Those German lessons are coming along well.
Incidentally, those of you who read my other project The Adventures of Sue and Kathryn may recognize a scene here. :3
When i was a kid, studying foreign languages was mostly done to learn creative insults.
Quite well! Such spunk, Selkie.
The translation needs to become a Crowning Moment of Funny on TVtropes. I’ve looked at it ten times now and I’m still laughing.
I’m finding Amanda’s reply even more hilarious, myself. Makes me wonder if she’s ever listened to Tim Noah (Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo).
The girls have something for everyone.
Or Slurms MacKenzie, the Party Worm (Futurama).
YES.
Ah, So Mari IS on a slow simmer.
Selkie doesn’t have the plurals issue in German? Weird
Not really that odd if it’s more of a speech impediment than a “pluralization thing”. German pluralizes differently.
Partially because shes learning it at an older more mentally-developed age than she learned english, partially because my german comes from Google Translate and I don’t want to mess with it too much. 10/90 split.
Don’t worry, Google Translate managed to mangle the german as hilariously as Selkie mangles pronouns. 🙂
Indeed. Google Translate is a nice idea, but it needs some serious work on the following:
Definitions. Spelling. Grammar. The appropriate gender case. *Maybe more, depending on the language.*
Still the oddities are a humorous setup that really does reflect what I have heard many other English speakers learning German do… so it works wonderfully!
mind translating what selkie actually said?
Good Evening. Thank you for the bringing of an evil child into my house. May your* feet smell like cheese for the next twenty years.
* ‘Ihre’ is singular formal (singular colloquial would be ‘deine’, plural would be ‘eure’) , like if she’s addressing only Andi.
Thank you!
What do you mean “When you were a kid”? I’m pretty sure most adults just want to swear in other languages.
Adults can usually get away with swearing in their native language.
There are times where you want the style of cursing someone out in another language. I myself call people dumkopf (SP?) at times. It’s nice to have that to fall back on as well.
To be entirely fair, that one’s more of an insult than an actual swear word. On the foreign language swearing and kids note, however…
The movie Aristocats manages to get away with a minor French cuss word. The milk truck driver says “Sapristi!” (Damn it!)
Selkie tries, in tensei.
Good job, Asuka!
I always wanted to learn German to curse people out right. So I never left that phase.
German insults are the best. They sound so……full of vitriol. Although I did manage to ward off a solicitor by simply saying “Nein, auf Wiedersehen!” I’m not fluent or anything. I know a few greetings, is all, but the confusion on their face was hilarious
*I know that it probably isn’t grammatically correct or anything. It was just the first thing that came to mind.
“German insults are the best. They sound so……full of vitriol.” You’ll enjoy this, if you haven’t seen it already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo0Hsx-yHiI
Grammar and spelling is correct
Just be careful if you do, most English curse words come from German. Granted, most people don’t LISTEN well enough to catch ’em (as demonstrated when a German co-worker translated what I really wanted to say to a client and I then had to translate it right back for the rest of the office…) but there are always those that do!
Yes, but you don’t even need to swear to swear in German. See the Tool song Die Eier von Satan. Also known as Satan’s Eggs. It sounds like a nazi war march, so much energy gets put into it and even has a crowd roaring in approval.
Translates into baked goods without eggs. Completely innocent song done up in German so it sounds horrible.
Wait, seriously? I’ve never looked up the translation to that song, yet I’ve heard it many many times.
Well played, Maynard. Well played…
Yep. What sounds like a war march is a dessert item. The recipe works as well, but you have to leave out the knifetip of turkish hash.
may i fix that german for you? 🙂
corectly it would be:
Guten Abend. Vielenn dank für das bringen eines bösen kindes in mein Haus,
Mögen ihre Füsse für die nächsten 20 Jahre wie Käse riechen.
Thanks!
20 would be written out as “zwanzig”, right?
Hello!
Some little mistakes:
“Vielen” is spelled with one “n”.
It’s “Dank”, not “dank”, “das Bringen” (“Bringen” is here a substantive) and “Kindes”, not “kindes”. Sorry, don’t know how to say this in English…
And “Füße” is spelled with a sharp “ß”, not with “ss”.
Also, the phrasing “für das Bringen eines bösen Kindes in mein Haus” sounds odd to me. I mean, it’s correct, I’m just not sure if I would say it like this. I think I would rather say: “Vielen Dank, dass sie ein böses Kind in mein Haus bringen” (Thank you that you bring an evil child into my home, literally translated – yes, my English is quite bad). Also, notice that “bringen” is here not “Bringen” – here it’s a verb. But as I said – “für das Bringen eines bösen Kindes in mein Haus” is not wrong. 🙂
And yes, “zwanzig” is correct. 😉
The basic problem here is that that particular language construct — germanic languages use gerunds differently.
