The Partner-School Email: Mediating German into Appropriate English
Your English class is preparing a reply to a German email from a partner school in Thüringen. The German text says: 'Liebe Frau Weber, wir möchten im Mai einen Schüleraustausch machen. Können Sie uns bitte mitteilen, ob Ihre Schule 20 Schüler aufnehmen kann? Wir brauchen auch Informationen über die Unterkunft. Bitte antworten Sie bis Freitag.' You must write the English reply. Your teacher reminds you: use formal register, answer all three points, and be careful with false friends. A classmate suggests: 'We can take up 20 pupils. Please answer until Friday. We need info about the underbringung.' You know this is not good English. The exchange is for Year 9. Your school can host 20 students in homestays. You also need to ask when the German students will arrive.
1. Improve the classmate's sentence 'We can take up 20 pupils.' What is wrong with it, and what would you write instead?
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'Take up' is wrong here. It usually means to start a hobby or to occupy space or time ('take up football', 'the table takes up too much room'). It does not mean to receive exchange students. A precise verb is host or accommodate: 'We can host 20 students.' 'Pupils' is not incorrect, but in an email about Year 9 exchange students, 'students' is more natural in international school English. The corrected sentence answers the German question directly: 'Können Sie uns bitte mitteilen, ob Ihre Schule 20 Schüler aufnehmen kann?' - 'We are pleased to confirm that we can host 20 students.'
2. Explain why 'Please answer until Friday' is not a good translation of 'Bitte antworten Sie bis Freitag'.
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German 'bis' can mean either 'until' or 'by', depending on the action. Here 'antworten' is a single completed action, so the meaning is a deadline: the reply must arrive no later than Friday. English 'until Friday' describes a continuous action that stops on Friday ('I will be on holiday until Friday'), which makes no sense for a single reply. The correct phrase is 'Please reply by Friday.' This is a classic mediation judgement: translate the function, not the word. The same distinction appears in 'by 15 March' on notices and forms.
3. How would you render 'Unterkunft' and 'Schüleraustausch' in the reply? Name the false-friend traps and give one full sentence using both correctly.
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'Unterkunft' is accommodation (British English) or housing. The classmate's 'underbringung' is a German-shaped invention, not an English word. 'Schüleraustausch' is a student exchange or school exchange, not a 'student swap' in formal writing. A suitable sentence: 'We can host 20 students in homestays, and we will send you more information about accommodation next week.' This answers the German request for 'Informationen über die Unterkunft' and keeps the formal register. Avoid literal translations; check whether the English word would be understood by a partner school without explanation.