die Übersetzung (the translation)

We have had our household goods for nearly a month now. We have had Internet installed for over a week. However, we are still without television. The first time the Deutsch Telekom gentlemen were here they were unsuccessful at getting the cable to work correctly on the TV. They returned a second time and came to the conclusion that it is not their problem because the cable connection is working….and it is our TV that is “broken”.

Sadly, they are right. If we connect the cable set-up to the 15 inch, $99, Walmart-special, TV we can watch perfect cable…in German. When we connect the big, expensive, TV we get nothing! After hours of researching (is it a HDMI issue? PAL conversion problem? Do we even want to watch TV again? Do we have to buy a European television too?) we settled on ordering a converter from Amazon. Hopefully we will actually have our hands on it in 60-90 days!

All these headaches lead us to the fun discoveries in the electronics department of the local department store. Without television, we figured we would start watching movies in German with English subtitles. We bought a region-free DVD player and then headed to the movie section.

The covers of the movies are generally the same as in the US. It was “Little Fockers” that tipped me off to differences in translation. An entire three weeks of Intensive German classes means that I can actually understand every single word of the title of “Little Fockers”! Yeah!! However, it definitely doesn’t translate directly.

Joe and I wandered around all the movies and laughed at the titles that got lost in translation. “Money Pit” is my favorite! The German title of “The Dilemma” should have some familiar words too!! Check out these beauties below….

Movie Cover

German Title

Translation

English Title

     Meine Frau, unsere  Kinder, und ich  My Wife, Our Kids, and I  Little Fockers
  Mein Schatz, unsere Familie und ich My Sweetie, Our Families and I Four Christmases
  Freundschaftplus Friendship Plus Friends with Benefits
   Jungfrau(40), männlich, sucht…  Virgin (40), male, searches…  The 40 Year Old Virgin
   Geschenkt ist noch zu teuer  Gift is still too expensive  Money Pit
   Wenn Liebe  so einfach wäre  If love would be so simple  It’s Complicated
    Zeiten des Aufruhrs  Times of turmoil  Revolutionary Road
   Dickste Freunde  The Thickest Friends  The Dilemma