Saturday 2 February 2013

Frisur egal

The other day I went to a hairdresser to get a haircut. They didn't really speak English, so I tried to handle the situation with my incomplete German.

I explained that I want my hair "ein bisschen kürtzer, aber nicht zu viel... ich möchte einen, err... uh... Ponytail (waving hands) machen". They looked at me in confusion, then: "Ahh! Pferdeschwanz!" My strategy of just using the English word, trying to pretend it's a German word, didn't quite cut it. It was quite close though (ponytail vs. horsetail).

I told about this to a German friend, and he said that das der Pony is a different kind of hairstyle, in English fringe. (Did you know that word? I didn't.) That was a close call!

The discussion then moved on to Vokuhila which is a German word for a horrible hairstyle (vorne kurz, hinten lang).

And as always, there is a third level, when I told yet another group of German friends about these discussions. One of them told this joke: "Suche einen Mann mit Pferdeschwanz, Frisur egal."

I'm not going to translate it.

6 comments:

  1. Actually, when talking about the hairstyle, it is _der_ Pony and not _das_. The latter is the animal.

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    1. Ahh, cool, I didn't know that. So it's like "der Virus" vs. "das Virus".

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  2. Wait, what's the difference between der Virus and das Virus? I only know the latter.

    There is something similar for See -- die See is saltwater, der See is fresh water. Make up our own mnemonic.

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    1. One of them is a "real" virus, the other is a computer virus. I don't remember which way around, and 1 minute googling didn't tell me either.

      Delete
  3. "Fringe" in American is "bangs". And a "Vokuhila" is a "mullet". In case anyone cares.

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  4. "der Virus" is for both Computer and real Viruses, but "das Virus" almost always refers to a real virus.

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