Phrasebooks

[aerobelly]

I have my grandmother's German/English phrasebook with her name and "1902" next to it. Judging by its tattered state and its 1880 printing date I think it must have had a number of previous owners. But despite nothing about aircraft travel in there there's an aviation connection. My grandmother had a conducted tour of the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen during her job as nanny to the young son of the British Military Attache at the Embassy in Berlin. As an aeroplane mad kid I asked her for details but she didn't remember anything interesting. Well, she was then a late-teenage girl from a small village in rural Shropshire so that's not surprising.

Her young charge eventually joined the R.F.C. as a pilot and died in France in 1917.


'a

[justapax]

Originally Posted by aerobelly

I have my grandmother's German/English phrasebook with her name and "1902" next to it. Judging by its tattered state and its 1880 printing date I think it must have had a number of previous owners. But despite nothing about aircraft travel in there there's an aviation connection. My grandmother had a conducted tour of the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen during her job as nanny to the young son of the British Military Attache at the Embassy in Berlin. As an aeroplane mad kid I asked her for details but she didn't remember anything interesting. Well, she was then a late-teenage girl from a small village in rural Shropshire so that's not surprising.

Her young charge eventually joined the R.F.C. as a pilot and died in France in 1917.


'a

Could you put up scans or pix of what the traveller in 1880 needed to say in the course of his or her voyage?

[Expatrick]

A little after the 1880s but good enough!

(Rather long, hence the spoiler)

Spoiler

 

 

Pray tell me the time

It is six, it is seven

It's half-past eleven

It's twenty to two

I want thirteen stamps

Does your child have convulsions

Please bring me some rhubarb

I need a shampoo

How much is this hat

I desire some red stockings

My mother is married

These boots are too small

My aunt has a cold

Shall we go to the opera

This meat is disgusting

Is this the Town Hall

How much is this ribbon

It's cheap, it's expensive

What very fine linen

What pretty cretonne

What time is the train

It is late, it is early

It's running on schedule

It's here, it has gone

I've written six letters

I've written no letters

Please fetch me a horse

I have need of a groom

This isn't my passport

This isn't my hatbox

Please show me the way to Napoleon's tomb

The weather is cooler

The weather is hotter

Pray fasten my corsets

Please bring me my cloak

I've lost my umbrella

I'm in a great hurry

I'm going, I'm staying

Do you mind if I smoke

This man is the purser

This isn't my cabin

This egg is delicious

This soup is too thick

Please bring me a trout

What an excellent pudding

Pray hand me my gloves

I'm going to be sick



[PAXboy]

I think that is Sir Noël Coward??
Very fine, I have not heard it in years and cannot remember which of his works it appears in.

[aerobelly]

Ack. Give me a couple of days.


My grandmother also told me about hiding the best furniture before a certain member of the British royalty came to visit (not her own furniture of course), and -- this only to her female descendants -- about how to dodge the unwanted attentions of other very, very senior European royalty.


'a

[Expatrick]

Originally Posted by PAXboy

I think that is Sir Noël Coward??
Very fine, I have not heard it in years and cannot remember which of his works it appears in.

Indeed, from Sail away.

[jolihokistix]

Spoilers don’t open on my mobile. What did Noël Coward say?

[Expatrick]

Originally Posted by jolihokistix

Spoilers don’t open on my mobile. What did Noël Coward say?

I'll cut out all the line spaces that the quote came with & repost!

ETA: Didn't work, try looking up Sail Away.

Here's an extract from his "phrase book"

This soup is too thick
Please bring me a trout
What an excellent pudding
Pray hand me my gloves
I'm going to be sick

[jolihokistix]

Many thanks!

[Gargleblaster]

While in Bangladesh in the nineties, we had a huge building where we worked and lived. There was a huge staff of cooks, waiters, cleaners, drivers and teenage boy assistants. The latter group would sometimes approach us reading from a phrasebook and uttered things like "Congratulations with your success madam, it is marvelous!". I think these books were more than 50 years old. One of the drivers, Buru, had a special term. When summoned to make ready a white Landcruiser from the considerable fleet, he would inquire "Madam driving ?", which meant driving Madam to the market. We still use this term in the family. We also have a bengali brass hand-bell that I ring sometimes when done cooking summoning the wife and daughter with "Dinner Ready Madams!" (in an indian accent).

[aerobelly]

Originally Posted by justapax

Could you put up scans or pix of what the traveller in 1880 needed to say in the course of his or her voyage?

I misremembered the publication date, it was 1873, but got my grandmother's inscription more accurately "March 1902".

[artee]

Originally Posted by aerobelly

I misremembered the publication date, it was 1873, but got my grandmother's inscription more accurately "March 1902".

Wonderful! Thanks aerobelly.

[netstruggler]

“No, YOU were on the wrong side of the road”