Nintendo's Swedish distributor brought some unwanted attention upon itself for the web address for Successfully Learning German: Year 2. The address happened to include the wording "Arbeit Macht Frei", which is a phrase that was commonly used with Nazi-related concentration camps. Apparently the person that put together the web address was not familiar with the term, and was using it in its original "work sets you free" meaning. Nintendo's distributor has since apologized for the mistake.
As someone who has a degree in German, I'm wondering how the fuck can someone be familiar with that phrase without also possessing knowledge of the cultural connotations of it?
Apparently, "Arbeit Mach Frei" is one of those phrases nobody knows the origins of.
Like the ol' "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic," and "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem." Everyone thinks Stalin said these two things--in actuality, he said no such thing himself. They're both quotes from fictional characters from popular books.
No, the origin of the phrase comes from a novel called Arbeit macht frei: Erzählung von Lorenz Diefenbach. It had become a colloquialism of German-speaking regions in the early 1900s, but the phrase is now synonymous with Nazi labor camps. I have no idea how someone could use the phrase (technically) correctly, and have no idea of it's contemporary connotation.
Nintendo's Swedish distributor states that they will more carefully chose their words with the Successfully Learning German: Year 2 web address moving ahead. After taking the time to offer another public apology, one of the translators briefly talked about the game:
"We've helped people increase their Brain Age, learn Spanish, and now we are taking the Successfully Learning German franchise to the next step with Year 2. This expands upon the foundation built with the first game to get users ready to speak German in a variety of potential encounters. We hope that you look forward to our game! We're making sure this one gets plenty of time in the oven."
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
This is the second or third time Reggie has been on the show. He was on another time showing off Donkey Kong Country Returns and the 3DS. Its like he keeps doing things to try to win the sort of people who would post here over, but he still hasn't gotten any funnier.
Still, cool to see the extra exposure.
Am I the only one who noticed the console was front and center?
I honestly don't give a shit if some Germans are offended by a phrase.
Well, the Holocaust is still a touchy subject for some people. Can't imagine why.
Because the Nazis killed millions of Jews.
And Roma and gays and Polish people and many more groups. I'm really tired of the sterotype that the Nazis just targeted Jews during the Holocaust. They were the main focus, to be sure, but a lot of ethnic, religious, and sexual groups were targeted as well.
See, people really don't know the origins of it, frequently--I assumed it was just an adage that was "popularized" with the gates of the death camps.
Plenty of people don't know shit about history. Any history. I remember about twelve or thirteen years ago there was some...thing...going on to preserve Manzanar. People ten, twenty years older than me never heard of it.
Some things will stick, the rest of it just dissolves.
This is a really bad one, though. Honestly, I was waiting for such a thing to eventually show up. The English translation sound so philosophical that you just know somebody would use it without considering the possible context.
They may not have released it earlier than they planned, but the way they launched it made it feel like half of a system. If you're planning on adding features to the device in the future that's great, but don't try to tell me that you're selling me a complete product when I can click on a menu pick and be greeted with a message that essentially says "LOL maybe later, serves you right for buying in the first wave, chump!" And they're still not done implementing features that they were touting before launch. If it won't be ready at launch then don't tell me about it before launch.
I honestly don't give a shit if some Germans are offended by a phrase.
Well, the Holocaust is still a touchy subject for some people. Can't imagine why.
Because the Nazis killed millions of Jews.
And Roma and gays and Polish people and many more groups. I'm really tired of the sterotype that the Nazis just targeted Jews during the Holocaust. They were the main focus, to be sure, but a lot of ethnic, religious, and sexual groups were targeted as well.
This is absolutely true, only about half the victims of the holocaust were Jewish.
However, you should also keep in mind that the Nazi's were attempting to (and largely succeeded in) commit systematic genocide against the Jews, something which could not be said for the other victims. The holocaust was not just about death camps, but the rise of a hyper-nationalist German state where Jewish citizens were forced to wear stars/forced into Ghettos etc. The killing was awful, but the thing we should focus on learning from are the political and social changes which took place that enabled the holocaust.
Though Democrat and Republican administrations and through booms and busts, crime has been falling since 1991.
There is little evidence the recession has influenced crime rates
Murder and robbery rates nearly halved from 1991-98, a phenomenon that has saved thousands of lives and spared many more potential victims of crime.
The pace of the reduction slowed in the late 90s but new FBI figures show the sharp drop in crime that began around 2008 continued last year, despite high unemployment.
No-one agrees on the reasons for this. Here are 10 possible theories.
[...]
9. A study released last month suggested video games were keeping young people off the streets and therefore away from crime. Researchers in Texas working with the Centre for European Economic Research said this "incapacitation effect" more than offset any direct impact the content of the games may have had in encouraging violent behaviour.
but would someone think of the children?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!1ONE!
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
There were ten other theories presented which give that one its proper context as speculation.
It's inappropriate to quote it out of context, I think, regardless of how helpful you think you might be. It's giving it too much emphasis.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
This is absolutely true, only about half the victims of the holocaust were Jewish.
