Categories: friends, words, translation, triumphs
Date: 23 August 2007 22:13:50
I have just returned from a pleasant evening spent with a friend cycling along the route of the old railway to a pub with a garden. What could be more satisfying on a balmy summer evening than some gentle exercise (it is, of course, flat all the way), a tasty meal and a good catching up session? This particular friend is a fellow translator and so a good deal of time is spent talking shop - crazy deadlines, demanding clients, peculiar texts, the peaks and troughs of work and other such subjects which need a good airing. Always particularly satisfying with someone who is in a very similar dinghy, trying to steer a straight course through the stormy waters of the treacherous oceans of translation with nary a port in sight for safe mooring. (I don't want to overdo it but a bit of solidarity occasionally does not go amiss...)
The German word for talking shop is “fachsimpeln” - and whenever I come across the word it always makes me smile. “Fach” can mean many things ranging from the simple word “subject” but is often used in compounds to convey the idea of expert or specialist. The “simpeln” bit is related to the word for simpleton. So the combination could be interpreted to mean something like “being idiotically keen on your subject in which you are a bit of an expert” - we might say geeky. But the German is not derogatory in the way that “geeky” would be. You will be pleased to know that my friend's combination of languages is not the same as mine - so we spare ourselves this level of “fachsimpeln” on the derivation of words. That joy, gentle reader, is reserved for you.
For those more interested in the subject of food than words - I had chicken curry washed down with a long glass of Pimms. Delicious.
Advance warning: take cover. There could be more blackberry recipes coming up -I think the cold is trying to make a comeback.
Edit: to the person who found me by googling "blackberry vinegar" - come back and share the recipe, feel free to talk shop. Don't be deterred by all this wittering about words. (Hey...that rhymes...)