For a couple of years now, the german radio station SWR3 (SüdWestdeutscherRundfunk Channel 3) broadcastes a show called ``Der SWR3 Swedis-Kurs für Angefangenen und Fortgesrittenen'' thereby teaching the Germans how to speak ``Swedish.'' The expressions, however, have more or less nothing to do with Swedish (as I know/speak it). However, by using the swedish character ``å'' they think (I guess) it (at least) looks like genuine Swedish. I'm often confronted with German collegues or even strangers who, after they get to know I'm a genuine blond, blue-eyed swede -- I am! --, engage me in a dialogue which typically looks something like this:


Weisst Du was Wattestäbchen heisst auf schwedisch? -- Do you know what Q-tips are called in Swedish?
Nein?? -- No??
Ohre Bohre... hahahahahaha -- (Something like:) ``Ear-e Drill-e''... < big (German) laugh >
??? -- ???

In fact there is, to my knowledge, a similar kind of joke floating around in some parts of Sweden -- to us, there is a kind of phonological similarity between the German words ``Messerschmitt'' and ``Besserwisser''. I'm not sure whether this one is funny for an English speaking person (just got a reaction from an american friend who assured me that this is not funny to her!) -- judge yourself:

Two (male) persons meet, and one says to the other:
- You are such a Messerschmitt!
- Eeeeh???
- Right, you are a genuine Messerschmitt!!
- What do you mean by that?
- You always know everything better!
- ... aah! You mean Besserwisser!
- ... There you are -- again!

Recently I got two american jokes which goes in the same direction. The two (``german'') words seemes to sound like real german for americans. They are not very funny -- that is, they don't sound very german -- to me!

two americans meet:
Do you know the german word for bra?
???
Stopsemfromfloppin!

two americans meet:
Do you know the german word for constipation?
???
Farfrompoopin!

The real reason why Sweden is not joining the Euro...

whatch out for the false Euro...

The curse of Machine Translation: Glücksautomaten -> lucky pig tomatoes

The menza (refectory) here at the campus serves food from different parts of the world since a while. Today, the ball was in Togos court. The food is normally accompanied by an information about the country where one can read about population, religion etc. Also, the recepie of the dish is presented. I thought that his traditional Togo-ian way of cooking is worth a couple of seconds:
"Attiele Aux Carpes"
Ingrediences for 5 Persons:
600 gr attieke, flour, vegetable oil, onion, tomatoes, sweet pepper, chili, ginger, salt, fresh fish.
Preparation:
Mix the maniok with oil and work in the oil in the maniok until the oil has been absorbed by the maniok. Then, heat carefully heat the mass 5 minutes in the microwave (!) ...

The other day my family had dinner and talked about how it is to be deaf or blind. My oldests daughter (8 years) reflected a while and said: "maybe they see a colour that doesn't exist..."

Wechseln ist, wie so oft im Leben, die bessere Strategie. (babelfish sez: Changes is, like so often in the life, the better strategy - Gero von Randow, Ziegen wählen statt Schafe zählen DIE ZEIT 09.12.2004 Nr.51