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Sonntagsreden

English translation: soap box oratory

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German term or phrase:	Sonntagsreden
English translation:	soap box oratory
Entered by:	Ingeborg Gowans

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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 KudoZ activity Questions: 76 (9 open) (1 without valid answers) (3 closed without grading) Answers: 0 United Kingdom
Local time: 05:13

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
Canada
Local time: 01:13

Grading comment

Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

2 +9

soap box oratory

Ingeborg Gowans

3 +2

Sunday speeches

Annett Kottek

platitudes

Nicole Backhaus

homilies

Stephen Reader

grandiloquent speeches

makhno

Summary of reference entries provided

Sonntagsrede

Annett Kottek

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

35 mins confidence:

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
Canada
Local time: 01:13
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

Andrew Swift: 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

Goldcoaster

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: I think it works well here.

15 hrs

-> thank you, Bianca

agree

Sebla: ich stimme auch zu

1 day35 mins

-> vielen Dank, Sebla

36 mins confidence:

grandiloquent speeches

Explanation:
grandiloquent speeches

makhno
Ukraine
Local time: 07:13
Native speaker of:

Russian,

Ukrainian

14 hrs confidence:

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
United Kingdom
Native speaker of:

German

20 hrs confidence:

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
Honduras
Local time: 23:13
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

German

20 hrs confidence:

homilies

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

Stephen Reader
Germany
Local time: 06:13
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 3

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
United Kingdom
Native speaker of:

German