Tower of Babel Forum

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

Glad you enjoyed your holiday. And, he, you should hear my French... c'est abominable!
If you'd really like us to correct your grammar, I'm happy to oblige. Right here or do you prefer an email?

--
Das Lemsche Gesetz:
Niemand liest etwas; wenn er etwas liest, versteht er es nicht; wenn er es versteht, vergißt er es sofort.

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

I think a literal translation of my gibberings would be good. Please feel free and post - I have no shame. I've sung karaoke before. And I've done worse than that... but on such a topic I shall not speak. Not a word.

I am hoping that your collective brains may be able to tell us more about something we saw briefly in Germany. It was on the KIKA television channel (kinder programmes are sooo bizarre in foreign languages) and we have no idea of the title.

It featured a range of bizarre creatures, the most bizarre of which was a man with very odd hair. It also had a dragon(?) and a small dog(?) puppet, but most memorable was that it had the most evil looking snowman we've ever seen. Or the bösest snowman, if Fawlty prefers...

What can you tell us about it?

Artinum + partner.

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

Wait... the evil snowman does ring a bell... (snipping fingers impatiently)
er... TABALUGA!
http://www.tabaluga.com/
It's gotta be that. I can't claim to know much about it.

The German Wikipedia has this to say:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabaluga

And here is the official website:
http://www.tabaluga.com/

Tabaluga is a dragon, a character apparently invented by Peter Maffay, a very old man who used to be quite popular for his not too sophisticated and often schmalzy pop/rock songs. He is a do-gooder (a Gutmensch) engaging himself for peace and the environment, and he wrote or cowrote some "rock fairy tales" focusing on the oh-so-cute dragon Tabaluga, whose opponent is the evil snowman.
There's a gameshow for children, a Tabaluga-on-ice revue, cartoons, and all kinds of merchandise.
Well... better than the Teletubbies, I think. Nuff said.

I don't have too much spare time on my hands right at the moment, but give me a day or two and I'll put together a word-for-word translation and give you a few pointers for the future.

Keep on practising! This forum's just the place!
(Aaah, I wish my French was better... It's about equivalent to your German. Hmm, maybe you're a bit more advanced.)

(Editing: Of course I realize the above GERMAN pages won't be of much use, but you can always whip out your trusty translation page for extra fun.

)

--
Das Lemsche Gesetz:
Niemand liest etwas; wenn er etwas liest, versteht er es nicht; wenn er es versteht, vergißt er es sofort.

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

Zitat: - Z -

Wait... the evil snowman does ring a bell... (snipping fingers impatiently)
er... TABALUGA!
http://www.tabaluga.com/
It's gotta be that. I can't claim to know much about it.

Aha! Yes, that's the one. I was a little confused at first because it seems to be a cartoon (whereas the version we saw was definitely live action) but a quick Google Image Search on "tabaluga" revealed... about 11,000 images. Including one of "the team" including evil snowman, unconvincing penguin and little pink dog puppet. Sadly, I can find no sign of the bloke with the odd "Dilbert's boss" hairstyle, but I think I saw him on the KIKA website (http://www.kika.de) at some point.

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

Ahaaa! Here's the fella! His name is apparently Tom...

Fawlty · Mason Messages: 280 Location: Gütersloh

Damn, that guy is scary....
On the other hand, there's something about children television. My favourite is "Bing und Bong". SO cute!!

And since we all use this forum as a language exercise ground already, I definitely do support the idea of using some french every now and then. Ça peut pas faire de mal certainement.

But Z, PLEASE, not Peter Maffay...........

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

Peter Maffay? MOI? Monsieur, vous êtes fous!

Right. That's about the best I can do right now.
This Tom guy scared all my wits out of me.

I'm afraid I won't have time to mark Artinum's German lessen till monday. It's going to be quite a busy weekend for me, but perhaps, if I'm very lucky, the hotel won't have many guest on saturday night, and I can do it at work.

(...)

Aah, my French is so horrible. Mais Paris ne s'est pas fait en un jour, mh?

(Gotta stock up on vocabulary and phrases)

--
Das Lemsche Gesetz:
Niemand liest etwas; wenn er etwas liest, versteht er es nicht; wenn er es versteht, vergißt er es sofort.

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

Zitat: - Z -

Peter Maffay? MOI? Monsieur, vous êtes fous!

Right. That's about the best I can do right now.
This Tom guy scared all my wits out of me.

Why is he so scary? He just seems rather odd to me (or fous, if you prefer). And who is Peter Maffay? It could be something obvious but it's Friday evening, I'm back from a week of work and my brain has turned to saurkraut. Or maybe schlagsahne.

As for French, "je parle francois tres diabolique". Or something. Avec vous un babelfish?

Le Artinum.

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

He looks like someone you have this feeling of disquiet about, only to find out years later he was one of those guys with a dozen dismembered people buried in his backyard and a well-oiled chainsaw in his cupboard.
Peter Maffay is the do-gooder who has invented Tabaluga.

By the way - this evening I learned to both love and hate Babelfish. We were having this party, and my friend Al, whose family is Italian, brought along one of his many cousins/nieces/sisters, and, oh my... I never even suspected there could be such a beautiful girl in his family. Unfortunately she spoke nothing but Italian, but fortunately there was my computer humming along, and we took to using Babelfish... Unfortunately the quality of the translations was of the quality we've come to expect from computer translations. I think this added bit of mystery made her all the more attractive. I just hope it worked for her as well and put it down in the "fortunately" column.

(Edited: Assorted corrections. Had a beer or two. Good night.)

--
Das Lemsche Gesetz:
Niemand liest etwas; wenn er etwas liest, versteht er es nicht; wenn er es versteht, vergißt er es sofort.

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

Zitat: Fawlty

On the other hand, there's something about children television. My favourite is "Bing und Bong". SO cute!!

Bing and Bong? The white fluffy thing and his companion (a cross between a dog and Zippy from Rainbow)? The ones who get catapulted across space and visit alien planets on their sofa?

Strange program.

Andrew.