What you’ve got translates to, roughly, “thank you for the bringing of an evil child into my home”, and yes, it sounds as off in German as that does in English. But it’s a fair mistake to make for a (mostly)-native English speaker.
The more natural phrasing would be (and please pardon my spelling, it’s been ages since my German classes) “Vielen dank das sie ein böses Kind in mein Haus gebracht haben”, which would translate literally into “thank you very much that you have brought an evil child into my house.”
*Slow clap* Yes, this is much less… odd. It has the proper flow to it. However, I would suggest a change in that ‘zu meinem’ would be better still.
‘zu meinem’ is the neutral masculine form for ‘to my’ when talking about the house, in this case. Granted, this is probably beyond the scope of what a comic needs for realism here… but it’s fun to consider!
The natural conversational version is not always the version a beginning student would know how to say. What’s the version that a beginner would be most likely to understand the pieces of when trying to put it together?
Yes.
Incorrect German works, though, since Selkie is only just learning the language – without the structured approach to grammar that “real” lessons bring.
Though if you want to be intentionally wrong, Dave, I suggest Selkie capitalize every single word. German capitalizes a lot more words than English, so Selkie might as well overdo it.
The corrected (and to me most natural sounding) version from a native speaker:
“Guten Abend. Vielen Dank, dass sie ein böses Kind in mein Haus gebracht haben. Mögen ihre Füße für die nächsten zwanzig Jahre nach Käse riechen.”
Also, turns out it is really hard to selkiefy a sentence in German, as we usually pluralize by adding an “e” or “en” depending on the case of the noun.
And a lot of verbs already end with an “en” or adding an “en” put them into another case. In both cases, trying to pluralize them like that sounds incredibly weird. And if you just add a single e, you sound like a clichée turkish immigrant.
“Guten Abend. Vielenn dank für das bringen eines bösen kindes in mein Haus,”
should be
“Guten Abend. Vielen Dank für das Bringen eines bösen Kindes in mein Haus.”
I’m a little confused about panel 2, I assume that is actually Todd asking his mum how She is dealing with “the Andi issue”, but the tail of the speech bubble is pointing down at her (instead of being either tailless or having the tail point off-stage). Probably a Beta Version® flub, just thought I’d point that out for you)
Woops, yep that’s a flub. Thanks!
At least she’s not learning the curse words first.
It’s *German*. It takes concentrated effort to say something that *doesn’t* sound like a curse word or a declaration of war in that language. 🙂
(I’m Dutch, I’m allowed to poke fun at my neighbors. We snuck that in as a small-print clause in the treaty)
Well, maybe you are allowed, as well as I am allowed to make fun of the dutch language… 😉 which I won’t right now, since I guess you know all the jokes about it 😉
But I’m surprised you think of german as harsh-sounding. I only ever heard native english speakers claim that… mostly because they know german only from nazi movies, I think… and everything sounds harsch when you sound it 😉
But I can assure you, I can say the most aweful german swearwords in my soft sweet female voice and you’ll think I’ll be declaring my love to you 😉
I don’t mean to say you said something really bad about german, but I’m always a little touchy when it comes to my mother language, I’m sure you understand 😉
damn… I meant “and everything sounds harsch when you shout it” 😉 That’s what happens when you add a last sentence in between 😉
….and I spelled “harsh” wrong, too, in this sentence… I like my “edit” buttons, you know 😉
That’s the feeling I get with French: A beautiful lady can still melt my heart when she softly whispers “Eat shit and die” in her mother language 😀
Hah! I just got a flashback to Friends…
“Fli-fla-flu-flu-flem… I speak French!”
-“No, Joey. Repeat after me: Je ”
“Je”
-“m’apelle”
“Flu-felle”
Permission gleefully granted, and rest assured I not only know most of them, I’ve used several. But I’m always up for learning more ways to poke fun at myself. 🙂
Looks like Grams is going to tear Andi a new one when little ears ain’t around.
Face it, Amanda. Given all the crap you heaped on her over the years, passive-aggressive snark and grudging tolerance is more than you had any right to expect — and don’t pretend for a moment that if the situation were reversed you wouldn’t be throwing a tantrum and refusing to allow “that fishie freak” into your home.
I wonder how Amanda would react if she learned Selkie was speaking in a real language.
The only problem with Selkie right now is she doesn’t realize Andi could take the snark as a reason why Amanda is a jerk to Selkie. Andi doesn’t know jack about Selkie, so for all she knows, Selkie could instigate Amanda. Not that Selkie knows how important first impressions are.
