The limits of tolerance

Like many people, I like to think I’m tolerant. And like many people, I’m not always as tolerant as I wish to believe.

This was confirmed recently when I received a press release from studiVZ Ltd and GWP media-marketing GmbH, two companies owned by the Holtzbrinck publishing group, which also owns Spotlight Verlag. I was shocked to read the following:

“Nach 18 Monaten intensiver und erfolgreicher Zusammenarbeit ziehen studiVZ und GWP Learnings aus der Kooperation und planen gemeinsam...”

I had to read that about five times before I understood what was going on. This wasn’t about a company called “GWP Learnings”. No, Learnings was a plural noun and went with ziehen: these Learnings were being gezogen aus der Kooperation.

Whoa! That is the most bizarre bit of Denglish I have seen for a long time. I was horrified and showed this sentence to as many of my colleagues as possible. They were equally horrified. Not least, because Learnings doesn’t even exist in English.

Then I started thinking. I had clearly reached the end of my Denglish tolerance. My view on the use of English words in German is simple: if people want to use them, they should, as long as others understand them.

Unlike language pedants, I don’t believe in trying to ban or replace words. In his book Speak German, writing guru Wolf Schneider lists three criteria he thinks should be met before an English word is used in German: it can be understood; it is necessary (there isn’t already a native German word that means the same thing); and it is aesthetically pleasing.

I believe only the first criterion is valid. Synonyms are a normal part of languages; and whether or not something is pleasing is totally subjective. Who decides? Herr Schneider?

But back to Learnings. Aesthetically, it is horrible in my humble opinion. It is also unnecessary: the press release could have used Lehren.

But all these arguments are irrelevant. It doesn’t even matter whether the word exists in English or is used in the same way. The only question is whether Learnings can be understood in German. The answer, I have to admit, is “probably by those it was aimed at”. (Consultants from Boston Consulting told me later that they also use Learnings in this way.)

And which Learnings do I ziehen out of this experience? That I shouldn’t criticize others for using a word just because I don’t like it. And that I’m not quite as tolerant as I thought. Mist!