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fancy language in dpreview news teasers - why?

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BIJ001 said:
René Schuster said:
except for reasons of politeness I think there is no rule here saying
posts have to be written in English, also schlagen wir mal kurz
zurück, damit "die anderen" auch mal das deppe Gefühl haben, nicht
alles oder auch gar nichts mitzukriegen, lol!
Click to expand...
Achtung! Andere dürften das auch mitkriegen!
Diese Gefahr wäre geringer, wenn wir uns auf meiner Muttersprache
(ungarisch) unterhielten ;-)
Warning! Other people might understand that!
Click to expand...
Hungarian, German and English - wow, wish I could do that!

"Achtung..." : Oh well, but I don´t think I said anything in my German reply I better had not or could not have said in English, too! Did it in German only to give our native English speakers here (those without any knowledge of German) just for a short moment an idea about how it feels if you only understand a few words or even nothing, what the OP mentioned in his post about the shift in the wording style of the teasers.

But -different to Rainer- I see this "new style" as a very welcome chance to learn a bit more of the English language, new words, new phrases, even if it means having to look up several words/phrases in every single post.

For that reason I usually run Leo Dictionary ( http://dict.leo.org/ende?lang=de&lp=ende ) in a second tab in Firefox when coming here to the forums.
BIJ001 said:
This danger could be diminished, if we wrote in my mother tongue
Hungarian ;-)
Click to expand...
Hungarian!? - Better not, lol; I could imagine if Hungarian was the official language here about 95% of all the dpreview members wouldn´t be able to post one single correct sentence! German might be difficult to learn, but I think Hungarian is even worse, lol! Thinking about it, I guess Magyar is the only Hungarian word I know!
BIJ001 said:
Nice holidays and a happy new year allerseits!
Click to expand...
Same to you, BIJ !

René
 
The same teacher taught us German and English and he taught us one thing about learning languages which is still true today :

To speak a foreign language properly you have to do it their way. Imitate until they understand you also.

Je te souhaite également de bonnes fêtes de fin d'année pour toi et les tiens.
 
zygh said:
I'm a not a native English speaker but I do not agree with the OP one
bit. I think the use of this "posh" (?!) language just makes the
reviews that much more enjoyable.
Click to expand...
I think "posh" is perhaps the wrong description, as is "fancy". This is ordinary colloquial English, as opposed to technical or scientific English.

Because it is so ordinary, it could be useful - occasionally - to non-native English speakers, to help with knowledge of expressions they would very likely encounter in a face-to-face conversation with a native speaker of the language.

These forums are in any case full of colloquial expressions, though often from a variety of regions of the world.
Regards,
Peter
 
Well, I'm no native-English speaker as well but I like reading the reviews here with all the 'fancy' words. It helps me improve my (very restricted) vocabulary. Also gotta love that British humour!
 
LEO's great, but not the gospel. I've never heard the expression 'new lease ON life' - but it does exist. Google gives it about half the number of hits as the more common 'new lease OF life'.

The German would be something like
  • neuen Auftrieb bekommen
  • Neustart
  • Auffrischung
  • etw. wieder in Schuss bringen
siehe http://www.dict.cc/englisch-deutsch/lease+of+life.html

Gruss
Nick

René Schuster wrote:
...
René Schuster said:
bei "lease on (nicht of) live" fand ich die Lösung erst ganz unten
auf der Seite in Form eines Links zu einem Forum:

http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed §Hdr=on&spellToler=on&search=lease+on+life&relink=on
Click to expand...
 
Hi porentief

have a look at this thread:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=26099257

This is the Sony folks complaining about the same issue. Guess if you're not a Nikon or Canon guy, you have to cope with it.

I don't like it either. I would accept it if it would be just to freshen up this dark site, but when I get a feeling these expressions are condescending (is that the right word?) then I'd say it's out of place.