Well with Amanda showing a lot of rage issues, her well documented history, and Todd flat out telling her they hate each other, Andi would have to be excusing a lot to get to that. Besides, she’s known Todd for a long time and he was like Amanda for the same reasons. She had to have put up with some blow back.
Plus, if Andi has any brains whatsoever, she needs to keep such an opinion to herself if she wants even a fraction of positive dealings with Todd, Theo, and Mari. Any comment about maybe Selkie is an instigator might get the rage from any of those three. And there is nothing like the rage of protective parental figures.
It could easily be construed as, “Oh, this girl gives passive snark and attitude to Amanda, who is easily provoked.” and at that point, unless teachers and the orphanage caretakers get invovled, it’d be a lot of he said she said between Andi and Todd. If Amanda were to tell Andi that Selkie is the one who provokes her into rage, who’s to say Andi wouldn’t believe her?
I mean, we know that’s not true, but Andi doesn’t know that. She’d of course want to trust her daughter’s word over Selkie’s word. She wants to be supportive of Amanda. While she probably won’t say anything here, it’s not too wild to believe she might bring it up later.
Then again, she has read Amanda’s file. Still though, a parent never wants to believe their child is in the wrong. If she could cast blame on Selkie as an instigator to an already abused and temperamental child, I think Andi would trick herself into believing it wasn’t Amanda’s fault.
is that moment of andi-hair when selkie vaults over the armrest intentional?
if selkie wants a language that’s really, really good for cursing and calumny she should study russian. it’s unparalleled in that specialty.
From what I´m told, Russian profanity leans heavily towards the sexual – that is rather inappropriate for a child of that age to learn.
I read, long time back, that Hungarian was the best language to cuss in. Its curses were, at the same time, both the most profane AND the most blasphemous.
As a Latin student, I feel this is my duty …
Bona vesper. Propter ferentem mala puella in domum meum gratias tibi ago.
Pedes tui caseum vicentes annos oboleant.
*vicentibus annis
You’re giving me happy flashbacks to the time I first learned there was a Latin version of Winnie the Pooh in existence.
I seriously want a copy.
I had a wonderful exchange student come and stay her Junior Year Abroad with my family. Some kid in her class asked her how to say kindergarten in German. It took her weeks to recover. I thought we’d have to have her funny bone removed. She’s still chuckling.
Then I had a guy from France ask me how to say “Fiancée” in English. I told him there wasn’t one. Turns out there is, but no one has used it in about 200 years; “betrothed.”
But silliness aside, let’s learn our first five body parts in German:
Ring = ring
Finger = finger
Hand = hand
Arm = arm
Schulter = shoulder. O.k. So that isn’t spelled the same .. But you get the idea. English is just the worst of German and the worst of French mixed into a lovely amalgam, then refined by Oxford Deans, until it is what it is today. Then there is American.
The English language was carefully, carefully cobbled together by three blind dudes and a German dictionary. Sheldon of the Sheldon comic strip
Oh, I recognize that strip!
That’s from the fourth panel of strip 65!
“Frikken TRUFFLES! Frikken mushrooms! FRIKKEN CHOCOLATE!”
I love that she can get away with being rude cause she’s doing it in a different language! Haha! Best Strip Thus Far.
I keep seeing references to selkie learning swear words in german, am I missing something or was the comic changed?
Selkie hasn’t learned curse words in German officially, but she is taking German lessons from her next-door neighbor, Asuka Ikari.
After the recent reveal (to me) that Todd’s sister Marta is Hispanic and not Asian, I was wondering what Asuka is? Is she Japanese, part-Japanese and part-German, or something else?
Asuka Ikari is half Japanese and half German.
now what would be REALLY awesome… if ANDI understands German!!! (and calls her on the carpet for it, too!)
Whoa!… that is just a WEE bit of emotional-whiplash that Meri’s got… she went INSTANTLY from a Happy Grandma right down to a Darth-Grandma dark place in those thoughts… a pitch-black background… Todd’s was just a bright red background even when he was at his maddest at Andi in the Aquarium… i can’t imagine what Grandma “REALLY” want to do to Andi right about now…
I was thinking the same thing about Andi knowing German but I doubt she would be mad about what Selkie said anyway. After all, Andi knows they hate each other and Selkie didn’t say anything that bad anyway.
yeah, i know, but still… it WOULD be funny if she knew, right?
Well, I understand that Meri’s a bit angry with Andi. She was told that her grandchild was stillborn… and SEVEN YEARS LATER finds out it was a lie?
