As a software developer and general IT nerd, I am constantly faced with this principle. Many, many TV shows and movies foregoforgo showing a correct approach, and opted for the most minimally correct display of IT, because they assume it's a pointless detail.
- I think this is the most obvious example. You don't even need to be an IT expert to understand that this is completely ridiculous.
I think this is the most obvious example. You don't even need to be an IT expert to understand that this is completely ridiculous.
- From CSI: "I will create a GUI interface using visual basic to track the killer's IP address". This is technical lingo, but it is pulled out of context. This is the equivalent of a car mechanic saying "I will crank the carburator through the horsepower, so that I can clutch the shaft". The words themselves sound thematically correct, but there is no meaning to this random succession of words.
From CSI: "I will create a GUI interface using visual basic to track the killer's IP address". This is technical lingo, but it is pulled out of context. This is the equivalent of a car mechanic saying "I will crank the carburator through the horsepower, so that I can clutch the shaft". The words themselves sound thematically correct, but there is no meaning to this random succession of words.
I see it happen more with IT than German (as I don't speak German), but the principle is the same: being factually correct was deemed to much of an irrelevant detail;detail, and no one wanted to put in the effort to research the correct thing to say.
Even if the script contained correct German, and the actor mistakenly messes up the grammar;grammar, it's still possible that no one catches it.
If
If the movie is recorded in the USA with an American crew, none of them having any German speaking skill;skill, then no one will notice that the actor said it wrongly.
Secondly;Secondly, in the case of more than just a single line of foreign language, actors often go to special trainers to teach them how to sound like a true German, even if only for a few lines.
Because
Because of this, most of the people working on set will not correct the actor; since they know he has been trained to speak German and they know little or nothing about it. By comparison, they feel inadequate to highlight the (trained) actor's mistake.
- In the first example, HIMYM mocks the German language for having long words that sound like gibberish but actually have a very complex and nuanced meaning. If you think that's just not true, torschlusspanik.
In the first example, HIMYM mocks the German language for having long words that sound like gibberish but actually have a very complex and nuanced meaning. If you think that's just not true, torschlusspanik.
- In the second example, HIMYM mocks the German language again for sounding like gibberish. Heidi Klum's presence (since she is an actual German speaker) supports this joke. If an American actor had said it; the viewers could assume that the German sounded horrible because the actor was not able to speak German. But they specifically had Heidi say it, to prevent people from thinking it was an actor's shortcoming; and therefore understanding that German is "truly" a gibberish language (I say "truly" because that is the in-universe funny truth, not the out-of-universe real truth).
In the second example, HIMYM mocks the German language again for sounding like gibberish. Heidi Klum's presence (since she is an actual German speaker) supports this joke. If an American actor had said it, the viewers could assume that the German sounded horrible because the actor was not able to speak German. But they specifically had Heidi say it, to prevent people from thinking it was an actor's shortcoming, and therefore understanding that German is "truly" a gibberish language (I say "truly" because that is the in-universe funny truth, not the out-of-universe real truth).
Edit
Following the suggestion the in comments, here's ahere are better exampleexamples of a ridiculously long (existing) German wordwords: