her german is almost accent free
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jones-79 — 18 years ago(September 17, 2007 05:23 AM)
Ms. Chalke might be quite fluent in German (can't tell from the few lines in Scrubs), but accent free she's not (kinda hard to understand actually), and she makes mistakes even on screen. You would think they'd double check those lines.
And yeah, German and English are Germanic languages. Whoopie. Doesn't make one of them redundant. If you don't need another language, good for you. -
flaviabrowne — 18 years ago(September 23, 2007 12:50 AM)
well i'm from australia but have my family is from7ec germany. i learn german, not because i have to, but because it gives me a link with my past that i would not have if i just spoke english.
i've been to germany 3 times (a big effort considering i'm 16) and being able to speak to my relatives in their mother tongue is something that i find really cool. i mean, they all speak english, but it's not the same!
to say that german and english are "pretty much the same" is completely stupid and devoid of any thought. i havent' been learning the language for 6 years for nothing. it's a beep hard language for those learning it. i think it's great that someone like sarah chalke would learn it, for the same kinds of reasons that i did.
people learn languages for all kinds of reasons. people may have preconceptions about german, but i think it's a great language! i would like to think that people born in english speaking countries would extend the same courtesy to those born in non-english speaking countries by learning a second language.
we expect them to learn english, but somehow it doesn't work back the other way.
well, at least that's what it's like in australia!
so, deutschland! viele, viele schoene grusse aus australien!
bad grammar makes me [sic.] -
Conney — 18 years ago(September 27, 2007 04:40 PM)
i think her german is great. i'm german and she did a perfect job. i was pretty stunned by the "schnitzel" sentence.
her german was much better than the germans' german.
their german was not understandable.
and btw, sarah chalke rocks!
Conney -
ykickamoocow — 18 years ago(January 09, 2008 06:34 AM)
I would love to learn German (its a great language) but i just dont have the time. I can however say a16d0few phrases but they wouldnt be at all useful in conversation. All i can say in German is "I am a" then i drop in another random German word.
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kugayama — 18 years ago(February 13, 2008 02:06 AM)
Yep, "Alias" is a good example - I had the feeling that Jennifer Garner put a lot of effort in her German (and French) lines but it was far from fluent or accent free (which it was supposed to be according to the plot - a CIA agent posing as a German person in front of "real" b68Germans). However, the "real" Germans in Alias usually spoke German a lot worse than Jennifer, sometimes not understandable at all.
Same in Scrubs: Sarah's German is definitely not accent free but the two "Germans" speak a lot worse.
"i'm looking for the magic"
Tobias Fncke -
definitely_maybe-1 — 18 years ago(March 17, 2008 08:32 AM)
hello there everybody.
first of all, i am german. second of all, i have studied lunguistics. so: english is not at all similar to german. the two languages are related, but there is no direct connection, really.
sarah's german is amazingly good, my boyfriend is british and his is amazing as well, but when she speaks you can tell that shes been taught the language since she was little.
i checked out the supposedly german guy from that episode (season 2?) and fou16d0nd out that hes danish, not german. so hes just imitating, it would sound just the same if i tried to talk danish!
wow, my first post ever. -
inblooom-1 — 18 years ago(March 26, 2008 09:13 PM)
i hate it when imdb board turn into 'blah blah look how much i know' competitions. i heard that english isn't derived from one language but many european languages, many of which are derived from latin. now i'm not proclaiming this to be correct, just what i heard.
in any case, who cares how good her german was on scrubs, she made a good effort and it was for comedic effect, not to prove her knowledge of the language. so i congratulate her for having a go
Sweets, you couldn't ignore me if you tried. -
Algemar — 17 years ago(August 08, 2008 05:14 PM)
You know what bugs me? When people think that Polish and German are "like the same language."
I'm Polish myself, and while I'm not fluent I know quite a bit of the language. And I took a lot of German in high school.
Yeah, definitely not the same.
Anyways, I know enough German to have gotten a general understanding of what she was saying. And like someone else, it's a comedy sitcom. You can't expect 100% accuracy. -
emagdnima — 17 years ago(October 27, 2008 08:13 AM)
There are many people in Hollywood with a German background.
Bruce Willis has a German mother and was born in Germany.
Charlize Theron has a German mother, she even tried to get the citizenship two years ago. Allison Mac from Smallville was born in Germany.
And so on.
Funny thing about the Germans, when we move to a new country we tend to assimilate pretty fast to our new home. While Russians for example keep stay russians over generations, just in a new country.
And remember it is said that they where only one vote short to vote German as the official language in the US. Because one German guy said that day he wants the Germans to forget their old home and become Americans as fast as possible and for that they should not speak German. -
schmelzer_c — 15 years ago(June 16, 2010 11:22 AM)
No, that so utterly not true, it's not even funny.
Read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhlenberg_legend
und das ganze auch auf deutsch:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhlenberg-Legende -
debiler — 15 years ago(July 13, 2010 01:24 AM)
My two cents:
When Sarah did her "Hausfrau" line in Scrubs, she said:
"Ess dein Schnitzel, sonst kriegst du kein Nachtisch!"
Correction:
"Iss dein Schnitzel, sonst kriegst du keinen Nachtisch!"
I know, it's not much. And it was hilarious, too. Still, she's one of the better german speakers in America. Her accent is noticeable, but not thick.
What really bothered me was the supposed german guy in that episode. Even for me, it was hard to figure out what he was trying to say. His brother was just as bad. Oh, and the translation of JD's diagnosis was totally screwed up.
I didn't like the Godfather, so what?
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lolaphilologist — 17 years ago(November 19, 2008 09:24 PM)
You're somewhat correct. English is a Germanic language, but after the Normans conquered England in 1066 the influence from French was substantial. Because of this influence, English dropped some characteristics from both languages, becoming simpler in grammar (in getting rid of gendered articles and simplifying verb conjugations) but more complicated in vocabulary (because English absorbs foreign words readily instead of relying on existing redundant vocabulary).
"Similar" does not mean "pretty much the same as"
look how much I know! (kidding) -
CULTEGUY — 17 years ago(January 13, 2009 12:58 AM)
I just watched a web interview behind the scenes of "Scrubs" where she said she would generally have to loop over a Canadian accent. I don't know how similar they are. My daughter speaks fluent Japanese and has been to Japan about ten times, but when she speaks English her accent is Mid-Western.
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evil_henchman — 17 years ago(January 20, 2009 11:11 AM)
She isn't accent free at all. You must have never heard a german talking to say that. Even the way she pronounces all words is pure satire. I guess the reason for this is, that almost always, when "germans" are speaking in US shows and movies, they all are americans, who just memorized a few words for the role. And americans have usually a very similar accent when speaking german (the same way germans, who aren't used to speak in english sound horrible).
Not that this is supposed to be a negative critic of any kind, I love what she does on scrubs and she's doing a very good job in general.