I stumbled across this post from Deutsche Welle from April of last year and found it too excellent: A German linguist recommended that Germans stop using English words as a means of "peaceful protest" against the Bush administration's war against Iraq. German has incorporated lots of English terms: t-shirt, ticket, etc.; the alternatives suggested were mostly French words equally ingrained in German speech. I wonder if anyone followed this recommendation...could we group it under the same category as the mercifully brief "let's purge US English of French phrases" fad?
[I've filed this under "blunders," but I don't know that I really consider it a mistake--just hard to pitch to a broad audience as an important contribution to international politics. ]
Comments
That sounds like an excellent idea! I've also found myself thinking fondly of the Brazilian judge who has ruled that all US citizens entering Brazil must be fingerprinted. Not that I would like waiting in line on my way to Brazil, but I would be happy to be fingerprinted if it made fun of Bush.
Posted by: Libby at January 23, 2004 02:38 PM