Favorite quotes
POSTED BY: Persephone
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 4, 2002 01:52
VIEWED: 17587
PAGE 5 of 6
Quote:
Originally posted by HotForKaylee:Quote:
Originally posted by Idefix:
and don't let me start on the "du" and "sie" issue. I was so relieved when John Sheridan and Delenn (Babylon 5) startet to say "du" instead of the very formal "sie" about the EP they were engaged.
After reading your posts I was gonna ask if you have watched B5. This really is a great show.
Your English writing skills are very commendable and was hoping you could explain what "du" and "sie" mean in a relationship.
Also, you have to realize that some of the quotes you say aren't funny actually are in a weird American sense of humor.
Thanks
ok, first about B5: I have watched it (most of it in german and later on lots of it in english too)and it is a great show but it is really not my favorite. I'm no fan of the 'big' stories and the 'big' heroes. I love the 'normal' people and their way of being heroes every day. and so B5 is just not my kind of story being about some guys saving the univers and all. I love it if they have to save themselves more. like Farscape and Firefly. and that doesn't mean that they can't do something great here and here but I do like it more when it's about the people first and their great deeds second.
now about the "du" and "sie" issue in german: if I meet someone in a store or on the street and I don't know the guy I'll have to say "sie" to him to not offend him by beeing too familiar with a stranger. if it is an adult respactable looking person at least. if it is a child I'll say "du" as children are always spoken to in that way. if you meet someone in a discothek and they are about your own age and you want to lear to know them you'd say "du" from the start, or you try to not say any of them at all. that's quite common practice to simply avoid the situation if you'r enot sure yet. if the person you meet is in some way in a community you belong to. for example you do some kind of sports for a hobby and you meet them because it's their hobby too. it's quite 'safe' to say "du" if they're not too much older than you are. generally older people, people you have business with and people you want to show respect to are called "sie" people you're friends with, are called "du". if you call them by their given name you also call them "du". if you call them Mr Smith and maybe would add a sir at the end of the sentence, than you should go for the "sie". it's something of a feeling you get when to say one of them and the "du" always projects friendliness but could be interpreted as disrespect whereas the "sie" shows respect but could be interpreted as eather you being too stiff or you wantig nothing to do with the other person. if you call someone "sie" after kissing them it would seem too odd to describe. ok if the kiss was a kiss like Inara exchanges with another lady or older gentleman at a ball like in 'shindig' it may be ok. on a ball like this all the people would say "sie" to each other, even the ones that go there together. maybe Inara and Atherton would call each other "sie", at least in public. I don't know all that much about that kind of people in germany. seems ok to me though. but people like Mal would call almost no one "sie". he'd stick out at the party because he'd call someone "du" by accident. he'd know that he'd have to say "sie" there but he'd forget from time to time because he isn't used to it.
that's how I see it at least.
I have to go now, my part-time-dog is wayting at my mum's place to be taken for a stroll. it' just before 8 in the morning here.
Idefix
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I am grateful that English does NOT have Ud.-formal and tu-personal. I am grateful that it does NOT have every frelling word genderized: I don't have to know if a book is male or female.
Now, here is a joke. You won't like it.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas.
m.
------------------------------------------------
"But ... not boring, like she made it sound." Wash, in ARIEL
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Quote:
Originally posted by Evans:
I am grateful that English does NOT have Ud.-formal and tu-personal. I am grateful that it does NOT have every frelling word genderized: I don't have to know if a book is male or female.
I'd be gratefull if german had none of it, too.
and a book is clearly neither female nor male (at least in german, the french would probably see it in a very different way but I don't know any french). so you see we have not only male chairs and female benches but also neuter books.
Quote:
Now, here is a joke. You won't like it.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas.
made me chuckl a bit. is it supposed to mean anything? one could try to interpret it in different ways... just kidding.
Idefix
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Idefix, that was a great summarization about Du/Sie! I think I will copy it and send it to my American friends - if you allow me to do so.
Just one addition: Back in Germany I worked in a big American computer company (two letters ;-)). There it was custom to use the first name with everybody, even the Country Manager. But there was no official custom to use Du or Sie. So it became really weird when you met a guy in suit, about 20 years older than you are, you had to say "Dieter" to him, but you didn't know if Du or Sie... We became very inventive in using passive sentences ;-)
By the way, to answer one of your earlier questions, I am German, but I am living in the US since 1.5 years now. I really like it! And English is really sooo much easier ('hey you!') ;-)
Merl
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Oh, forget to mention it: Mark Twain actually tried to learn German once and he wrote a hilarious article about the German language and why it is impossible to learn it. I really recommend that one - in English or German, its funny in both.
