Ringbahn Fahren

I remember hearing from the student Fulbrighters in 2003 that some of them liked to get into the “Ringbahn” and just ride it all the way around Berlin. Now that the public transit now has some announcements in English, we hear the English language name for the “Ringbahn” – the “Circle Line.” To me, the “Circle Line” can only be in London. Oh well! On September 29 my friend who works for the Federal Armed Forces and I decided to take the plunge and ride all the way around the city on the circle line. Here an image from our Ringbahn ride: the Eastgate Mall in Marzahn, a brand new shopping center like many at “Knotenpunkten” (major public transit intersections). Marzahn is a high-rise apartment complex northeast of the city, known for its Socialist architecture: large, blocky buildings, often made of pre-fab concrete slabs (“Platten”). The overpass in the photo was featured in several scenes in “Du bist nicht allein,” a feature film directed by Bernd Böhlich, a graduate of the Academy for Film and Television “Konrad Wolf.” The film opened in cinemas this past summer, and I went to the premiere at the Kino International, the showcase cinema of the former East Germany, located in the Karl-Marx-Allee.

Working with LEO

On Sunday I translated a 3.5 page essay by Dresen into English. Aside from occasional document translations as a service to the community in Bowling Green, I haven’t translated longer texts since graduate school days. When I asked my housemate Arno if he had a dictionary, he suggested I also look online, which turned out to be a brilliant idea. I was able to test-drive LEO in the course of translating. With the Word document open on one side of my screen and LEO open on the other, I could input words and select the best equivalent. LEO is quicker than fumbling with paper, and generally offers lots of choices and some example phrases. But you do have to spend some time choosing the right equivalent – and not just select the first one. The same is true for using a traditional dictionary. As a graduate student, I conducted a study of inexpensive dictionaries and found that the biggest variables for the user’s ability to choose the right word equivalent are (1) familiarity with the dictionary’s symbols and abbreviations used in entries, and (2) taking the time to read through the entry and select the best equivalent. The online dictionary has a living element compared to its print version brothers: Some pages have a discussion board at the bottom, where translators from across the World Wide Web have helped each other tease out the best idiomatic equivalents, and this can be useful information to consider as well.

Find LEO at: http://dict.leo.org/

For those of you who were wondering why I don’t just use machine translation to translate the entire text, here’s an item I ran across while researching shoulder bags made by a designer here in Berlin. It’s got to be machine translation – no human being would do it this badly:

MILKBERLIN: The label and orange-colorends belt already for a long time the unmistakable registration number of the legendary Milkberlin bags became. Durably and water resistantly they are ideal for the large city jungle. The coolen companions touched from tarpaulins and DEK-eastopenly in the 70s Style, with flowers or simply - the fantasy of the Bag designers seems to know thereby no borders. Who does not find the correct bag in the net curtain, can its favorite also in the Onlineshop select itself.

From: http://www.fashionmission.nl/Fashion-Accessories-Handbags-Milkberlin--0039250007.dfs

Karl May

Karl May (1842-1912) was one of the best-selling German authors of all time. He wrote cowboy-and-indian stories. Except that Karl May never set foot on US soil, and the movies based on his books were filmed in the former Yugoslavia, which has landscapes with a striking resemblance to the American West. Nevertheless, his stories of the adventures of Old Shatterhand and his faithful Indian friend Winnetou were convincing to generations. Last night I saw Der Schatz im Silbersee (Treasure at Silver Lake) at the Zeughauskino in the German Historical Museum. As Old Shatterhand described his decision to chase down the bad guys (loosely): “I wouldn’t do it for money or for fame, but because it is the right thing to do, in the pursuit of justice.” The Karl May’s work is so popular even today that his stories are performed on outdoor stages all summer long in places like Bad Segeberg, Radebeul and Rathen. If I want to see Der Schatz im Silbersee live in just a couple of weeks, I can do so in Rathen September 12.

Last year I stopped in Radebeul with my May term group, where we visited a wild west town and talked with a real Cree Indian who had been invited to create rock art for the festival. http://www.karl-may-fest.de/Programm/Programm+2007.html
Especially well-known are the open air performances in Bad Segeberg:
http://www.karl-may-spiele.de/frontend/startseite.php

A Room with a View

Yesterday I moved into new quarters in Berlin, a room overlooking one of the most picturesque courtyards in Mitte. When I discovered this courtyard a few years ago on one of my Berlin walks, I was enchanted. You pass into the courtyard from a busy street frequented by tourists, and enjoy the quiet of a bricked space with little boutiques and a cafe in double-level buildings (a “Remise”). On one side, an occupied house with its anarchic graffiti on the walls, and towards the back a taller building with some windows having “French balconies.” A good friend who teaches at the Kunsthochschule Weissensee came from Potsdam in her car to help me make the move with my two suitcases and various totes. We had lunch in the courtyard café afterwards, and I realized that if you sit still and listen – whether in the courtyard or in my room, you can feel the subway rumbling through underneath. In the afternoon I picked up the bike that a good friend in Bielefeld had brought to Berlin for me and took it to a bike shop to have the brakes adjusted. My neighbor the video artist cooked dinner in the evening and lent me bedding and towels. I would love to see the view from my window with snowflakes drifting across it.