5 ms·

Well but that letter has several errors ("mit du schoene Nachricht", "schr" instead of "sehr", "ankem" is ancient spelling for "ankam", "be- sorgte" was a hyphe

Well but that letter has several errors ("mit du schoene Nachricht", "schr" instead of "sehr", "ankem" is ancient spelling for "ankam", "be- sorgte" was a hyphenated line break...) and uses weird abbreviations that require context (R. is a person, Br. is a place). No wonder it's having trouble.

WalterBright 10y ago
Thank you for the corrections. I haven't been able to talk any native German speakers into helping fix the errors. In general, though, I've found Google Translate to fall over and produce gibberish with a single misspelling or grammatical error. That's ok when translating professionally edited text, but language in common usage tends to be a lot messier.
- lorenzhs 10y ago
  Here's a fixed transcription, with bits I'm unsure about in italics: Meine lieben Kinder! Soeben brachte Frl. Moldelen¹ die Karte von Herrn Thomas mit der schönen Nachricht, dass R. doch endlich gut in Br. ankam. Was bin ich froh darüber! Und nun hoffe ich doch sehr, dass Rosi Samstag mittag in R. ankam, sich schrubben und ausschlafen konnte. Dickes, hast Du Dir nichts geholt bei der Rums Scheru? Mittwoch ging ich nach Tisch² zur Stadt, besorgte Einiges und wollte im Hansabad in der Wilm. Str. baden. Musste aber 2 1/2 Stunden werde, dann war es aber sehr schoen. Ich machte dann das Abendessen und erst um 8 Uhr ging ich rauf ins Zimmer zum Tisch decken, da fand ich den Zettel von Frl. B. mit Frl. Moldelens¹ Grüßen von Dir! Meinen Schrecken³ könnnt Ihr Euch denken. ¹ that's probably supposed to be the same name twice ² "nach Tisch" (after table) is old for "nach dem Essen" (after lunch/dinner) ³ old for "Meine Überraschung" (my surprise) I have no idea what "Rums Scheru" could mean. Maybe it's referring to some event, hoping that the person didn't catch an illness there. A lightly edited translation (not perfect, I just fixed some Google Translate mistakes) would be something like: My dear children! Miss Moldelen had just brought Mr. Thomas's card with the good news that R. had finally arrived at Br. How glad I am about that! And now I hope very much that Rosi arrived in R. on Saturday afternoon and got a chance to scrub and sleep. Thick (referring to a person who's a bit thick, as a nickname), I hope you didn't catch anything at the Rums Scheru? On Wednesday I went to the city after lunch to run some errands, and wanted to go bathing in Hansabad in Wilm. street. Had to wait for 2 1/2 hours, but then it was very nice. I then went to make dinner, and at eight o'clock I went upstairs to set the table, where I found the note from Miss B. with Miss Moldelen's greetings from you! You can imagine my surprise.
  - WalterBright 10y ago
    Thank you, you guys are awesome! The letters are a bit of a treasure, as they describe my grandmother's experiences as a housewife before, during, and after the fall of Berlin. Many abbreviations are place names, such as R is for Rohrbach, or names I presume are neighbors.
    - luxpir 10y ago
      Sounds like something that needs translating and sharing with the world! Find a publisher, if your family is on-board?
      - WalterBright 10y ago
        The thought has crossed my mind, since everyone from then is long dead now. It reminds me of the cache of Civil War letters recently discovered and discussed here. I have a lot of other things I recognize have some historical value, like my father's WW2 diary, and some amazing color pictures he took during the Korean War. (Any other pictures of the KW I've seen are grainy black & white, but my dad's pictures are in crisp, full color.)
        luxpir 10y ago
        I'm not sure if it's a moral obligation, but you certainly do have some kind of imperative to share those precious records with the world. A simple gallery site that let people contact you for reproduction rights? A publisher? Submission to Archive.org... Keep us posted if you do?
- the8472 10y ago
  > In general, though, I've found Google Translate to fall over and produce gibberish with a single misspelling or grammatical error. I wonder if one could couple auto-correct and translation in a way where the error rates don't multiply. I.e. only attempt corrections where the translation says it has low confidence.