However, you should also keep in mind that the Nazi's were attempting to (and largely succeeded in) commit systematic genocide against the Jews, something which could not be said for the other victims. The holocaust was not just about death camps, but the rise of a hyper-nationalist German state where Jewish citizens were forced to wear stars/forced into Ghettos etc. The killing was awful, but the thing we should focus on learning from are the political and social changes which took place that enabled the holocaust.
The issue with this is that it leads to historically revisionism in the popular conception that it was only Jews who suffered during the holocaust. The problems with such should be pretty self evident, but I suppose if we gave equally weighting to say the guys in pink stars who were treated as badly by the other innmates as the guards it would open difficult questions.
This is absolutely true, only about half the victims of the holocaust were Jewish.
However, you should also keep in mind that the Nazi's were attempting to (and largely succeeded in) commit systematic genocide against the Jews, something which could not be said for the other victims. The holocaust was not just about death camps, but the rise of a hyper-nationalist German state where Jewish citizens were forced to wear stars/forced into Ghettos etc. The killing was awful, but the thing we should focus on learning from are the political and social changes which took place that enabled the holocaust.
The issue with this is that it leads to historically revisionism in the popular conception that it was only Jews who suffered during the holocaust. The problems with such should be pretty self evident, but I suppose if we gave equally weighting to say the guys in pink stars who were treated as badly by the other innmates as the guards it would open difficult questions.
And let's not forget that the folks in pink triangles weren't rescued like the others. They were sent right back into prison by the "liberating" forces.
But yeah, bad phrase is bad. They chose poorly.
Also, Reggie looks like he's about to drive up Jimmy's chocolate highway in that video's beginning.
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
- Good luck to Nintendo, it's good for the industry, they will have to show they are bringing something new. Nintendo has a different target , Playstation = gamers and casuals, Wii = families.
So now Wii isn't for casualz or does families = not casualz...or what.
Dear lord we need to make up our minds what each term means! Yeesh.
Yeah, I guess I can see what they mean. There's some crap on the Wii that doesn't even qualify as games so it can't even be casual anymore. iOS stuff is the new casual market with stuff like...... ANGRY BIRDS.
See that's one of the things that pisses me off the most about Angry Birds... It just pisses other people off by merely mentioning it.
I think that's the funniest thing about it.
Not that those people are funny by being angry, just that it's such an amazingly hot topic.
I honestly don't understand it. I played the game... and it was fun. But I've played games like that on Kongregate many years ago so it wasn't anything special to me.
This is absolutely true, only about half the victims of the holocaust were Jewish.
However, you should also keep in mind that the Nazi's were attempting to (and largely succeeded in) commit systematic genocide against the Jews, something which could not be said for the other victims. The holocaust was not just about death camps, but the rise of a hyper-nationalist German state where Jewish citizens were forced to wear stars/forced into Ghettos etc. The killing was awful, but the thing we should focus on learning from are the political and social changes which took place that enabled the holocaust.
The issue with this is that it leads to historically revisionism in the popular conception that it was only Jews who suffered during the holocaust. The problems with such should be pretty self evident, but I suppose if we gave equally weighting to say the guys in pink stars who were treated as badly by the other innmates as the guards it would open difficult questions.
And let's not forget that the folks in pink triangles weren't rescued like the others. They were sent right back into prison by the "liberating" forces.
But yeah, bad phrase is bad. They chose poorly.
Also, Reggie looks like he's about to drive up Jimmy's chocolate highway in that video's beginning.
For example, within the historical narrative in the USSR and CIS, you have an interpretation: that the Holocaust of the 1940s is not a uniquely Jewish phenomenon. There are two particular groups of victims that are of particular interest, and in turn led to millions of deaths in numbers comprable (and sometimes, in pure numbers actually higher than the Jews, though not as a percentage necessarily)--the attempted extermination of the Slavs and Asian nationalities living in the western USSR, and the extermination of the political left (everything from political officers in the commissar order to anyone determined to be even the lowest functionary of the communist party, or members of the German left).
Millions of these people died. The Jewish Holocaust isn't obviously limited to people who were killed in camps--victims include those who, for example, were shot by the German Army, or by those whom were targetted in civilian pogroms in Ukraine or the Baltics during German occupation. Likewise, the thousands of civil officials or millions of POWs killed, a large portion of them in the concentration camps, but also many who simply were shot when found or died in custody of the army. Because of the nature of the war, this same thing did not happen to, say, British or American civil servants, or French POWs (though you did have similarities in the German occupation of Poland).
Combine that with the deliberately secularist, anti-religious tone the USSR governments took before and after the war--that Jews were murdered because they were members of a race, not a religion, and because a disproportionately high number of them were members of the intelligensia and the political establishment (which is not necessarily incorrect if you look at the motivations of the Nazi leadership), and you have a narrative with a very different emphasis than that in America or England. More relevantly, I guess, I could see Nintendo's partner company's mistake being considered in extremely bad taste to people in the CIS countries.
