Grammar

[bktheirregular]

OK, maybe I'm a narrow-minded foreigner in this place, but Greek can handle subject-verb-object construction. Or even object-verbed-by-subject. Instead, I keep running into sentences in legal documents which are verb-subject-object, or verb-object-subject, and after five read-throughs, I still can't tell the subject from the object, and that sort of thing is kind of important in a legal document, you know what I mean?

If I'd handed in documents as poorly constructed as the ones I'm trying to translate, I'd have been failed out of whatever class I was taking. And it's not just a mediocre understanding of a foreign language; I've given some of these documents to native speakers who were baffled as to what the writers were trying to say.

One thing I miss in Athens: micro-coated aspirins. You can get aspirin, but only in blister packs, and they're the sort that taste like chalk when you try to swallow them...

Comments

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

If it helps, ancient Greek does the same thing, and Plato loved driving people mad over it.

It doesn't help, does it. :(

[bktheirregular]

Just makes me want to go back in time and thump the smug yotz*. Despite what some reactionaries may think, the legal profession does depend on precision.

*He's not the only one either. Going back to October 2004 and kneecapping Curt Schilling is high on my list.

[marzouki.livejournal.com]

Oh, you poor thing!

You have my sympathies, greek legalese is an absolute nightmare.
Between katharevousa and the fact that the sentences have to be constructed a specific way to be legally bounding (is that the right word?), they're incomprehensible to pretty much everyone.

Re: the micro-coated aspirins. I know it's been a long time, but have you tried σαλοσπίρη? (acetylsalicylic acid covered so as to be easier on your stomach lining)

er, I saw your comment in (I think) copperbadge's journal at some point, noticed your icon and came over (and snooped, sorry!) to your journal.

Hope you don't mind my friending you, I find your perspective on my language fascinating.