21 Apr
2004
21 Apr
'04
3:25 p.m.
Hello,
Jim,
we native german speakers tend to be much more direct and phrase dings more bluntly the you americans do. In german I read Maik's statement as a strong opinion but never as an insult.
Since I am the one who asked Mike to speak up I would feel bad if it created any bad feelings.
Robert
Robert is 100% right! Mikes oppion contains no real insults at all, not even really bad phrases, at least not in the original german version. German insults look quite different, and we tend to recognize them when we read them. In this sense I was somewhat careless in my instant translation and I want to apologize for it. Martin