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This isn't really a "Nintendo trying to score points" thing, it's a "Jimmy Fallon likes nerd shit" thing.
Picture Me Rollin'
Edit: Holy shit! Did everyone in the audience just get a copy of the game?
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516
Like the ol' "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic," and "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem." Everyone thinks Stalin said these two things--in actuality, he said no such thing himself. They're both quotes from fictional characters from popular books.
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516
Well, the Holocaust is still a touchy subject for some people. Can't imagine why.
Because the Nazis killed millions of Jews.
The Nazi's had a large sign over the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp which read "Work Will Set You Free".
I know that. I've known it since high school.
I HAD ONE!
"We've helped people increase their Brain Age, learn Spanish, and now we are taking the Successfully Learning German franchise to the next step with Year 2. This expands upon the foundation built with the first game to get users ready to speak German in a variety of potential encounters. We hope that you look forward to our game! We're making sure this one gets plenty of time in the oven."
Am I the only one who noticed the console was front and center?
And Roma and gays and Polish people and many more groups. I'm really tired of the sterotype that the Nazis just targeted Jews during the Holocaust. They were the main focus, to be sure, but a lot of ethnic, religious, and sexual groups were targeted as well.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Plenty of people don't know shit about history. Any history. I remember about twelve or thirteen years ago there was some...thing...going on to preserve Manzanar. People ten, twenty years older than me never heard of it.
Some things will stick, the rest of it just dissolves.
This is a really bad one, though. Honestly, I was waiting for such a thing to eventually show up. The English translation sound so philosophical that you just know somebody would use it without considering the possible context.
This is absolutely true, only about half the victims of the holocaust were Jewish.
However, you should also keep in mind that the Nazi's were attempting to (and largely succeeded in) commit systematic genocide against the Jews, something which could not be said for the other victims. The holocaust was not just about death camps, but the rise of a hyper-nationalist German state where Jewish citizens were forced to wear stars/forced into Ghettos etc. The killing was awful, but the thing we should focus on learning from are the political and social changes which took place that enabled the holocaust.
Oh right, videogames...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13799616
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
CAUTION: Children at Play - The Truth About Violent Youth and Video Games
It's inappropriate to quote it out of context, I think, regardless of how helpful you think you might be. It's giving it too much emphasis.
The issue with this is that it leads to historically revisionism in the popular conception that it was only Jews who suffered during the holocaust. The problems with such should be pretty self evident, but I suppose if we gave equally weighting to say the guys in pink stars who were treated as badly by the other innmates as the guards it would open difficult questions.
And let's not forget that the folks in pink triangles weren't rescued like the others. They were sent right back into prison by the "liberating" forces.
But yeah, bad phrase is bad. They chose poorly.
Also, Reggie looks like he's about to drive up Jimmy's chocolate highway in that video's beginning.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=434701
Here's a fun snippit I found:
So now Wii isn't for casualz or does families = not casualz...or what.
Dear lord we need to make up our minds what each term means! Yeesh.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
ha ha i said it
You've doomed us all!
DAMN YOUUUUUUU
It's alright.
I think that's the funniest thing about it.
Not that those people are funny by being angry, just that it's such an amazingly hot topic.
I thought of this thread and laughed the other day when I booted up my 360. There was a big ol picture of an Angry Bird right on the dashboard.
"Oh man, there's gonna be some Angry Nerds oh ho ho..."
Angry Birds
Angry Birds
Stop that. That's just mean. You're being mean. You're mean.
I honestly don't understand it. I played the game... and it was fun. But I've played games like that on Kongregate many years ago so it wasn't anything special to me.
For example, within the historical narrative in the USSR and CIS, you have an interpretation: that the Holocaust of the 1940s is not a uniquely Jewish phenomenon. There are two particular groups of victims that are of particular interest, and in turn led to millions of deaths in numbers comprable (and sometimes, in pure numbers actually higher than the Jews, though not as a percentage necessarily)--the attempted extermination of the Slavs and Asian nationalities living in the western USSR, and the extermination of the political left (everything from political officers in the commissar order to anyone determined to be even the lowest functionary of the communist party, or members of the German left).
Millions of these people died. The Jewish Holocaust isn't obviously limited to people who were killed in camps--victims include those who, for example, were shot by the German Army, or by those whom were targetted in civilian pogroms in Ukraine or the Baltics during German occupation. Likewise, the thousands of civil officials or millions of POWs killed, a large portion of them in the concentration camps, but also many who simply were shot when found or died in custody of the army. Because of the nature of the war, this same thing did not happen to, say, British or American civil servants, or French POWs (though you did have similarities in the German occupation of Poland).
Combine that with the deliberately secularist, anti-religious tone the USSR governments took before and after the war--that Jews were murdered because they were members of a race, not a religion, and because a disproportionately high number of them were members of the intelligensia and the political establishment (which is not necessarily incorrect if you look at the motivations of the Nazi leadership), and you have a narrative with a very different emphasis than that in America or England. More relevantly, I guess, I could see Nintendo's partner company's mistake being considered in extremely bad taste to people in the CIS countries.