Is this an English language forum?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Interesting thread. I still can't understand why some collectors who collect items from another nation don't like to or don't want to bother using the correct terminology for their items.
Why do you want to change the name into English or whatever language? Do you translate my name into your native tongue, would you find it acceptable if I was to call you Francis instead of Franz? William instead of Guillaume?

At least if you do use the correct names and use them consistently you will find things easier when you search. You will get more results for Panzerkampfabzeichen than you will for PKA, TAB, Tank Badge, Tank Battle Badge or whatever combination of the previous you choose.

I don't get why the 'easy' option is always taken. Why not actually take the chance to learn, expand your knowledge. Why the arrogance to expect everything to be made easy for you, German badges have German names, they were made in Germany. Russian badges have Russian names, they were made in Russia. English badges have English names - you get the idea.

Quit the lazy culture and actually get learning, it's not hard!

Well said.

[tempelhof]

collectors of German militaria should learn some German or, if you find you enjoy the language... a lot of German.

i don't say this in the sense of any sort of snobbery or personal dogmatics AT ALL.

i truly believe that the collector who learns the terms and if he has the time, the language to even a minimally functional degree, is going to find his enjoyment of collecting increase to far greater extent than the effort expended to accomplish this.

there are so many resources out there to learn a language.

[tempelhof]

in the meantime there are individuals here to help and they will.

but i think learning the language pays back to the collector a pretty big dividend.

[Grimebox]

I managed to delete all of the images I ever uploaded (or downloaded?) on to War Relics, made a rather undesirable website my homepage (a bit embarassing that one!), regulary loose the tool bar or make the screen a strange size and managed to remove the printer from my work computer the other day.
My (cheap) laptop is two years old, if I right click on any page a grey box comes up with a variety of options including copy, print, etc. One of the options is 'Translate with Bing', I've also master the ability to use 'translate with Google' - If I can translate something on the computer then there's no excuse for anybody else!!!!

[Frundsberg]

Well, as my native language is not English but a little language with a little bit more that 1 million speakers I understand the problem pretty well. English is now like Latin in old times - every educated person used Latin at some level. English is now like "lingua franca" - the language many people can understand. Most of them are not native speakers. I personally like German language and also German names of German militaria. I belive it just shows it is a professional forum - if You collect German militaria it is of course possible not to know German at all but there is a lot of more fun if You know something:-). So why not to learn?

[Grimebox]

Nõustun teiega (see what I did there)

[Friedrich-Berthold]

collectors of German militaria should learn some German or, if you find you enjoy the language... a lot of German.

i don't say this in the any sort of snobbery or personal dogmatics AT ALL.

i truly believe that the collector who learns the terms and if he has the time, the language to even a minimally functional degree, is going to find his enjoyment of collecting increase to far greater extent than the effort expended to accomplish this.

there are so many resources out there to learn a language.

Well said. I am dogmatic on this point, and if such strikes others as snobbery, then so be it. There are many hard and unpleasant truths here, and the worse snobbery is that of those who know much and retain it in an anal retentive way.

This undertaking is not for the faint of heart.

It demands knowledge and a flexible, subtle mind.

I do this all professionally (advanced study and publish in German) , and the dumbing down thing because of the globalization of English, especially a pretty horrid 21st century English, does no serious collector any honor.

The baby talk, we-are-the-in-group-you-are the out group argot names for caps, cap makers, badges, and on and on are grotesque, misleading and harmful to historical precision and the formation of knowledge.

Adrian Stevenson wants to set a high standard, and many of us have busted our a$$es over the years to do so as he has directed. Much of this effort is simply too hard for the lazy and uninterested, whose approach to collecting is on an unsound basis.

The other website revels in collector happy talk, poor grammar, and the tyranny of the lowest common denominator.

We do better here.

[Adrian]

Unfortunately many English speakers never bother to learn another language or go abroad expecting everyone else to speak English. It's embarrassing, arrogant and completely unnecessary.

I go to Germany or France and I make every effort to speak the native language. So far I've never gone hungry, always found a toilet and always had a roof over my head. I struggle on some things but the person I'm communicating with will always appreciate my effort to converse with them in their language and not expect them to switch their language in their country to mine.

On this forum we don't want to go the same way as my first lines. We want to encourage and help members to learn the correct names for their pieces. Yes, the correct names. A German badge for example was made in Germany and given a German name. We can translate that name into another language to gain the meaning but we shouldn't use that meaning in everyday use. We should make every effort to use the correct name for the correct piece.

It is our mentality of taking the easy option and our laziness that takes away from the hobby and actually takes away from history. If we continually ignore the origins of our collections we are guilty of erasing history and the terms and names will be lost to time.
If you make the effort to collect militaria or indeed anything else from times gone by and preserve it for future generations, you should also make the effort to preserve everything about that piece - including it's name. It's such a basic and easy thing to do.

[Paul D]

What !! Adrian you mean you don't just speak English slowly and shout as loud as you can !!

[Adrian]

I used to Paul but then discovered that Europeans aren't all deaf or daft!