I was very surprised as a German blamed me, because
I have written the dissolved sounds Umlaut in 2 vowels. The dissolved sounds
Umlaut in German are sounds which are dissolved from 2 vowels. The Germans have
specified letters for these sounds. The letters have 2 dots on them. ä, ö, ü are
dissolved sounds Umlaut and if the Umlaut letters are not available, it should
be written like follows: ae for ä, oe for ö, ue for ü. These Umlaut letters
are of course printed on every keyboard of typewriters and computers in their
origin. In Indonesia these Umlaut letters are not yet available until now.
Following the quotation of the email of that German
(the translation, it was in Indonesian language):
“...It is not allowed: Privatlehrerin
fuer Deutsch. It should be Privatlehrerin
für Deutsch. Why don’t you write the Umlaut letters: ä, ü, ö. My
keyboard also doesn’t have Umlaut letters, but it is really very easy to type
them. “
I have learnt German since High School until
university. It was taught so clearly: if the Umlaut letters are not available,
they should be written in 2 vowels. If not, the sound is wrong, can be
confused. How to differentiate for example these following words: zählen and
zahlen, schön and schon, drücken and drucken? This is the first time in my life
that a German blamed me for writing Umlaut sounds in 2 vowels.