I can Understand German Now!

I had to read part of a patent claim in German for work, and I succeeded! Granted, it helped that I had access to a similar version of the patent claim in English, but I needed some very precise information, and "similar" wasn't going to cut the mustard.

Here's the "similar" version of patent claim:

a load cell (30, 30', 30") which is arranged as only connection between the tiltable boom (14, 14") and the work platform (20), wherein

And here's what I needed to understand:

Luckily, I've been learning (well, more like playing, but I learn stuff, too!) Yiddish on Duolingo for about two months, so I had a surprisingly useful starting vocabulary:

• ein = one
• di/der/dem = the
• un = and, so assume und = un = and
• er = suffix that makes parts of speech agree with each other

I was also fairly confident that this section of the claim discusses a load cell, so Wagezelle is fairly clearly Wage + zelle = weigh + cell = load cell.

The WHOLE POINT however, of this post, is that a funny story Uncle Man told me years ago actually contains shockingly good advice for understanding the basics of a German text. When he was in college/grad school, Uncle Man was handed a scientific paper written in German, a German-English dictionary, and was told, "In German, nouns are capitalized." 

Until I had to translate these two little lines, I never realized how useful it is to be able to identify nouns at a glance. Armed with that information (and Google Translate), I was fairly easily able to find what I need:

Isn't that cool? (Using, of course, my definition of cool, which is "nerdy happiness-making.")

Walking About

A few weeks ago, I realized that unlike his brothers at his age, BY had never been for an actual walk. I don't know if it's because we live in a city instead of a small town, or because I'm just busier now, but while both BSM and FF walked to and from their daycare, BY always gets pushed in the stroller (or carried in the baby carrier, in winter). 

So a few Shabbatot ago, I put BY's little sandals on his little feet (I mean, seriously, I found shoes for this kid so much later than for his brothers... who needs shoes if they never walk around on pavement?) and took him for a proper walk, and it was So. Cute. He really enjoyed stomping around under his own power, and he did not run into the street. So since then, I've taken him out for a walk at least every few days, and it continues to be adorable.

That's it. Not a big deal. But it's something that I wanted to Share with the Group.