Remember When?

[IrishNero]

First, I lìved in Russia for awhile and speak fluent Russian. I would likely know by now if you were Russian. Your English sentence structure is so good that I had doubts whether you were a native English speaker, or not. It is probably due to the significant study to which you devote your time that your English is so well developed.

The cultural references I speak of are sayings that are uniquely American. They're probably more prominent in the later ST series, such as VOY and ENT vice earlier series like TOS or TNG. To be honest, I will need to listen for some firm examples of which I speak, but it sounds to me as if you understand.

 

[Kor]

^ How about "A Piece of the Action" as an American cultural reference.

Kor

 

[IrishNero]

Exactly. That is the kind of thing to which I'm referring. Other examples would be:

Referring to someone being 'mad.' In the US, this typically means that you're angry, whereas the literal translation is something akin to being 'mentally ill.'

"You're crazy' can be something positive, as in 'You are wild,' but telling a Korean that they're crazy can make them angry because they take the literal meaning, which is "You're mentally ill"

-Just two examples.

 

[Kilana2]

I can think of another example: Vic Fontaine´s 60ies Vegas slang and allusions.
Here it is: I don´t know if I would unterstand them without the dubbing. Say, watching such an episode without knowing what its content is about. That would be difficult.

I enjoy the discussions about translations of titles, the meaning of phrasings/sayings/puns in the literature forum with the authors and other fans.

Mostly it is nothing I can´t look up in the internet. Sometimes there are cultural references that are not common knowledge, you can´t even find them in any dictionary. That´s exciting!!!!! It needs some investigation.

The authors sometimes use SciFi terms in their novels. "Refresher" for bathroom.
"To get back dirtside" (= planetside). "Rest-and-sip" instead of "Bed-and-Breakfast".

 

[Kor]

Referring to someone being 'mad.' In the US, this typically means that you're angry, whereas the literal translation is something akin to being 'mentally ill.'

I think that as English casual usage has changed in the US in recent decades, the meaning of "angry" took over, and the "crazy" meaning became more obscure.
I can remember a number of times in TOS when the word "mad" was used to mean "crazy." But a youngster hearing Kirk say "Are you mad?" would probably misunderstand it.

Kor

 

[IrishNero]

That goes for many words. I guess that's how a language slow morphs over time.

 

[Kilana2]

We had a discussion in the literature forum about the German word "Sturm". It means storm, attack and passion (contextual).

Storming Heaven = Sturm auf den Himmel (attack) and not Sturm im Himmel (bad weather)

Someone asked about etymology and since when that German word had also the meaning "attack". I´m out of my depth here, as I´m not a linguist.

I remember Roberta Lincoln aboard Enterprise in Greg Cox Assignment Eternity. Her speech and turn of phrase seemed oddly out of time, at least from Kirk´s point of view.

 

[Kor]

^ The roots probably go very far back. On wiktionary (I know, maybe not the best resource), I have found a Proto-Indo-European source with the general meaning of "to rotate, swirl, twirl, move around."

The cognate English word "storm" can also either be used for a weather phenomenon, or a military assault.
It can also be used figuratively for a social tumult, or for quickly going somewhere in a hissyfit.

Kor

 

[Kilana2]

^ The roots probably go very far back. On wiktionary (I know, maybe not the best resource), I have found a Proto-Indo-European source with the general meaning of "to rotate, swirl, twirl, move around."

The cognate English word "storm" can also either be used to describe a weather phenomenon, or a military assault.
It can also be used figuratively.

Kor

In Austria "Sturm" is obviously a beverage (a kind of wine). I didn´t know that. But Austrian German is as different from "German" German like American English is from British English. Everyone is able to understand each other, but there are slight differences in grammar and local used set terms.

Reading one of the other threads I found an example: Americans use theater instead of cinema. Theatre is BE and means theater as place where they show stage plays. As someone from Europe I will always use the word cinema, but I can understand the difference from the context. I´m wondering if anybody (especially young people) goes to a theater these days to watch Shakespeare plays?