The “Bahnhof verstehen” comes from the notion that many people learning a foreign language start with some simple sentences like “Can you tell me the way to the train station”. So people who only “Bahnhof verstehen” (OK, horrible grammar here) have not proceed past the first lesson.
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themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I don’t speak German, but I picked up a few phrases for work. They have a few idioms that I think of sometimes:
“Ich glaub, ich spinne” which means I think I’m crazy, but literally translates to “I think, I spider.” It’s a great visual metaphor, being overwhelmed by the threads going everywhere that you imagine you’re a spider spinning a web, and also you’ve entirely forgotten grammar.
“Bahnhof verstehen” or “Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof” means “I understand only the train station.” It’s something you say when you don’t understand anything, you’re completely lost, and you don’t give a shit becaue you just want to get the fuck home.
I might be off on those translations or the subtext, but that’s how I understood it.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 month ago
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 month ago
My understanding is that is came from soldiers returning from WWI who did not speak enough German to communicate, but were seeking the trains home.
Deestan@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Not fluent at all, but I always parsed “Ich glaub, ich spinne” as “I feel like my head is spinning”
raef@lemmy.world 1 month ago
No, it’s not “spin” like a top or top be dizzy. There’s a bunch of meanings, and some are similar to those two, but none fit for dizzy
NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 1 month ago
That’s a misinterpretation. The German “spinne” is a proper verb in that sentence, like “to spin” in English.
Oisteink@feddit.nl 1 month ago
So it can be what a spider does, but also what political doctors do, and the latter is the context here?