Frohe Weihnacht - Merry Christmas - Joyeux Noël - Iyi Bayramlar !
--
KM 5 D + some fine lenses
 
René Schuster said:
Hungarian, German and English - wow, wish I could do that!
Click to expand...
In the school (including the university) we learned Russian: some memories remained.
Et je dois avouer que je parle un peu franc,ais aussi ;-)
René Schuster said:
"Achtung..." : Oh well, but I don´t think I said anything in my
German reply I better had not or could not have said in English, too!
Click to expand...
I do not think so either, I was just kidding ;-)

Guten Rutsch ins Neujahr; der Finger soll aber nicht vom Shutter wegrutschen ;-)
 
mancunian said:
LEO's great, but not the gospel. I've never heard the expression 'new
lease ON life' - but it does exist. Google gives it about half the
number of hits as the more common 'new lease OF life'.
Click to expand...
I never said Leo is the best, it is just that "I" use it more often than other online dictionaries.

Found the solution to the "on" vs "of" discussion in one of the Leo forums, "on" is used in American English, "of" in British English:

http://dict.leo.org/forum/viewUnsolvedquery.php?idThread=201702&idForum=2&lp=ende&lang=de
duesseldorfer said:
The German would be something like
  • neuen Auftrieb bekommen
  • Neustart
  • Auffrischung
  • etw. wieder in Schuss bringen
Click to expand...
here we could add the Leo translations:
  • neues Leben eingehaucht haben
  • zu einer Renaissance verholfen haben
  • neuen Nährboden geboten haben
  • etwas wiederaufleben lassen.
Gruß

René
 
... just ignoring the pieces that I don't like. Why didn't I think of that myself?

If you look at my original post closely you'll find out that I am talking about the news - and there the teasers especially. No word of reviews and no word of the forum talk.

News teasers - many of them in my inbox - find relevant information quick - makes any sense?
 
Hallo Rene!

erstmal danke für Deine nette und ausführliche Antwort. Ich stimme Dir ja im Grunde zu - spannend ist das schon in einem Forum mit allen Farbschattierungen und Sprachnuancen zu sein, und auch davon zu lernen. Im Forum selbst finde ich das ja auch gut - und auch da verwende ich den LEO und andere, um die eine oder andere Redewendung herauszubekommen.

Nicht so ganz glücklich bin ich halt bei den News. Anhand der anderen Kommentare denke ich inzwischen, dass ich diese Seite anders nutze als die Mehrheit. Ich habe die news als RSS abonniert, und zusammen mit heise, reuters und diversen branchenspezifischen feeds kommt da einfach eine Menge Zeugs zusätzlich zur email rein. Und da geht's mir halt drum schnell zu filtern - was interessiert mich und was nicht.

Naja - ist ja auch kein Drama soweit und die Mehrheit scheint ja glücklich damit zu sein!

Also - dann nochmal zurück - frohes Fest und guten Rutsch!
Rainer

PS: porentief - ja das kommt halt aus der Verlegenheit, immer wieder kreative und vor allem noch "freie" aliases zu finden ... und irgendwie ist mir das geblieben. "Jegliche Anspielungen auf lebende oder bereits verstorbene Werbebotschaften sind rein zufälliger Natur und weder beabsichtigt, noch billigend in Kauf genommen." :-)
René Schuster said:
porentief said:
Am I the only one noticing a shift in the wording style of dpreview's
news teasers?
I appreciate the RSS feed to not miss anything, but I do notice since
a while that for one the information content of the teaser is rather
minimal - ok I guess that's intentional to get one click through to
the page. But also the phrases used are (at least to me as a
non-native speaker) sometimes a bit puzzling - I can only guess what
the author had in mind when writing:
  • "...polish off the last of the mince pies..."
  • "Hardly the end of the world then but as ever Ricoh is right there
with a fix, good on them we say."
  • "...can the S8000fd be all things to all people?"
  • "Kudos to Ricoh for giving its existing cameras a new lease of
life ..."
No offence please - I appreciate this site and the work you guys put
into it, and I do realize that non-native English speakers are in a
minority here. I'm also more passively reading this site than
actively contributing, and that gives me even less right to criticize
  • so it's more intended as a little feedback from "the rest of us".
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Rainer
Click to expand...
except for reasons of politeness I think there is no rule here saying
posts have to be written in English, also schlagen wir mal kurz
zurück, damit "die anderen" auch mal das deppe Gefühl haben, nicht
alles oder auch gar nichts mitzukriegen, lol!

Der geringe information content der teasers - nun, ich denke, dafür
heissen sie teasers, den Leser neugierig machen, damit er
weiterclickt. Eben teasers. Natürlich lästig, wenn ich hoffe, in
einem teaser schon kurz und knapp die Hauptinfo der Nachricht
serviert zu bekommen, aber das ist ja eigentlich nicht gewollt. Wäre
zwar schön, aber...

