03-18-2012, 07:07 AM
ezdays Wrote:... it's strange how our use of words have changed with technology ...
That is an effect I found very strange when I entered the computer business with an US company more than 35 years ago.
I had to learn all the US made computer slang and noticed very fast that that the US computer people reused words of the every days life for that new technology (e.g. bug, flag). At that time was the skill of English language not so prominent at German customers (e.g. operators) and the documentation was available in German language too. The terms used there were strongly influenced by German computer companies (e.g. Nixdorf and Siemens). They invented highly sophisticated new words for that new science. That made is awful to switch from English within the company to German talking to some customers because the US terms with their roots in daily US live had no connection to scientific German words with the same meaning.
Reinhard