Monthly Archives: November 2014

Snowplough, helicopter and curling parents

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In Sweden over-protective mums and dads who do their best to remove all the obstacles for their sprogs are known as “curling parents.” Curling is a winter sport that the Swedes are rather good at. This clip from the Vancouver Olympics which shows the track being cleared by two players with brushes illustrates where the image comes from.

I was thus interested to see this interview with the headteacher of St Paul’s School who refers to them as “snowplough parents.” You don’t often see snowploughs on the streets of London.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/29/snowplough-parents-risk-children-cope-with-failure-says-top-head?CMP=share_btn_fb

My pal Pia in Canada tells me that over there they are known as “helicopter parents.”

Janitors, house caretakers and super sleuths

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We’ve certainly been busy with Housing English this autumn. Last week Gary Watson and I had two lively days in Solna doing training sessions with the staff of the Signalisten municipal housing company. And today he’s in Lund with LKF. Here he is in the penthouse of the Park Hotel enjoying a birdseye view of Solna.

Gary in Solna

 

We’ve compiled an English- Swedish dictionary of housing words for our trainees. One word that has given us some interesting translation problems is “bovärd”. These are often the first point of contact with the municipal landlord. They are also the ones who carry out small repairs with plumbing and electrical matters.

The British word caretaker and the American janitor are a reasonable translations but don’t really cover the level of responsibility that a “bovärd” has. In addition to maintenance they are also responsible for liaising with contractors, ordering work and then assessing that it has been done correctly. We recommend the term “house caretaker.”

A house caretaker is also the eyes, ears and even nose of the landlord. By talking to tenants and being observant, they can soon detect is anything is amiss or suspicious. One of our Signalisten trainees told the group about how she had noticed an unusually high number of people visiting one particular apartment block in her area. Some of them seemed to be under the influence of something. Some nifty detective work enabled her to find out which flat they were visiting.

The police were informed, they did a stakeout and within a short time there was a raid. The lodger in the flat had been dealing drugs. He is now behind bars.

That house caretaker was a real Sherlock Holmes. I was just waiting for her to turn to Gary and say “Elementary, my dear Watson!”

Hero or villain? The headteacher that sent 152 schoolkids home

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When I was in Sundsvall last week doing my training sessions at SCA, one of the topics that came up as dress codes. Except for certain sectors, such as banking and insurance and politics (at times),  Swedes do not usually wear suits to work.

I’m told that when English visitors come to visit their Swedish counterparts, the men power-dress in suits and ties during the day and then change to jeans and a smart casual style in the evening. The Swedes do the opposite and like to wear a suit if they are going out to eat at a restaurant.

White tie, black tie, lounge, cocktail, business, business casual, smart casual: all the different dress codes out there can be very confusing. Employers and hosts are not always as clear as they ought to be on this topic and whole books have been written on the subject. If in doubt, over-dress is my motto. Nothing embarrassing than being badly under-dressed.

The British are more generally more formal than the Scandinavians. Starting from when we have to wear school uniform and address our teachers as Mr Jones or Ms Smith. None of this use of first names in the UK!

The story of Bradford headteacher, Elizabeth Churton, who sent 152 schoolkids home in one day because they were incorrectly dressed, made the headlines last week. She’s become a national hero is the eyes of some sectors of the public.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/the-headteacher-who-sent-home-152-pupils-in-a-day-explains-why-she-did-it-9847822.html

It would never happen in Sweden although I notice a sneaking admiration for the strictness of the UK school system.

Here for your amusement is a 1950s film showing how US high school kids should not dress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ham3ljTPmk

The boomers refuse to be “elderly”

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The boomers? They sound like the Clangers or some other characters from a kids TV show. Far from it. They are the baby boomers, those born during the Post WW2 baby boom between and 1946 and 1964.

That demographic group, after a life with considerable consumer power and influence in society, are now reaching retirement age. And they do not want to be referred to as “the elderly.”

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute who writing about ageing, whose papers we often proofread, are in agreement. The rather pejorative word “elderly” with its undertones of impoverishment and neediness is on the way out.

Boomers incidentally is also the name of a recent BBC comedy series. The working title was Grey Males! That sounds really exciting.

The ever-readable Bill Bryson’s memoir of his childhood in Des Moines, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, is a wonderful, very amusing account of a boomer childhood in the Mid-West.

