I am appliing for a sixth form college in England, and a teacher of mine wrote me letter of recommendation -
unfortunatelly in German
So I tried to translate it but I guess I made quite some mistakes in it, so please help me to get it right.
Thank you soooooooo much!!!
Here it is:
Dear Miss P.,
With this I confirm that I was your teacher in the subjects accounting, computersupported-accounting, trainingsfirm and project-work in the third form of the Handelsakademie school.
You were a qualified and careful student.
Your behaviour was always faultless (?).
Your creative abilities in use of multimedia and webdesign were extraordinary.
In our trainingsfirm “La Fleur” you were in charge of the promotion department and responsible for new promotion ideas. I hope you will have the chance to (stay on this path???) and will find tasks that enable you to use your abilities.
Dear Miss P.,
With this letter, I confirm that I was your teacher for the following subjects while you were a student of the Handelsakademie school.
accounting,
computersupported-accounting,
trainingsfirm (Sorry BD, I cannot figure this one out.)
and in the third form Project, La Fleur.
You were a qualified and careful student.
Your behaviour was always faultless (This is OK).
Your creative abilities in use of multimedia and webdesign were extraordinary.
In our trainingsfirm (Would this be like a school play?) “La Fleur” you were in charge of the promotion department and responsible for new promotion ideas. I hope you will have the chance to persue this path and will find tasks that enable you to use your abilities.
Dear Miss P.,
With this I confirm that I was your teacher in the subjects accounting, computer supported-accounting, trainings firm (trainings-firm? tutoring, perhaps?) and project-work in the third form of the Handelsakademie school.
You were a qualified and careful student.
Your behaviour was always faultless.
Your creative abilities in use of multimedia and web-design were extraordinary.
In our trainingsfirm (I guess not tutoring. What does La Fleur mean? That would help.) “La Fleur” you were in charge of the promotion department and responsible for new promotion ideas. I hope you will have the chance to continue in this course and find tasks that enable you to use your abilities.
trainingsfirm is the right word -
it also exists in English and American business orientated schools.
It is like a real company - with bank accounts and goods and everything. Only that goods and money only exist on the paper. We trade goods with other trainingsfirms and get “imaginary” sellery…
La Fleur means “The Flower” (whoever came up with that company name should burn in hell)
We sell beauty products (yuck), fitness stuff and beauty-weekends.
Suck suck… I wish I had gotten to be in an other of our school’s companies… ours is the shittiest one grrr
I believe this is known as a “young enterprise scheme” in English schools. I have never encountered the word “trainingsfirm”.
As for the body of the letter, I have been rather frewe with the interpretation, but here is my effort:
I think you need some explanation of trainingsfirm, since the word won’t necessarily be familiar to an English sixth form college. Likewise, some of the adjectives (e.g. by “qualified” she must mean “capable” or “able”: “qualified” means holding formal qualifications) need to change to render it into idiomatic English.
That said, I think that the overall sense of the original is clear from your original translation.
… because the money and goods are real andI was a Finance Director in one. We spent hours making hair grips which fell apart and I had to balance the books, write cheques and wander around with lots of change from our purchases and sales. So it must be something else but quite similar.
nadin, you’re right. I missed the point in BornDodgy’s post about the money and goods only existing on paper. In that case, I don’t think there is a close equivalent in English schools, but I think TwistofFate’s “mock company” should do the trick.
One of the trainings firm at my school does sell goods… but only as an extra…
some trainingsfirms do it… but most dont… I guess I ll look up some of my old info sheets from when we were at the international trainings firm meeting… mock company sounds like what it is… I ll use that…
the confusionist
dodgy
Make sure you put a comma after La Fleur in that sentence. (See below)
…
In our training-firm, La Fleur, you were in charge of the promotion department and responsible for new promotion ideas. I hope you will have the opportunity to continue to pursue these interests and will find tasks that enable you to use your abilities.
…
