a German who lived for a while abroad, I can fully appreciate John's observations of some of the quirks that he encountered in Germany. He even published this as a book.
1 comment:
Hi Reinhold
It could be worth mentioning that "noting for ungood" is a literal translation of "nichts für ungut", which does not really makes sense in English.
The correct translation would be "no offence".
Interesting though that the literal translation of "without" sounds similar strange.
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