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Re:BMW Burns Logo onto Cinema-Goers’ Eyes by ctrager on Thursday December 16, 2010 @08:50AM (#2011980)
Pardon me for being a provincial Midwesterner, but is it common that an playing for a German audience would be in English? Especially one that relies on the viewers following verbal instructions?
Re:BMW Burns Logo onto Cinema-Goers’ Eyes by ry0ohki on Thursday December 16, 2010 @10:50AM (#2012386)
It's pretty common to hear english on TV in Germany and Scandinavia, probably part of the reason they end up being more fluent in English then say France, where you very rarely hear English.
Re:BMW Burns Logo onto Cinema-Goers’ Eyes by eru on Thursday December 16, 2010 @12:25PM (#2012795)
It's more common in Scandinavia, though. In Germany we use dubbing instead of subtitles.
Re:BMW Burns Logo onto Cinema-Goers’ Eyes by middus on Thursday December 16, 2010 @09:02AM (#2012025)
I'd say that a mix of German and English (often referred to as "Denglisch") is used in German ads.
Re:BMW Burns Logo onto Cinema-Goers’ Eyes by wolfgke on Thursday December 16, 2010 @05:42PM (#2014158)
In Germany most movies are dubbed - nearly all American ones are. Mostly niche movies are subtitled instead.

In advertising it's different. Many advertisers think that the viewers understand English (most educated Germans do) quite OK - so it sometimes happens (more in cinema than in TV) that advertising films are shown in English for the brand to appear more cosmopolitan.

Especially the slogans are often left untranslated. Since some Germans (especially from lower educated classes) aren't as fluent in English as the advertiser assumed, this leads to rather funny missunderstandings, for example:

"Sat 1 - powered by Emotion" was understood as "Sat 1 - Kraft durch Freude" (translated back to English: "Sat 1 - Strength Through Joy")

or

"Esso - we are drivers, too" -> "Esso - wir sind zwei Fahrer" (here, "too" and "two" was confused) -> "Esso - we are two drivers"

or

"Douglas - come in and find out" -> "Douglas - komm rein, du wirst auch wieder herausfinden" -> "Douglas - come in, you will be able to find the way out of the shop then"