WalterBright 10y ago

Thank you for the corrections. I haven't been able to talk any native German speakers into helping fix the errors. In general, though, I've found Google Translate to fall over and produce gibberish with a single misspelling or grammatical error. That's ok when translating professionally edited text, but language in common usage tends to be a lot messier.

lorenzhs 10y ago
Here's a fixed transcription, with bits I'm unsure about in italics: Meine lieben Kinder! Soeben brachte Frl. Moldelen¹ die Karte von Herrn Thomas mit der schönen Nachricht, dass R. doch endlich gut in Br. ankam. Was bin ich froh darüber! Und nun hoffe ich doch sehr, dass Rosi Samstag mittag in R. ankam, sich schrubben und ausschlafen konnte. Dickes, hast Du Dir nichts geholt bei der Rums Scheru? Mittwoch ging ich nach Tisch² zur Stadt, besorgte Einiges und wollte im Hansabad in der Wilm. Str. baden. Musste aber 2 1/2 Stunden werde, dann war es aber sehr schoen. Ich machte dann das Abendessen und erst um 8 Uhr ging ich rauf ins Zimmer zum Tisch decken, da fand ich den Zettel von Frl. B. mit Frl. Moldelens¹ Grüßen von Dir! Meinen Schrecken³ könnnt Ihr Euch denken. ¹ that's probably supposed to be the same name twice ² "nach Tisch" (after table) is old for "nach dem Essen" (after lunch/dinner) ³ old for "Meine Überraschung" (my surprise) I have no idea what "Rums Scheru" could mean. Maybe it's referring to some event, hoping that the person didn't catch an illness there. A lightly edited translation (not perfect, I just fixed some Google Translate mistakes) would be something like: My dear children! Miss Moldelen had just brought Mr. Thomas's card with the good news that R. had finally arrived at Br. How glad I am about that! And now I hope very much that Rosi arrived in R. on Saturday afternoon and got a chance to scrub and sleep. Thick (referring to a person who's a bit thick, as a nickname), I hope you didn't catch anything at the Rums Scheru? On Wednesday I went to the city after lunch to run some errands, and wanted to go bathing in Hansabad in Wilm. street. Had to wait for 2 1/2 hours, but then it was very nice. I then went to make dinner, and at eight o'clock I went upstairs to set the table, where I found the note from Miss B. with Miss Moldelen's greetings from you! You can imagine my surprise.
- WalterBright 10y ago
  Thank you, you guys are awesome! The letters are a bit of a treasure, as they describe my grandmother's experiences as a housewife before, during, and after the fall of Berlin. Many abbreviations are place names, such as R is for Rohrbach, or names I presume are neighbors.
  - luxpir 10y ago
    Sounds like something that needs translating and sharing with the world! Find a publisher, if your family is on-board?
    - WalterBright 10y ago
      The thought has crossed my mind, since everyone from then is long dead now. It reminds me of the cache of Civil War letters recently discovered and discussed here. I have a lot of other things I recognize have some historical value, like my father's WW2 diary, and some amazing color pictures he took during the Korean War. (Any other pictures of the KW I've seen are grainy black & white, but my dad's pictures are in crisp, full color.)
      - luxpir 10y ago
        I'm not sure if it's a moral obligation, but you certainly do have some kind of imperative to share those precious records with the world. A simple gallery site that let people contact you for reproduction rights? A publisher? Submission to Archive.org... Keep us posted if you do?
the8472 10y ago
> In general, though, I've found Google Translate to fall over and produce gibberish with a single misspelling or grammatical error. I wonder if one could couple auto-correct and translation in a way where the error rates don't multiply. I.e. only attempt corrections where the translation says it has low confidence.