[Mageia-dev] "Hear, hear" usage

Fri Jan 13 13:35:28 CET 2012

Hi Oliver, *,
+
+On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 9:01 AM, Oliver Burger
+<oliver.bgr at googlemail.com> wrote:
+> Am Donnerstag, 12. Januar 2012, 22:43:54 schrieb Florian Hubold:
+>> > On 01/12/2012 04:17 PM, Johnny A. Solbu wrote:
+>> >> As far as I understand, that is a common British thing to do when one
+>> >> agree
+>> >> with the current speaker.
+
+Thanks for the explanation :-)
+
+>> Well, directly translating this phrase into german, it has another meaning.
+>> Used in colloquial language, it means something like ironically saying
+>> "well, look at that" or "enough with this nonsense" but also in the form
+>> Johnny used it.
+> You must have a different dirct translation than me. Directly translating it
+> into German makes no sense at all :D
+
+It does make sense, as the exact same phrase "Hört, hört" exists in
+German - but just like Florian I know the double-meaning that can both
+mean full approval (as the English meaning), but is also used as "look
+at that guy, he is deconstructing his own argumentation/he is making a
+fool of himself/the topic".
+The double-meaning probably is depending on geographical region. (like
+for example "Matz" in regional dialect - I know it as a (positive)
+term for a self-confident, boldfaced/fresh/cheeky girl, while just
+50km westwards it is a rather harsh curse word for a "mean/angry
+bitch")
+
+> But you should never translate anything directly between languages...
+
+Sure - but if you don't understand a phrase/saying, all you can do is
+to directly translate it and see whether you can make sense of it. In
+this case it was ambiguous (at least for me), as the tone of the
+voice, the other sources of information were missing.
+It's like the phrase "Der Lehrer sagt mein Vater ist ein Esel" -
+without the missing punctuation this sentence can have two rather
+different meanings. No problem when you hear it, but when you read it
+like that you can only guess who called whom a donkey.
+
+And that was my point - what works perfectly fine in real life, in
+direct interaction - might not work as well when you only have text
+written on screen - so thanks again for clearing up the dust from this
+expression :-)
+
+ciao
+Christian
+