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German for Programmers

wickedchicken.github.io

81–90 of 266 posts

Re: German for Programmers

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use the English words like everyone else. It seems like there was an effort in the 80ies/90ies to have native German names for concepts in computer science, but today those just sound very dated. Datenfernübertragung died with the 56k Modem ;)

Blinkenlichten :P

That's not a word :P

You probably mean Blinklicht(er), actually used to describe flashing lights.

Re: German for Programmers

#82

> The genders of individual nouns and the grammatical rules to decline articles and adjectives using those genders constitute a shared set of rules that the sender and receiver both know. It may not approach the Shannon limit, but German gendered nouns form a weird, organically developed forward error correcting code. This might be a convoluted example, but imagine trying to hear the difference between Rat and Rad ov…

> Somehow, they tend to all place the noun in the same gender. That's not generally true, especially for German. I've heard "der Blog, das Blog," "die, das Email" "die, der, das Factory" … etc. Loan words undergo an integration process, which is more of a sociolinguistic concept, I guess. At the end of the integration process, the word becomes an integral part of the language, with a fixed gender. For example, "Manag…

What happens often here is that a word has a clear gender that just feels right to basically all germans. But an alternative gender gets used by a group that does not trust its language feel and instead relies on logic to derive the gender. Blog is a good example: It's obviously "Der Blog", but because some people think "blog is short for weblog, and log is neutral" they use "das Blog", though that just sounds wrong to everyone else.

But you're right: It's a consensus process and with time words can get completely integrated and then tend to have only one gender.

Re: German for Programmers

#83
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Duolingo has notes explaining the grammar as it introduces it, for the most part, and the grammar gets reasonably sophisticated by the end. Not really what I'd call complex nuances, but probably equivalent to a year or two of university study. What second-week German grammar concepts do you think it doesn't brush on?

Must have been an update, wasn't familiar with it. The last duolingo I used was just trying to get humans to solve its foreign-language reCaptcha material.

The desktop/webapp version has notes, and they're even pretty good. The mobile app doesn't, and IMO is mostly useful for rehearsing.

Re: German for Programmers

#84
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's true that people that want to understand you would understand you, even if you speak wrong, it's not something "not to worry about". Using the wrong gender or articles quickly gives a hint that you are some lowly educated factory worker living in Germany for 20 years and not caring to learn the language.

That's true but I'd say it's less about appearing lowly educated than about reinforcing your foreign-ness. A lot of Germans are to varying degrees prejudiced against foreigners, especially if you're brown or can be read as Turkish/Arabic or Eastern European. If you pass as white European you're more likely to be read as educated but still learning the language whereas otherwise your language problems are more likely…

It's also sometimes fun to play with this kind of prejudice: I'm from the UK, but if I'm having a bad language day, a bad hair day, or I'm wearing my work clothes, I get some people being very unfriendly, often rude, because I'm clearly Eastern European. As soon as it comes up that I'm from the UK, the reactions totally change.

Re: German for Programmers

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use the English words like everyone else. It seems like there was an effort in the 80ies/90ies to have native German names for concepts in computer science, but today those just sound very dated. Datenfernübertragung died with the 56k Modem ;)

I remember a uni class about data structures that we had to study with a german book... With things like "Keller" for the recursion base and "Halde" for the heap. Oh boy.

I don't see the problem with translating terms that have a strong visual component, especially if it's an introductory text. It also depends on how old the text is (fundamental concepts don't change much) and if the current nomenclature has already been established back then.

The term "Keller" BTW is not a bad translation of "stack" but an original German term by one of the inventors of the stack: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stapelspeicher#Geschichte

Re: German for Programmers

#86

The super-complicated LIFO example is, unfortunately, a contrived example: “Ich stimme dem Maler, der die Meinung, dass Rot keine Farbe ist, vertritt, zu.” This sentence can be rewritten in German just as in the English translation: “Ich stimme dem Maler zu, der die Meinung vertritt, dass Rot keine Farbe ist.”

Besides, it should be "keine Farbe sei"

“Ich stimme dem Maler zu, der meint, Rot sei keine Farbe.”

Re: German for Programmers

#87

Got excited when I read the title but. I speak fluent German - like a native. Only after 20 years in London I cannot participate in a hard- or software-related technical discussion in German, because I wasn't exposed to that milieu in a German-speaking environment. And so I excpected something that maybe explains how you might say "inversion of control" or "edge/perimiter network" or "public key cryptography" or "tie…

German here.

I've never heard German words for any concepts like that outside of university.

You'll usually get by just pronouncing those words a bit more German or replacing the ones that are very close to German words with the German one (e.g. cryptography -> Kryptographie but "public key cryptography" -> Public Key Kryptographie). If you want to "pass" while speaking German but need to use English jargon, just use a slight German accent and nobody will bat an eye.

Fun fact: most Latin-based English words work in German as long as you pronounce them like a German would, at worst you'll just sound a bit stilted or old-fashioned.

Re: German for Programmers

#88
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blinkenlichten :P

That's not a word :P You probably mean Blinklicht(er), actually used to describe flashing lights.

A lot of German techies would get the reference though.

Ironically the German word for "blinkenlichten" is "Blinkenlights":

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights_(Jargon)

Re: German for Programmers

#89

The super-complicated LIFO example is, unfortunately, a contrived example: “Ich stimme dem Maler, der die Meinung, dass Rot keine Farbe ist, vertritt, zu.” This sentence can be rewritten in German just as in the English translation: “Ich stimme dem Maler zu, der die Meinung vertritt, dass Rot keine Farbe ist.”

I think you can easily construct other examples, e.g. "Ich trete meine Rechte, die ich, Gott sei Dank, habe, ab."

As a german speaker this strikes me as wrong. I personally would have written that as "Ich trete meine Rechte, die ich Gott sei Dank habe, ab", or simplified as "Ich trete meine Rechte ab, die ich Gott sei Dank habe"

Re: German for Programmers

#90

Having lived in Germany for 3 years now, and managed to speak German to a half-decent level (B1/B2), I offer the following observations. 1. The genders don't matter nearly as much as non-speakers think they do. If you talk to your bank, it doesn't matter if you ask about "der Konto", "die Konto" or "das Konto" (the last is actually correct), you will be able to communicate quite fine. Unlike French, there are very fe…

Native German speaker: Most of the time we think it's just funny if you get the gender wrong, no harm done. As you said, there's very few instances where there are words changing meaning if you swap out the article. And even then, it's ususally obvious from context. (Der Schild => the shield; Das Schild => the sign). I do get the frustration though, I had to learn French in school and I'm currently learning Swedish (I'd consider their en and ett words something conceptually similar to the gender thing).

I also agree about mapping the prepositions, but I think that applies to learning other languages in general, or at elast, more than just the pairing German/English. I can only compare it to English => Swedish (I had not interest in learning French as a language, I was more trying to get a passing grade in it. And I do have to learn Swedish from the English perspective, because Duolongo doesn't offer a German => Swedish course), but it's the same thing

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