Hey, I just passed it along because it was suggested that one must have a sense
of humor about these things. My French is primitive, my Italian is better, my
Spanish is hack, but I'm best at German so...
"Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he says.
becomes
"Entschuldigung, können Sie Deutsch sprechen?"
(Sorry, I don't know how to enter the lower left quotation mark on a sparc.)
But I wouldn't say that; instead I would say:
"Entschuldigung, sprechen Sie Deutsch?"
Andrea
-- Andrea Vine Sun Internet Mail Server i18n architect avine@eng.sun.com Remember: stressed is desserts spelled backwards.Hart, Edwin F. wrote: > > Although English is the language of the US, the pronunciation of English is > different in different regions of the country. Each of us has had at least > one problem understanding someone who came from a different region of the > country. > > Another note. > I was not reading this particular discussion. Was the point that one could > write foreign (non-English) languages (in ASCII) without accents and still > be understandable? I read the story about the Swiss asking a question in > four languages without a problem understanding the situation. However, > after the second reading, I observed that two characters were missing > accents: the "c" in "français", and the "n" in "español". The leading > inverted question mark was also missing from the Spanish question. These > characters are all in Latin-1, so I was surprised that they were omitted. > (I was even more surprised that I observed that they were missing.) : ) > To get the text correct, are there any other accents that need to be added? > > Thanks, > Ed Hart > > Edwin F. Hart > Applied Physics Laboratory > 11100 Johns Hopkins Road > Laurel, MD 20723-6099 > +1-240-228-6926 (from Washington, DC area) > +1-443-778-6926 (from Baltimore area) > +1-240-228-1093 (fax) > edwin.hart@jhuapl.edu <mailto:edwin.hart@jhuapl.edu> > > Out of Luck > > A Swiss guy, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two > Americans are waiting. > > "Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he says. > The two Americans just stare at him. > > "Excusez-moi, parlez vous français?" > The two continue to stare. > > "Parlare italiano?" > No response. > > "¿Hablan ustedes español?" > Still nothing. > > The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted. > > The first American turns to the second and says, "Y'know, maybe we should > learn a foreign language..." > > "Why?" says the other, "That guy knew four languages, and it didn't do him > any good."
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