No, i get that… it’s just surprising to see that radical of an expression shift, even the FATHER of that “stillborn child” wasn’t THAT P.O.’ed… all bouncy and happy one instant then the next instant: barely restrained Freddy-Krugerness… that’s all. nothing else about those two panels…
Actually Todd was shown to be quite angry.
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie644/
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie645/
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie649/
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie667/
It’s not that hard to understand Mari’s reaction. Todd was prodding past her focus on Amanda to discuss the situation with Andi. It’s natural her expression might slip for a few moments.
Haven’t you known any women who went “Mama Bear”? That’s exactly what that was—except Grandmama Bears are very experienced at knowing how to hide their rage behind a happy face. I guarantee you only Todd saw it there—and the only reason he did is Mari felt safe showing him how she felt. She is justifiably outraged for both her son and grandaughters, but knows it is best not to show it in front of the kids and has great control hiding it.
Ooh, she mad.
Wow, seriously? Even grandma’s gonna dump on poor Andi? I’m kinda on Andi’s side on all of this. Poor girl got pregnant cause her boyfriend didn’t wear protection, then was forced into having said baby that neither she or Todd was ready for, then was yet again forced into giving the baby up by her mother then this poor girl who’s been threw so much lied to her boyfriend about the baby because what else was she suppose to do? Not once did anyone ask how she felt, what she wanted, what she thought was best, instead she’s been pressured and mentally abused by everyone into doing things she didn’t want. But now she’s trying, TRYING to make it right and no one is even giving her one leg to stand on. If any of them where in her shoes, how do you think they would have felt having their whole lives changed against their wills because no one listened to their needs. This is my take on it, and you’re free to interpret it any way you’d like but I feel for this poor girl who’s whole life seemed to be nothing but doing what she was told to do and never once being able to voice her wants and needs.
I think Grandma is going to be quicker to piece together the reasons why Andi did this in the first place – she’s got to have had some interaction with Andi’s mother over the years Andi & Todd were together.
But let’s not forget that this woman has also had an urn on the mantle for the last seven or eight years, containing the ashes of what she thought was her grandchild.
I think she’ll come around, eventually.
So she is blameless in all this? No, just very much no. You’re making excuses for her. She deserves all of what she’s getting. She kept the lie up for years. Almost a decade because she was being selfish. If she just lied for a few years, until she was out from under her mother’s thumb that would be one thing. But she kept it up because she felt like it and understood the truth would kill her relationship. Fear became selfishness.
And she wasn’t just trying to make things right, she was trying to use Amanda on some level to try and get Todd back. An understandable but still quite manipulative goal. Selfishness lead to manipulation.
She didn’t have to take things as far as she did. But she chose to do it. She get’s to deal with the consequences, and almost a decade of lying, there come heavy consequences. Selfishness and Manipulation turn into a living hell.
Todd should have worn protection, no doubt. But they were teenagers. He may have not bothered thinking past his own joy, but he was a teenager. He did not deserve being punished by thinking he wasn’t able to get there in time to be there when his daughter was born stillborn. That is something you put through your head your entire life. She did this to him and let him continue beating himself up because she was selfish and manipulative. As far as I’m concerned, the hell she’s going to get is not enough.
I’m not saying she’s blameless, just that she probably was weighted down mentally for a good chunk of her life. I don’t know, this all really hits close to home for me, my great grandmother had a child before she met my great grandfather and never told any of us about it. She died never telling us she had a child out of wedlock, it wasn’t until a few weeks later did she, my great aunt, had a private investigator locate her…but by that time it was too late, we missed out on having her in our lives and reading this, what Andi is going threw, it upsets me because it makes me wonder what my great grandma must have thought, what she must have gone threw…the burden of it all. All I’m saying is, don’t be so harsh on people until you understand what they’re going threw mentally and physically.
But you have to realize Andi isn’t your grandmother, and the situations are way different. When it comes down to it, Andi failed to meet a standard of decency when she flat out lied about the baby being dead. Some behaviors can’t be justified by ‘understanding what they’re going through’. Would you make the same argument for Amanda’s adoptive parents that dumped her?
I’m tired of arguing with you over this. You’re entitled to your opinion, as I am to mine. I respect you feel one way, just respect how I feel over this.
I don’t think Grandma is planning to dump on Andi. Not here, not now. As she says, she means to keep that discussion for later. But the conversation tonight may not go the way anyone plans.
I love the Sue & Kathryn scene on the TV – it tickles me that she might be watching one of the adventures we’re had the chance to read by now. =D
And also love Selkie using German for a greeting. I wonder if Andi knows enough (I doubt that) to get the insult at the end. XD