THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES (DANISH NORWEGIAN SWEDISH) HONOURS PAPER A

Transkript

1 THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES (DANISH NORWEGIAN SWEDISH) HONOURS PAPER A Translation from Danish into English and Translation from English into Danish Wednesday 28th May Chainmm A Kruse External Examiner: P Holmes The examination will be marked anonymously Answer both questions

2 . 1. Translate into Danish I was quite a lonely child. I always felt that I was an outsider, even with people that I knew very well. When I looked at my friends they seemed to be able to come to terms with the world much better than I did. They seemed to be able to fit into living in a much easier way than I did. I was always uneasy about this, because I was quite a nice child really. One of my great crimes was that I wasn t sporty while everyone else was: my mother was quite a good tennis player, all my cousins played tennis and golf, everyone sailed - but I was never able to do these things. I couldn t see properly and that maybe one reason why I was always an outsider. I was always a nuisance in group activities. If we went mountain climbin~ everyone else had to wait half an hour for me to get down the mountain. They probably didn t mind at all, but I was always convinced that they were standing there at the bottom of the mountain saying Oh God, why doesn t Jennifer hurry up! I would arrive in a state of nerves and start apologizing. I was quite an apologetic child. I seemed to spend a lot of time apologizing for not doing things that I felt I ought to be able to do. The compensations for the loneliness and unhappiness were, of course, books and the theatre. As I grew into my teens, my friends were quite envious of my having famous parents. That set me apart in a strange way. It seemed that almost everyone in Dublin knew my parents, particularly my mother (my father was abroad most of the time). At other times I could be terribly embarrassed by the fact that my parents weren t the same as everyone else s parents. I would love childhood to mean a sort of free growing but in reality it never is, because, I think, all children, no matter what their background, have dark comers which they keep to themselves. There are, of course, rnarvellous moments of great happiness; but there are also inescapable pains and disappointments.

3 2. Translate into English Deter do~etabet, der er en mulighed for det danske sprog. Herved forst?u je~ at der kan ske det, at man i flere og flere situationer vil fravelge modersmfdet og betjene sig af engelsk. Hvis dansk afgmende taber dorrwme, g& det ud over danskerne. Derfor skal vi tage spargs~et alvorligt. Importen af enkeltgloser betragter jeg ikke som mer sd problematisk, men i andre nordiske lande laver man kampagner mod engelske IAneord; i Island blev en hotelejer i sommer eksempelvis meldt M politiet, fordi han havde valgt navnet Hotel Starlight. Hvor sker domametabet? I ajeblikket bl.a. inden for forskningen. Tusindvis af afhandlinger skrives hvert t% pa engelsk. Inden for nogle orm%der er det ganske naturligt og miskvaxdigt. En doktordisputats pa dansk fiir i almindelighed meppe 200 kesere, medens den p& engelsk har stmre muligheder. Men omvendt er der ogd eksempler p~, at afhandlinger vine have haft flere kesere, hvis de var skrevet p?i dansk, og principielt vil det were et kulturtab, hvis forskningens sprog overalt bliver engelsk, medens de snu% nationalsprog nu% tage til takke med popukmvidenskaben. Store dele af underholdningsindustrien er engelsksproget, specielt den, der retter sig mod ungdommen; og i biografeme er halvdelen af reklameme efterwinden engelsksprogede. En rakke stmre firmaer har gjort engelsk til koncernspro~ si%ledes at ogs~ danske medarbejdere intemt mil kommunikere pi% engelsk. Dornaenetab ser vi ogs&, m% skoleme konkurrerer om at v=re p& forkant med udviklingen og gme engelsk til undervisningsspro~ hvad der er noget fundamentzilt andet end at begynde tidligt med faget engelsk. %% kenge det er de &rige, man eksperimenterer reed, er det hele til at overse. Men og& grundskolefolk er interesserede, og tienksomme og kvalificerede folk har fremsat tanker om at gin-e danske barn tosprogede fra skolestarten. Det ser jeg pa med stor skepsis - ikke af nationale grunde, men fordi sproget ud over at have ahnen kulturel betydning er baxer af store dele af den enkeltes bevidsthedsliv. Jeg &or ikke, at barn omkosiningsfrit ved skolestarten kan udvi.kle et wt af associationer til to vzesensforskellige sprog i en periode, hvor deres ordforr~d vokser meget hastigt, og hvor de skal foretage det store sprin~ det er at n~ frem til forstielse af skriftsprogets mysterier. Og jeg tror slet ikke, man n& frem til reel tosprogethed ved i bestemte fag at hare et fremmedsprog talt nogle lektioner hver skoledag af herere, der meppe inden for det fmste par generationer vil kunne n~ frem til funktionel beherskelse af engelsk eller noget andet fremmedsprog. Fra andre nordiske lande kendes tilsvarende eksperimenter med engelsk som undervisningsspro~ og der er rwppe tvivl om, at forsag hermed vil brede sig bade opad og nedad i undervisningssystemet.

