Bloody Germans…
Well it’s 0812 and I have just got into work this morning. To be greeted by an extraordinary long email in GERMAN! For some strange reason on nearly every occasion an email I receive is in English.
The thing that really gets me is this is a reply to an email I sent which obviously was in English. So why the hell reply in a different language. So with the help of Babelfish I translated the email which sort of gave me an approximation of the email.
Just incase any of you out there are curious or sad enough to wonder where this term came from;
Babel was the city of Babylon, and here was where civilization started to make the Tower of Babel. This tower was supposed to be so high that it would reach heaven. However according to Genesis 11:1-9, God obviously didn’t want us invading his privacy and trespassing on his land. So he/she confounded the languages of all who were working on this tower so they could no longer understand each other. Hence the tower failed.
But the actual term Babel Fish is from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which comedy series written by Douglas Adams in 1952. It started as a radio show on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. The Babel Fish was an extremely improbable biological universal translator. It appears as a “small, yellow and leechlike” fish. When this fish is inserted into the ear canal it allows the person insane enough to insert a life fish into their ear to “instantly understand anything said… in any form of language.”
Anyway so not to sidetrack anymore I sent Mr. Everyone should speak German a reply back in English to say I wasn’t interested in his extortionately high advertising costs for his almost irrelevant website (It would be completely irrelevant if I hadn’t have wanted a text link from him). And guess what I got back in return???
Another bloody German language email if he can read my email in English at least have the courtesy of replying in the same language the message was sent. Anyway back to Babelfish and this is what the translation says;
Dear Mr. Asigno, the organization of the announcement is naturally released to you. They can use the advertising surfaces mentioned also for pure character indications. An employment one adServers is thus not compellingly emergency little.
Now WTF does that mean, I have no idea at all so that is someone else now added to my block email list!