21 Apr
2000
21 Apr
'00
5:45 p.m.
Upon the date 01:32 PM 4/21/00 -0400, Roger Merchberger said something like:
Rumor has it that Sellam Ismail may have mentioned
these words:
-- snip rest of msg --
Very interesting Roger. I usually thought twice about using the "sign
language" whenever I was in Germany. But, if you really wanted Sellam to
see this rather informative message he may not. I believe he's still
unsubscribed.
Knowing him from his past presence on this list, I think you might want to
let him know about some of these cultural caveats lest he gets himself into
trouble ;-) He indicated he should be emailed at sellam(a)vintage.org.
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/
VCF 1.0e is about a week away and plans are rolling right along. It
should prove to be a smashing event. My German lessons are
progressing nicely and I can now ask for beer in German and get
directions to the nearest toilet. Next week I hope to be able to apologize
in German for vomiting on your shoes.
Well, a good quick way to practice once you get over there is have a few,
quick shots of Jaegermeister uninitiated... I don't care if the Deutche
translation is "Master Hunter" or something like that... I figured out it
should be more like "Volcano in Stomach" or somesuch... ;-)
'Tis too bad you're not making a pit-stop in Northern Michigan on your way
back -- I'd pay handsomly for a case of good, German Altbier... :-)
[[ Re: England ]]
We can go get one of those big, tall
beers at a local pub afterwards.
^^^^^
Erm... if you don't want to upset the locals, call it an "ale." ;-)
Technically, however, beer is made with hops as a bittering agent, ale is
made with spices other than hops, IIRC.
[[ Oh, and German "sign-language" is a bit different as well - the hand
sign with the thumb and index finger touching, making an 'O' with the three
remaining fingers extended and seperated generally used in the USA to mean
"O.K." means "asshole" in Germany... use the "thumbs-up"
which in the USA
is used to hitch a ride, in Germany means "Number one" / "First-rate"
/
"Top-Notch".
Also, Germans hand-count differently as well - they go by the
"highest-number finger" method, which means the number of fingers/digits
extended means nothing, only the "ordinal" of the highest number digit will
be counted.