Merl
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I have to say that essay is awesome
It's called the "The Awful German Language"
and I found it here:
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html
-------------------------------------------------
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May you be in heaven an hour before
The Devil knows you’re dead.
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Sorry to bring this thread back on-topic, but here are a few more from "Our Mrs. Reynolds":
SAFFRON
But... you know I'm bequeathed to you...?
MAL
To-whubba-who?
...
SAFFRON
Are you gonna kill me?
MAL
What?! What kind of crappy planet is that?
(scoffs)
Kill you.
SAFFRON
In the maiden's home I heard talk of men who weren't pleased with their brides --
MAL
Well I ain't them! And don't you ever stand for that sort of thing. Someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill 'em right back!
Look, wife or no, you are no one's property to be tossed aside. You got the right same as anyone to live and try to kill people. I mean, you know... people that are...
(beat)
That's a dumb planet.
...
BOOK
If you take sexual advantage of her, you're going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.
MAL
What -- I am not... preacher, you got
a smutty mind!
BOOK
Perhaps I spoke out of turn.
MAL
You may perhaps I'm thinking!
BOOK
I apologize. I'll make her up a room in the
passenger dorm.
MAL
Good.
Book walks away and around the corner. A beat later, he pokes his head back around to say:
BOOK
The special hell.
(later)
ZOE
So you two were kissin'?
BOOK
Well. Isn't that... special? 
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Quote:
Originally posted by merlindrea:
Idefix, that was a great summarization about Du/Sie! I think I will copy it and send it to my American friends - if you allow me to do so.
sure. no problem.
Quote:
Originally posted by merlindrea:
Just one addition: Back in Germany I worked in a big American computer company (two letters ;-)). There it was custom to use the first name with everybody, even the Country Manager. But there was no official custom to use Du or Sie. So it became really weird when you met a guy in suit, about 20 years older than you are, you had to say "Dieter" to him, but you didn't know if Du or Sie... We became very inventive in using passive sentences ;-)
my friends company does it this way too. seems strange to me but it's logical if the company is originally from a country, where there is no "Sie" and "du" problem. his is originally from the UK I think.
mine does it a (for germans) simpler way. colleagues of about the same level you are are called "Dieter" and "Du" and boss-like tie-wearing guys on levels of appartment head or above are called "Herr Meier" and "Sie". but mine is an originally german company, so that's what one would expect.
but the thing with the passive sentences really gets to be an art sometimes when you're just not sure which form of address to use.
and back to the on topic things:
it's a great thread so far despite my babbling.
I find the little speach Mal gives Saffron about her right to try and kill people the most Mal-ish thing he ever said in so much words. that's really what defines his way of thinking and living, isn't it?
...and here some more from "Out of Gas"
KAYLEE: Catalyzer on the port compression coil blew. That's where the trouble started.
MAL: I need that in Captain Dummy-Talk, Kaylee.
INARA: I feel like maybe we should do something
about all the blood. I don't think it's something he should see when he wakes up.
JAYNE: He seen blood before. Lots of it.
INARA: Yes, I'm certain that's true, but sometimes it seems different when it's one's own blood.
JAYNE: Well I didn't shoot him, so don't look
at me for the scrubbin' of it.
INARA: No one's asking you to scrub anything. Although a bath wouldn't kill you.
JAYNE: Well, hey, you know. We'da been back first, except there's something wrong with Inara's shuttle. She done somethin' to it, Mal. Smells funny.
INARA: I told you, that's incense.
JAYNE: So you say.
... I simply love the ones where Jayne seems to be even dumber than he is.
Idefix
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Quote:
Originally posted by Idefix:
INARA: I feel like maybe we should do something about all the blood. I don't think it's something he should see when he wakes up.
This wasn't in the episode that I saw.
m.
------------------------------------------------
"But ... not boring, like she made it sound." Wash, in ARIEL
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...and I thought just I didn't get it.
I have it from the transcript here: http://firefly.shriftweb.org/scripts/105.shtml
and I thought it was too funny to miss, but then I couldn't remember any talk while Mal was waking up, and on the transcript there's even more of it. something about Zoe and Wash talking about the cake.
so now I watched it again, and there are bits and pieces of both conversations there but not enough to make any sense of it.
so maybe the transcripts aren't really transcripts (as in written down while watching the show) but really more shooting-scripts of the show. I don't know, I simply thought I'd share it here even if I couldn't remember it in the EP.
or maybe the sound in my copy is too bad, I can barely understand any of it, let alone all of the conversation.
...sorry if that was cheating *smile*.
Idefix
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