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A review by jstroem
Die schreckliche deutsche Sprache by Mark Twain, Kim Landgraf
4.0
"The awful German language"
Seing that German is my third language, I thoroughly enjoyed this. It gets four stars because I felt like Twain was very simple minded in some of his arguments (I do understand that this is comedy, but I'm a language nerd ok).
For example, the idea of long words. In German, you can put different words together to build new words. In English, you often use even MORE words inbetween to connect them. Yes, Rechtsschutzversicherungsunternehmen is a ridiculous word, but according to me, this function gives the language a creative side. Also, you can do basically the same in a lot of other languages (such as in Swedish, my mother tongue) and it's rather a case of English being afraid to put words together. Or at least that's my take on it.
Read this if you're at all interested in German, if you just started learning it or if it's your first language - it's hilarious. If you don't have any clue about German, you probably wouldn't understand much I'm afraid.
Seing that German is my third language, I thoroughly enjoyed this. It gets four stars because I felt like Twain was very simple minded in some of his arguments (I do understand that this is comedy, but I'm a language nerd ok).
For example, the idea of long words. In German, you can put different words together to build new words. In English, you often use even MORE words inbetween to connect them. Yes, Rechtsschutzversicherungsunternehmen is a ridiculous word, but according to me, this function gives the language a creative side. Also, you can do basically the same in a lot of other languages (such as in Swedish, my mother tongue) and it's rather a case of English being afraid to put words together. Or at least that's my take on it.
Read this if you're at all interested in German, if you just started learning it or if it's your first language - it's hilarious. If you don't have any clue about German, you probably wouldn't understand much I'm afraid.