Introducing myself ...

[houdinination]

Hey!

I decided to check out some forums on the net to get a bit more insight into the genre and to practice my english.

So, you may notice me around various sf-related forums over christmas. Whatever works best will stick, i presume.

A bit about me: I live in germany, i speak english and I am studying finnish. I work in advertising but have far more fun translating sci-fi short stories from english to german for a german sf magazine. I also maintain an online archive of all sci-fi literature I consume (which is completely incomplete): http://www.houdinination.com
Speak laters!

[admin]

Welcome to sfsite.

I wouldn't mention this -- I'm obsessive compulsive, but not that excessive compulsive -- except that you mention that you want to practice English and are a translator. Yes, English capitalizes far fewer words than German, but we do capitalize "I" and "Christmas".

I hope you don't take offense.

Best,
Rick Norwood

[houdinination]

I always had problems with capitalizing 'I'. I don't really get, why one would do that. As for Christmas I can understand where the capital C comes from.

[admin]

If you expect English usage to be logical, you expect more than you will get. My best guess is that, in the days of metal type, the lower case i was one of the smallest letters, and apt to fall over unless held up by other letters, and so the capital I was used. But that's just a wild guess.

I do know that the "rule" about putting a close parenthesis outside a period instead of the other way around was to protect the tiny speck of type containing the period.

Rick

[Brightonian]

I don't know that capitalising "I" in English is any more or less logical than capitalising "Sie" in German (in the pollite 2nd-person use) is it?

[LapTop Lady]

Hello everyone! I'm LapTop Lady from the beautiful state of Virginia.

[houdinination]

I don't know that capitalising "I" in English is any more or less logical than capitalising "Sie" in German (in the pollite 2nd-person use) is it?

Well, you just said it. It's capitalized out of politeness or formality, paying respect to the person you are adressing (we do that with DU as well, the informal way of adressing a friend). I could now make a comment about the English always expressing respect to themselves *lol* but I like the explanation of metal types better, see above.