The next time you visit the local branch of that German supermarket chain, spare a thought for the translator who has lovingly translated the ingredients and description of your chosen German delicacy. In recent weeks I've come to realise that cross-cultural differences are most apparent in the world of gastronomy. Forget the urban myth about the Inuit having anything up to one hundred different words for snow; German speakers have around seven different types of croissant to contend with!
The reason why English speakers have trouble accepting multiple words to describe the same thing is precisely because in their native cultures, they are anything but the same thing – they are entirely different entities. And having a seemingly infinite number of different types of croissant or bread clearly matters in the German-speaking world.
Cross-cultural differences are one thing, but it's also about different levels of specificity. One German word that crossed my path recently was the word Schalenfrüchte, which literally translates as 'fruit with a shell on it'. A quick look in five dictionaries revealed that this word is universally translated as 'nuts'. I still cannot find a reason why anyone could not use the German word Nüsse when talking about nuts. We clearly need to understand that we are only dealing with those nuts that have a shell.
But before we start believing that German, just like Inuit, is overcrowded with multiple words to describe the same concept, there are also instances where one word is used to refer to two very different things. Take my current favourite – the German word Sellerie. This word is used to refer to both celery and celeriac. In German these two vegetables should, strictly speaking, be modified and referred to as Stangensellerie and Knollensellerie, respectively. When they are not, I have to make an educated guess. All of this might sound trivial, though as a translator it's my job to care.
It's why I love my work, though. As a fellow translator once said, it's the only job in the world where you get paid to learn something new every day. I've now experimented with fennel and have also discovered an utterly hideous member of the cauliflower family called Romanesco. I won't be buying that! Enjoy your Sunday lunch, folks!
