Monday, June 8, 2015

Tender Typosphere Spring in Austria, and language diversity in the Typosphere

The German-speaking typosphere seems to be gaining momentum. A new blog "Die Schreibmaschinisten" (approx.: "the writing machine operators") has been set up by Rodja Pavlik in Vienna, Austria. Have a peek at https://dieschreibmaschinisten.wordpress.com (use google translate if needed). Welcome Rodja to the Typosphere!

It is a curious phenomenon that no sizeable typospherian community has formed until now in German speaking countries (at, least judging from the web presence in form of blogs), given the high affinity and technical tradition in these parts. It was more in the countries surrounding Germany that typospherian flowers blossomed. This is the case of the Netherlands, and of Switzerland, where three blogs were active in the early 2010s (although all of them, at least predominantly, in English language). As of now, only one of Swiss blogs (Sommeregger's Sammelsurium) is active. Also, Shordzi recently re-activated the blog running alongside typewriters.ch, and here most of the entries are in German. We may add the new webpage of the Swiss typewriter collectors' club (SHBS.ch), which is blog-based. It is not a typical typospherian blog though, if such thing exists.

In times of google translate, language barriers matter less. It is perfectly feasible, and in my view commendable, to foster language diversity in the typosphere. The long-standing Spanish-speaking blogs give a perfect example and show the way. Passive knowledge of the other-than-English pages will allow you to practice this language, and at the same time for the author to write in his/her mother tongue. Google translate, which by now is,  at least for the major languages, a reasonable tool, will help in case. So we have entered a period where cross-language understanding is possible, even without, or only little knowledge of the other language.

All the more we welcome Rodja's initiative. Looking forward to a Vienna type-in (maybe in July?)

7 comments:

Bill M said...

Good to see German language activity in the Typosphere.

Richard P said...

I agree, I oppose the hegemony of English.

One problem: Google Translate can't handle typecasts.

Anonymous said...

The more the merrier! I'd like to see more bloggers right across Europe and Latin America.

Anonymous said...

Hi, thank you for the nice posting and the nice welcome. I will try to do my best to uphold the typewriter here in Austria. I re-discovered the typewriter because I looked for a distraction-free alternative to the computer (I'm a weak person, you know). I thought the Hemingwrite would be perfect, but then again I considered the screen too small. So I visited a flea market in March and found an Olympia Monica de Luxe. And since then I'm hooked. I like my Monica which is a real "Arbeitsviech" (as we call it) - but I also enjoy the Hermes Baby. I also have an Olympia Traveller de Luxe S, Olympia Traveller C and a Smith-Corona super silent. Currently a Princess 300 is in service.

I want to do interviews, quotes, typwriters on film (music clips, movies), typewriters in the news, trends, etc., etc.

Kind regards

Rodja

Scott K said...

This is great to see. Welcome, good sir. Type like the wind!

Also.... Where's Florian?

Mark said...

Es gibt ein paar Amerikaner im Typosphere die Deutsch sprechen und lesen kann :)

Anonymous said...

Ich baue auch gerade noch etwas Kleines auf. Dauert aber noch ein bißchen und es wird auch kein echter Blog mit regelmäßig vielen neuen Beiträgen. Der Fokus liegt mehr darauf, die Schreibmaschinen zu zeigen und zu beschreiben, die ich aktiv nutze.

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