4 THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES (DANISH NORWEGIAN SWEDISH) HONOURS PAPER A Translation from Danish into English and Translation from English into Danish Wednesday 28th May Chainmm A Kruse External Examiner: P Holmes The examination will be marked anonymously Answer both questions

5 . 1. Translate into Danish I was quite a lonely child. I always felt that I was an outsider, even with people that I knew very well. When I looked at my friends they seemed to be able to come to terms with the world much better than I did. They seemed to be able to fit into living in a much easier way than I did. I was always uneasy about this, because I was quite a nice child really. One of my great crimes was that I wasn t sporty while everyone else was: my mother was quite a good tennis player, all my cousins played tennis and golf, everyone sailed - but I was never able to do these things. I couldn t see properly and that maybe one reason why I was always an outsider. I was always a nuisance in group activities. If we went mountain climbin~ everyone else had to wait half an hour for me to get down the mountain. They probably didn t mind at all, but I was always convinced that they were standing there at the bottom of the mountain saying Oh God, why doesn t Jennifer hurry up! I would arrive in a state of nerves and start apologizing. I was quite an apologetic child. I seemed to spend a lot of time apologizing for not doing things that I felt I ought to be able to do. The compensations for the loneliness and unhappiness were, of course, books and the theatre. As I grew into my teens, my friends were quite envious of my having famous parents. That set me apart in a strange way. It seemed that almost everyone in Dublin knew my parents, particularly my mother (my father was abroad most of the time). At other times I could be terribly embarrassed by the fact that my parents weren t the same as everyone else s parents. I would love childhood to mean a sort of free growing but in reality it never is, because, I think, all children, no matter what their background, have dark comers which they keep to themselves. There are, of course, rnarvellous moments of great happiness; but there are also inescapable pains and disappointments.

6 2. Translate into English Deter do~etabet, der er en mulighed for det danske sprog. Herved forst?u je~ at der kan ske det, at man i flere og flere situationer vil fravelge modersmfdet og betjene sig af engelsk. Hvis dansk afgmende taber dorrwme, g& det ud over danskerne. Derfor skal vi tage spargs~et alvorligt. Importen af enkeltgloser betragter jeg ikke som mer sd problematisk, men i andre nordiske lande laver man kampagner mod engelske IAneord; i Island blev en hotelejer i sommer eksempelvis meldt M politiet, fordi han havde valgt navnet Hotel Starlight. Hvor sker domametabet? I ajeblikket bl.a. inden for forskningen. Tusindvis af afhandlinger skrives hvert t% pa engelsk. Inden for nogle orm%der er det ganske naturligt og miskvaxdigt. En doktordisputats pa dansk fiir i almindelighed meppe 200 kesere, medens den p& engelsk har stmre muligheder. Men omvendt er der ogd eksempler p~, at afhandlinger vine have haft flere kesere, hvis de var skrevet p?i dansk, og principielt vil det were et kulturtab, hvis forskningens sprog overalt bliver engelsk, medens de snu% nationalsprog nu% tage til takke med popukmvidenskaben. Store dele af underholdningsindustrien er engelsksproget, specielt den, der retter sig mod ungdommen; og i biografeme er halvdelen af reklameme efterwinden engelsksprogede. En rakke stmre firmaer har gjort engelsk til koncernspro~ si%ledes at ogs~ danske medarbejdere intemt mil kommunikere pi% engelsk. Dornaenetab ser vi ogs&, m% skoleme konkurrerer om at v=re p& forkant med udviklingen og gme engelsk til undervisningsspro~ hvad der er noget fundamentzilt andet end at begynde tidligt med faget engelsk. %% kenge det er de &rige, man eksperimenterer reed, er det hele til at overse. Men og& grundskolefolk er interesserede, og tienksomme og kvalificerede folk har fremsat tanker om at gin-e danske barn tosprogede fra skolestarten. Det ser jeg pa med stor skepsis - ikke af nationale grunde, men fordi sproget ud over at have ahnen kulturel betydning er bmer af store dele af den enkeltes bevidsthedsliv. Jeg &or ikke, at barn omkosiningsfrit ved skolestarten kan udvi.kle et sax af associationer til to vzesensforskellige sprog i en periode, hvor deres ordforr~d vokser meget hastigt, og hvor de skal foretage det store sprin~ det er at n~ frem til forstielse af skriftsprogets mysterier. Og jeg tror slet ikke, man n& frem til reel tosprogethed ved i bestemte fag at hare et fremmedsprog talt nogle lektioner hver skoledag af herere, der meppe inden for det fmste par generationer vil kunne n~ frem til funktionel beherskelse af engelsk eller noget andet fremmedsprog. Fra andre nordiske lande kendes tilsvarende eksperimenter med engelsk som undervisningsspro~ og der er rwppe tvivl om, at forsag hermed vil brede sig bade opad og nedad i undervisningssystemet.