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Edith
11th December 2006, 11:34 AM
Holland is plagued by an annoying phenomenon called Dunglish: English is used more and more often and since many people feel they are 100% fluent in English, strange mistakes show up because they don't bother to consult a dictionary. What do you think about this phrase?

'' Youth issues stand high on the political agenda of many countries".

To me, it sounds like a literal translation from Dutch. :eek:
Alan
11th December 2006, 11:38 AM
Seems okay to me :)

Dutch and English are both Germanic languages so many literal translations can be made. You'll know that better than me.
Edith
11th December 2006, 11:38 AM
Seems okay to me :)

Really? :o
que
11th December 2006, 11:42 AM
Yeah, sounds fine to me?

I think 'appears high on.." would sound better, but its not wrong
Edith
11th December 2006, 11:51 AM
Seems okay to me :)

Dutch and English are both Germanic languages so many literal translations can be made. You'll know that better than me.

True! But this also means things can get tricky. At home, I have got a little book on Dunglish called 'I always get my sin'. It's a compilation of mistakes (often hilarious ones!) made by Dutch businessmen while being abroad. 'I always get my sin' is a literal translation of 'Ik krijg altijd mijn zin', which means: 'I always get my way'. The Dutch word for 'sin' (English) is 'zonde'.
ValenciaSon
11th December 2006, 12:46 PM
Seems okay to me :)

Dutch and English are both Germanic languages so many literal translations can be made. You'll know that better than me.

Sounds real good to me 2
Jon Hundt
11th December 2006, 03:49 PM
we had some fun experiences with this when my Dutch wife moved with me to California. I remember she worked in a gift shop, but was looking for another job, so she told a customer "I'm walking the streets"; he turned tail and ran!

In American English "walking the streets" means working as a prostitute (street-walker) - not looking for a job...
Edith
11th December 2006, 04:59 PM
we had some fun experiences with this when my Dutch wife moved with me to California. I remember she worked in a gift shop, but was looking for another job, so she told a customer "I'm walking the streets"; he turned tail and ran!

In American English "walking the streets" means working as a prostitute (street-walker) - not looking for a job...

;D

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine who went to Australia to visit her sister. Somehow the conversation turned to children's cots. As you know, this is LEDIKANT in Dutch. She didn't know the English equivalent and said the word in Dutch. Well, you can imagine what the reaction was!!! :D

P.s.: Merriam-Webster's says 'cot' is British English. What is its American equivalent?

Main Entry: car&#183;ry-cot http://www.m-w.com/images/audio.gif (http://javascript<b></b>:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?carry_01.wav=carry-cot'))
Pronunciation: -"k&#228;t
Function: noun
British : a portable bed for an infant