Spyke
feddit.de

ich_iel is the worst place to learn german, the running gag is to translate stuff from english literally while actively ignoring the context.

125

It has nothing to do with your friends throwing trash on the ground

1
WarmSodareply
lemm.ee

That honestly sounds like it would be hilarious.
Does it translate well back into English enough to get the joke?

1
feddit.de

Yes, ich_iel mostly just takes English words and translates them 1:1. Doesn't actually make sense in German, but that's part of the joke. If you translate it back to English 1:1 again you should understand it perfectly.

As a native German speaker I often had to translate ich_iel memes 1:1 to English first to understand them myself. Its basically English but in German.

7
Gorkreply
lemm.ee

The English idioms must be super confusing. We have some odd ones like "chop a tree down" followed immediately be "chop a tree up".

1
feddit.de

It's not even easy to understand ich_iel as a native speaker. They use an extreme form of internet slang only understood by a handful of people.

94
feddit.de

Sad that your translator has chosen "problem" instead of "issue".

28
PsychedSyreply
sh.itjust.works

Problems is in the word at least. I'm mostly confused by the rest of that word.

4
lemm.ee

A more direct or literal translation of Geschicklichkeit would probably be something like or skilledness or skillfulness. Other words with the -lichkeit ending that might be more familiar are Freundlichkeit (friendliness) and Brüderlichkeit (brotherliness)

(So there are actually two endings here. -lich is cognate to english -ly, though -ed can also work. -keit is equivalent to english -ness)

The base word, Geschick, translates to 'skill' on its own. The difference is that it strictly (edit: apparently not) behaves as a countable noun, as in you can have a number of skills, just as you can have a number of friends, of brothers, etc. It doesn't work when describing a quality or property someone may possess, so that's where the suffixes come in.

It's the difference between "there's a lot of friend here" and "there's a lot of friendliness here"

In English, skill is an exception to a rule. It can be used in both ways, without the help of suffixes. German, on the other hand, doesn't generally make that kind of exception in the interest of maintaining consistency. edit: seems this exception is actually a similarity between English and German, though perhaps German slightly prefers the longer form in cases such as this one.

The Germans are probably going to roast me for this but that's my understanding from just under 2 years of learning and a brief series of googles.

11
discuss.tchncs.de

countable verb

noun

I'm German and I just use whatever sounds better and "Geschicksproblem" would sound even more like you just had a stroke. Also it's kinda part of the meme to make words as long as possible because it's funny.

Geschick and Geschicklichkeit are pretty much synonymous. Maybe Geschicklichkeit suggests a bit more that the natural skill is enhanced by technique and training, but that's it.

8

Welp, I tried. German grammar eludes me again. Thanks for the info though! and for catching that error :)

6
FQQDreply
feddit.de

sounds about right. no idea why the spanish have a stroke every time they laugh

11

When you agree for a fifth time in German it's actually a cheeky way of saying you disagree. /S

7

I took German in High school… 25+ years ago. Never got fluent and never used it after that. Now I see the memes and find myself picking out words I remember to find the funny.

30
Magnetarreply
feddit.de

Ah, du kriegst es hin noch Deutsch zu lernen.

11
lemmy.world

It is, after all, the third most populous country on earth. It has a population larger than 52 people.

10

𝕯𝖎𝖊𝖘𝖊 𝕶𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖘𝖊𝖐𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝖓𝖚𝖓 𝕰𝖎𝖌𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖚𝖒 𝖉𝖊𝖗 𝕭𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖘𝖗𝖊𝖕𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖐 𝕯𝖊𝖚𝖙𝖘𝖈𝖍𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖉

13

Good that you chose this community, otherwise you'd have a request to change it to ich❌🇩🇪😂iel

12
kbin.social

I've seen those posts too, but can't speak German. What does "ich_iel" actually mean?

10
Datoriereply
lemmy.world

It’s “ich im echten Leben”, which is a literal translation of “me in real life”.

Basically it’s a meme community and the german version of me_irl.

31
lemm.ee

Actually, it's a direct translation of I_irl. It should really have been mich_iel or mir_iel.

-6

It's a bit more complicated. English uses me much more than German uses ich. Think of: It's me, you and me, ...

12

Which is kinda unfortunate. Mich_iel would've been much more on brand.

6
lemmy.ml

From what I looked up it means something like dude or mate. It's also used when expressing suprise? If native speaker has better insight I'd appreciate it.

15
FQQDreply
feddit.de

It's pretty much just "dude", vor talking with friends. Other widely used versions include "Digga" and "Bruder"

15
edricreply
lemm.ee

Omg you just can’t go say the d word. /s

8
Flumsyreply
feddit.de

The English "Yo" is a really good translation. You can use it to express surprise ("Alter! Wtf!" - "Yo! Wtf!") or to address someone ("Alter, was geht?" - "Yo, whats up?").

"Yo" really is the best translation I can think of.

11
Lileathreply
lemmy.blahaj.zone

The literal meaning is a really informal "old one" but can also mean "age" in another context. It is used exactly like you described.

9
DreamButtreply
lemmy.world

So Germans colloquially call each other "old man"? That's kinda hilarious

9

It is one way to do so, german youth also use several english terms or "Digga" which is a modified form of the word "Dicker" meaning fat. Although I am no linguist I would assume that Alter and Dicker were used in combination with Freund (friend) first since those are valid phrases that still are in use.

8

As much as English speakers call each other "male sibling" or "canine".

Technically correct, but no one makes that association in everyday language.

4