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Sonntagsreden

English translation: soap box oratory

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:Sonntagsreden
English translation:soap box oratory
Entered by: Ingeborg Gowans (X)

19:54 Oct 17, 2009
German to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Psychology
German term or phrase: Sonntagsreden
Author mentions that in everyday life, the subject of ethics mainly pops up in "Sonntagsreden" (inverted comma's his).
Emma Rault (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:18
soap box oratory
Explanation:
ww.dict.cc/german-english/Sonntagsreden+[abwertend].html

always in a slightly negative context. "hollow speech" maybe without any substance
Selected response from:

Ingeborg Gowans (X)
Canada
Local time: 21:18
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
2 +9soap box oratory
Ingeborg Gowans (X)
3 +2Sunday speeches
Annett Kottek (X)
4platitudes
Nicole Backhaus
3homilies
Stephen Reader
2grandiloquent speeches
makhno
Summary of reference entries provided
Sonntagsrede
Annett Kottek (X)

Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


35 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +9
soap box oratory


Explanation:
ww.dict.cc/german-english/Sonntagsreden+[abwertend].html

always in a slightly negative context. "hollow speech" maybe without any substance

Ingeborg Gowans (X)
Canada
Local time: 21:18
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Lancashireman: Not sure, but it was at least the answer accepted last time round: http://www.proz.com/kudoz/german_to_english/government_polit...
3 hrs
  -> thanks, Andrew; I hadn't seen the entry in Kudoz
agree  Nicole Schnell
6 hrs
  -> thanks, Nicole
agree  Stephen Sadie
9 hrs
  -> thank you, Stephen
agree  Ingrid Moore
10 hrs
  -> danke, Liebe Ingrid
agree  writeaway: also in Duden-Oxford
10 hrs
  -> yes, indeed, thanks, writeaway
agree  Rolf Keiser
12 hrs
  -> thank you. Goldcoaster
agree  Harald Moelzer (medical-translator): you are right...and they say, it is particularly crowded on Sundays... :-D
14 hrs
  -> vielen Dank, Harald; makes me think of Hyde Park corner where people actually still take the opportunity to deliver speeches on whatever moves them :)
agree  Bianca Marsden-Day: I think it works well here.
15 hrs
  -> thank you, Bianca
agree  Sebla Ronayne: ich stimme auch zu
1 day 35 mins
  -> vielen Dank, Sebla
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36 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
grandiloquent speeches


Explanation:
grandiloquent speeches

makhno
Local time: 03:18
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian, Native in UkrainianUkrainian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  writeaway: it's what Langenscheidt gives as translation but I doubt that a back translation would end up with the original German. doesn't just apply to soapbox speeches.
10 hrs
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14 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Sunday speeches


Explanation:
An alternative, more in line, I think, with the definition of 'Sonntagsrede' that I've given below. I associate soapbox oratory with a critical, urgent, or even angry agenda, but a 'Sonntagsrede' can also be used just to mark and celebrate [a special occasion], and be just conciliatory (e.g. 1st example below).


‘It is certainly not enough if politicians say poetic words about Europe only in their ****Sunday speeches****, and then resort to nationalism and populism in their weekly decisions.’
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEE...


‘The heads of major corporations often give speeches on highly visible occasions about the poor academic skills of young people and the resulting problems for national productivity. […] Yet there are reasons for doubting these claims. Some critics have wondered whether these ****Sunday speeches**** are merely a smoke screen to justify offering poor jobs and poor pay to youths…’
http://books.google.com/books?id=TxcB7-PANfQC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8...


‘****Soapbox oratory**** is simply, but not merely, the practice of impromptu and extemporaneous public speaking. It made use of anything expedient-a soap crate, a curbstone, or a stepladder-from which to orate and as a means to elevate the speaker above the audience. One of the interests in this study of soapbox oratory is to discover its origins as an institution of democratic social interaction and accessible rhetoric linking local scenes to larger, informal networks and formal affiliations. This is the soapbox of labor and radicalism in the early decades of this century, before its assimilation into larger institutional and institutionalized settings and its latter-day revival in Civil Rights oratory. This is the soapbox of the street corner, at the factory gate, in the mining town, at the gob pile down in the mines, at railroad stems in lumber camps, on waterfront piers, and in public parks and Bughouse squares across the country before it merges with the speechmaking in the union hall and at political conventions.’
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3732/is_200601/ai_n1...


Annett Kottek (X)
United Kingdom
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  British Diana: This answer contains the word "Sunday" which I see as absolutely essential
35 mins
agree  franglish
3 hrs
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20 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
platitudes


Explanation:
a "Sonntagsrede" is a speech in which a politician makes mass-pleasing promises and statements that he does not seem to remember the next day. Platitudes, but no action.

Traditionally the word includes a pious component that does not apply anymore.

Nicole Backhaus
Local time: 17:18
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 8
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20 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
homilies


Explanation:
- applying the term loosely (strictly, à la Langenscheidt, they're real sermons with an accent on practical application)

Stephen Reader
Local time: 02:18
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 3
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Reference comments


11 hrs peer agreement (net): +1
Reference: Sonntagsrede

Reference information:
Sonntagsrede (abwertend): bei feierlichen Anlässen gehaltene schöne Rede [mit großen, der Realität meist nicht standhaltenden Worten].
© Duden - Deutsches Universalwörterbuch, 6. Aufl. Mannheim 2006 [CD-ROM].

Annett Kottek (X)
United Kingdom
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  writeaway: that's how I always heard it used when I lived in Germany. Bla-bla and empty promises. but with 00 real context, the dictionary translation will have to do.
10 hrs
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