One Swedish word, two meanings in English: rykte and säkerhet

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snowy sundsvall

I’ve just got back from two days in Sundsvall working as a language trainer with a group of European Works Council reps at SCA.

One issue that came up was Swedish words that have two different meanings in English. If you are thinking in Swedish and then translating, the danger is that you will choose the wrong one.

First rykte. This  means either rumour or reputation. Two very different things.

There’s a rumour going round that she will resign.

Forget the rumours! Let’s stick to the facts.

A rumour is an unsubstantiated story.

The company’s reputation was badly damaged by all the negative publicity.

The hotel has an excellent reputation.

Reputation is the commonly held opinion of a person, company etc. If you have a bad reputation, you are infamous or notorious!

Säkerhet has two meanings: safety and security. Here they are related to each other but different nevertheless. Safety concerns the prevention of accidents and injuries to people. Security concerns the prevention of theft and damage to property.

We take the safety of our workforce very seriously.

The regular safety rounds help to identify accident black spots.

There have been too many thefts. We need to improve security.

Guards patrol the perimeter to ensure maximum security.

Sometimes when translating we encounter sentences where both these meanings are implied by säkerhet. In this case, both the English words need to be used.

We have developed an action plan to increase safety and security at the factory.

 

 

 

 

Acker Bilk and the “Jazz Wars”

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Yesterday came the sad news that the great British jazz clarinetist, Acker Bilk, has gone to that great gig in the sky. Dapper Acker, with his trademark striped waistcoat , has been delighting audiences for over 60 years with his distinctive and melodious playing.

He also had the distinction in 1962 of being the first Brit to achieve a Number One hit  in the USA . His hauntingly beautiful instrumental, Stranger on the Shore,  originally written for his daughter Jenny but then used as the theme song for a TV series is known throughout the world.

Reading through anecdotes from those who met him, he sounds like a thoroughly nice chap. He was from the West Country and remained a local patriot. “Acker” is Devon slang for friend.

What is probably less known is that in 1960 Mr Bilk found himself in the middle of a riot at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival and had to try and pacify an army of rioting beatniks with his soothing sounds. I think of jazz fans as a rather sedate bunch. Sitting peacefully in Fasching or Stampen, stroking their goatee beards and digging a sax solo or two.

This was not the case in the early 60s. Be Bop had arrived from the US and its fans, the beatniks, passionately clutching their copies of work by Kerouac or Jean Paul Sartre, were a fundamentalist crowd who did not want to listen to trad jazz.  The fans of the two kinds of jazz clashed violently at Beaulieu and Lord Montague looked on in horror as his stately home became a battle ground.

The tabloid press had a field day. These “soapless and hopeless” hooligans were a threat to the fabric of British life.  They were as anathema to the establishment as the punk rockers were to be 25 years later. A fascinating chapter in British life. This amusing article tells the full story.

http://monkey-picks.blogspot.se/2013/06/beats-beatniks-and-beaulieu-jazz-riot.html

Hamster firing squad?

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There are many synonyms in English and it’s so important to choose the right word.

My son was telling me about a classmate who had an elderly and very ill hamster: “In the end they just had to have him executed.”

That gave me a bizarre mental image of a brave little rodent having a final cig before walking out to face the firing squad.

Executed is just not the right word there.  So what is?

Put down? Not bad but a bit too brutal. More appropriate for livestock.

Exterminated? It was a beloved family pet, not vermin.

Terminated? Not unless Arnie pulled the trigger.

Liquidated, eliminated or neutralized? Rather macho and most likely to be used in a spy film. “Mr Bond, the hamster  must be neutralised.”

Bumped off or wacked? Not unless the furry fellow was in the Mafia or the kingpin of a crime syndicate.

The right answer is of course, put to sleep. It’s gentle and respectful

We’ve all seen Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch. Several hundred times. That must be such a pig to translate subtitles for. It uses so many synonyms for dead. That’s the whole joke.

The hamster has popped his clogs/ is pushing up daisies/ has gone to the great gig in the sky etc etc. All wonderful expressions but not advisable when talking to a child who has just lost their dear little friend.

There we’d recommend: Hammy has passed away or the (rather cheesy) Hammy is with the angels now.

Hmmm! Hundreds of little  hamsters with wings running round a gigantic silver training wheel. No maybe not!