Zu den puzzling phrases: Ich sehe das ein wenig anders; ich finde
gerade mir unbekannte Redewendungen oder auch slang-Ausdrücke sehr
interessant, alldieweil man meist genau DAS in der Schule nicht
gelernt hat. Ist doch eine prima Gelegenheit, in Sachen Englisch was
dazu zu lernen!
Klar, ist ganz schön lästig, wenn man in einem post 5 oder 6 Worte
oder Redewendungen nachschlagen muss (falls man sich nicht mit dem
ungefähren Sinn -und den kriegt man ja meist mit- zufrieden gibt).
Meist läuft bei mir in einem zweiten tab noch leo dictionary mit, um
mal schnell was nachzusehen, bei deinen beispielen war es "polish
off" und "lease of life" (die "mince pie" stell´ich mir so grauslich
vor, daß ich mir das Nachschlagen erspart habe, lol).
Polish off war easy:

http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed §Hdr=on&spellToler=on&search=polish+off&relink=on
bei "lease on (nicht of) live" fand ich die Lösung erst ganz unten
auf der Seite in Form eines Links zu einem Forum:

http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed §Hdr=on&spellToler=on&search=lease+on+life&relink=on
aber da war es dann sehr schön übersetzt:

http://dict.leo.org/forum/viewUnsolvedquery.php?idThread=209722&idForum=2&lp=ende&lang=de

So, bleibt mir nur noch -der Jahreszeit entsprechend- dir ein "Frohe
Weihnachten und Guten Rutsch" um die Ohren zu hauen, lol!

Gruß

René

PS: Wie kommt man auf "porentief"?! Riecht irgendwie so nach
Clearasil, lol!
Click to expand...
 
I find that the new style detracts from the news content and makes Dpreview sound amateur - I worry that we may soon see tabloid-style headlines. Please retain the professionalism in content and language that befits this excellent website!

Merry Xmas, Zalige Kerst, Gledelig Jul,

Laurens
 
LeRentier said:
LeRentier wrote:
You are very lucky because if all of these remarks were spoken you
might have to deal with bristolian, cockney and other accents.
Click to expand...
"... a little more Bow Bell." (sad reference to an SNL skit -more cowbell)

Can't say that Phil hails from the east side but do I think to eliminate personality and/or character from the talking points would be a disservice to the site.
LeRentier said:
Machines don't use local expressions and, in a country where people
serve green deserts with a blue taste it should also be obvious that
pies contain meat and no cherries.
Oh, how do you translate 'berliner luft' ?
Click to expand...
I'll gladly trade you two of this years Fruit Cake for one of last years mince meat pie. I give stink eye when given fruit cake. Dats not good grinds brah. Mince meat ono, brok da mout.

Lawrence
--

'Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach' --Albert Einstein

'No tree has branches so foolish as to fight amongst themselves' --The Ojibwa Indian
 
Camera and tech talk can get too serious at times, so it's nice to "spice" it up! Life is too short to be serious :)

As far as the phrases that may not be familiar to non-native speakers, there is a simple solution: you can easily find out what they mean with a Google search, or wiki search, or asking the fellow forumers.

--
Yet another camera blog, http://1001noisycameras.blogspot.com
 
digital_ray_of_light said:
As far as the phrases that may not be familiar to non-native speakers,
Click to expand...
Why not writing in Cockney dialect in the first place? It would be even more fun!

It might not be familiar to non-native speakers or non-South-GB speakers, but they might find those expressions in on-line and off-line dictionaries, or ask the fellow forumers.
 
BIJ001 said:
BIJ001 said:
As far as the phrases that may not be familiar to non-native speakers,
Click to expand...
Why not writing in Cockney dialect in the first place? It would be
even more fun!
It might not be familiar to non-native speakers or non-South-GB
speakers, but they might find those expressions in on-line and
off-line dictionaries, or ask the fellow forumers.
Click to expand...
I've listened to some Cockney talk, and find it fascinating, andnot all that hard to decipher...40 years ago.

But that's slang, not language, and what the OP is complaining about is pretty much standard usage.

--
Charlie Self
http://www.charlieselfonline.com
 
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