Question for anyone who knows German (or French) slang... - by greypatch3
greypatch3 on 10/7/2009 at 01:10
All right, if THAT got your attention...
I'm actually working on a project that involved me recording a bunch of dialogue from German to English, and some of the dialogue needs to be changed to make it sound a little more like an American speaking English (the dialogue IS, for the most part, in proper English...trouble is, nobody speaks in proper English, any more than anybody speaks textbook German, so I have to make some adjustments).
Now, I just found out about the phrase "Horido!" which is in the text and definitely has to be changed, but something is confusing me greatly somewhere else. One area has the words, "Ich Gehe" by itself, which I'm assuming means, "I go." But in the English translation, this becomes "I'm hitting it!" Considering the context of the original line and what this means in slang English, this CANNOT be the correct phrase. The trouble is, I'm not quite sure if this is simply a mistranslation of "I'm going now," or if this is some sort of German colloquialism that I'm not aware of (it could also be French, because the person who is supposed to be speaking these lines is pretending to be French for this scene, but I have no clue what this could be). I repeat, the context is NOT intended to be sexual in any way, shape or form. It's not even the infamous McDonald's ad, either. But if you know WHAT this could be, let me know.
Tonamel on 10/7/2009 at 02:09
Well, what IS the context?
greypatch3 on 10/7/2009 at 02:20
Well, here's the original German...
"Uuh... Ihr Akzent ist wiederlisch! Mein Ohr blutet ... Isch gehe!"
And the English translation (not mine):
"Ouff..Your accent is utterly désagreable! My ears are almost bleeding ... I'm hitting it!"
I'm not quite sure of the surrounding context to this particular line (unfortunately, the lines are not always in sequence, and this one is no exception), but the scene in which the character is speaking this way, he is an American pretending to be a French waiter, and putting on one of those 'snooty waiter' accents that is completely over the top (he's trying to sneak into a restaurant in order to talk to somebody; it's a comedy). Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure WHO he's speaking to in this scene (it's not the person he's trying to meet), but it's definitely not intended to be anything sexual. Unless I'm very much mistaken...
I'm not trying to change the line too much, but like I said, I wanted the character to sound like a person speaking English properly, with the right sort of slang.
Tonamel on 10/7/2009 at 02:26
To "hit the road" means to leave, so by saying he's "hitting it" he just means he's leaving. I'd probably go with something like "I'm outta here!" or, since he's faking being French, the more awkwardly correct "I am out of here!" would probably be better. "I am leaving!" would be fine if the tone isn't as comedic as I think it is.
Assuming, of course, that he follows that line by walking away.
greypatch3 on 10/7/2009 at 02:33
That's what I thought it was...thanks for clearing it up! Sort of funny, this is the only time as far as I've noticed where the word "it" was used instead of the original noun. Of all the places to start using pronouns...;)
snowcap21 on 10/7/2009 at 06:25
Just to confirm: "Ich gehe" indeed means something like "I'm leaving" here, there's no other slang meaning (as far as I know). It is a bit drama queen style.
theBlackman on 10/7/2009 at 07:04
Or in Americanize. "I'm gone" or "I'm outta here".
TBE on 10/7/2009 at 07:25
Let's make like a sheep herder, and get the flock outta here.
Let's make like a hockey player, and get the puck outta here.
Let's make like a tree, and leave.
Fingernail on 10/7/2009 at 08:13
I'm hitting it [the road].
hopper on 10/7/2009 at 10:30
If this guy is really trying to sound like a waiter in an upscale restaurant, the line "I'm hitting it!" sounds too casual to me. A common German slang term would be "Ich hau ab!", which "I'm hitting it!" corresponds well with.
But if he says "Ich gehe!", it sounds as if he's trying to avoid using slang. "Ich gehe!" sounds almost awkwardly stiff and proper and isn't at all slang. This would also fit with the character he's trying to impersonate (if I understand the situation correctly), so IMO "I'm leaving!" or similar would be a better translation.
OTOH, if it's a comedy, maybe it's fitting that he would "lose" his character and drift off into the vernacular from time to time. But if this is a sole instance, perhaps not.
