A word we need in English

We bought two recumbent trikes recently. I now realise there is no word in English to describe a human-powered vehicle. We do talk about "bikes" but this is inexact. A bicycle by definition is a two wheeled vehicle. "Bike" is an informal way of saying "bicycle". Other European languages have words for human-powered vehicles. The French use "vélo"; the Dutch and people in the Rhineland use "fiets"; the Swiss Germans use "Velo", probably to show they are not Germans and the Danes use "cykel". Quite why there is no general english word is hard to decide. The Brits did invent the modern diamond framed bicycle, but it wasn't only bicycles. There were three and four wheeled human-powered vehicles being built in the 1880's.

Genglish as she is writ

Both of us are amused and at times irritated by the German use of the English language, especially when English is dropped into German sentences. Why for example should the Germans use "Story" instead of "Geschichte" which means the same thing, I shall never know.  When we visit our local shopping centre/mall we look at the the English terms in the shop windows and giggle. (I know we should get a life,  but…) This has been going on for years, but we came across a new term today in the window of a shoe and handbag shop: "College lookbook". What does it mean? *

*It turns out that "lookbook" is term from the world of fashion and means a catalogue with photographs. It is new to us both.

Then our local brewery is offering courses in home beer brewing. According to the German description the course offers breakfast to start, snacks during the day, instruction, six beer samples and you can take your volume of fermenting beer home with you. In addition there is a "Handout". I thought it was a goody bag similat to the kind of thing one gets as an attendee at the Oscar ceremony, but no, according to the my wife this is a term used at teachers' conferences to describe printed literature that is handed out.

Interesting free German Cycling Magazine

If you read or teach German it would  be worthwhile checking out "Fahrrad News" available free as a digital download from http://tinyurl.com/pkel28w, from App Store: http://tinyurl.com/myx2vhh or from Google play: http://tinyurl.com/m37fozy.

Surprisingly, the magazine is as good as any of those costing five or six Euros with a good mixture of reviews, travel tips and news of new products. The only giveaway is that about 90% of the cyclists shown in photographs and advertisements are wearing helmets.

I picked up a printed copy at one of those big shed bike shops on the edge of Mannheim where oddly enough there is a parking area for hundred cars or so, but only bike racks for about twenty bikes.

Cinema for the ears on Bavarian cycle routes

We came across an excellent idea at the tourist exhibition in Stuttgart. A regional tourist organisation in Bavaria has set up a series of points on some cycle routes where visitors can tune into an iPod type broadcast on local features (www.bayerisch-schwaben.de/lauschtour). Visitors use an app on their own mobile/cell phone or on a hired iPod to listen to a short documentary on, e.g. the meteor collision that formed the giant crater around Nördlingen, N of Augsburg. Unfortunately these broadcasts are only in German and in dialect at that. They are not much use to non German speakers. This idea could however be adopted in the UK in the Lake District, for example, with talks on Beatrix Potter, Wordsworth, Thirlmere and Arthur Ransome.

The annoyed public schoolboy

I am sorry if this piece sounds like the title of a John Le Carré novel, because it has actually been prompted by a article in our local Sunday newspaper "Sonntag Aktuell" which is distributed by our local daily newspaper, "Südhessen Morgen". The paper is published in Stuttgart and distributed all over SW Germany to the subscribers of a number of regional newspapers every Sunday. Unfortunately it is fashionable to dot one's German with English expressions these days, even if there are perfectly good German words already available, e.g. "die Story" for "die Geschichte". This is annoying but can be inadvertently amusing. There is community owned "green" electricity company (EWS) in Schönau (Black Forest). This organisation is spearheading an attempt to buy shares in a privately owned company - an E.ON subsidiary that has minority holdings in a number of communal utilities throughout Germany. The leading light in this campaign said recently in an interview "Cross-Border-Leasing is out, communal ownership is in", which is an excellent idea. Unfortunately this was reported in the "Sonntag Aktuell" as Cross-Boarder-Leasing, which rather spoilt the effect, at least for these two native speakers.