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die der Gesellschaft aus der Gründung gegen die Organe zustehen
formschlüssig
Feb 19, 2009 09:34
15 yrs ago
28 viewers *
German term

Bausparen

German to English Bus/Financial Finance (general)
I’m actually looking to translate the Czech "Stavební spoření" (see
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/czech_to_english/finance_general/3... This is a system where you have a savings scheme at a building society, ostensibly with the purpose of combining it with a construction/home-improvement-related loan. The government makes contributions to these schemes. Is Bausparen a similar product and would something like “Bausparen-style savings scheme” be acceptable/understandable? Any suggestions welcome.
Proposed translations (English)
4 Definition
5 "bausparen"
4 building society scheme (BE); savings and loan association sheme (AE)

Discussion

Stuart Hoskins (asker) Feb 19, 2009:
It's probably more for European purposes. It's the sort of thing which is going to crop up in personal income tax returns in the next couple of months (plus some Czech building societies are also trying to pass on their experience to the Romanians at seminars for some reason). I don't suppose I need a snappy marketing term, it's not as though loads of Brits are falling over themselves to sign up with a Czech building society.
David Moore (X) Feb 19, 2009:
But whatever you do, here it would be essential to wait for peer comment from the USA. Personally, I don't know whether the US scheme uses government subsidis(z)ation or not. In any case, I'd say "do not use" "Bausparen-style".
David Moore (X) Feb 19, 2009:
If this relates to the USA, feel free to take Vittorio's answer; but if you are writing for a British audience, there is no such thing in the UK. You would have to use "a government-subsidised building savings scheme" or something like that.

Proposed translations

49 mins
Selected

Definition

A government-subsidised building savings scheme.

I suggest you DO use "Bausparen" as you suggest, and add this as an explanation.

In the UK, there is NO such scheme, unless it's been introduced very recently - like yesterday.

And to answer Vittorio's point. IMO the term "building Society" is a total misnomer; that is not what they do; they have no subsidy or anything like that to offer their investors, unless you call an enhanced rate of interest a government subsidy....

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Note added at 5 hrs (2009-02-19 14:42:39 GMT)
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Hi Stuart: you are translating something everyone knows about today, not what they hope might happen at some time in the distant future, so that is the basis on which I offered my answer.

The idea of government subsidy for building is a two-edged sword, anyway. When I see how many hundreds of acres have been built on in the last decade or so since I cam to Braunschweig, I think in another fifty years there will be no greenery left, and they'll have to start chopping down the Schwarzwald, Bayrischer Wald, Böhmischer Wald (to come closer to your home!) and so on to carry on building.

It's all an extension of greed and selfishness anyway; few people today are prepared to show consideration to other people and live in communities as they did in flats here very happily up to probably thirty years ago. Then parents stopped bothering how much noise their offspring made........and those offspring today have to "get out of town", because they have no self-discipline.

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Note added at 5 hrs (2009-02-19 14:44:30 GMT)
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BTW, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors wouldn't have a vested interest in people all suddenly wanting their own houses built, would it???
Note from asker:
David, I was given this related reference regarding the UK, looks like someone's pushing for change: http://www.rics.org/NR/rdonlyres/C7F56672-6763-4D5B-AD5E-1E0E7FCEDD00/0/366_HomeBuy_ISA_Layout1.pdf
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thanks for the advice. All very useful. I take Geoff's example as confirmation of David's."
5 mins

building society scheme (BE); savings and loan association sheme (AE)

from my database
Peer comment(s):
neutral David Moore (X) : Your database may have the US term, but the British term???
2 mins
in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_society you find the list of teh 55 British "building societies"
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8 hrs

"bausparen"

I used to work for a UK building society in Germany which also had a subsidiary German "Bausparkasse". Despite the fact that a common dictionary translation of "Bausparkasse" is "building society" this is totally misleading as the two types of organisation are quite different. We always kept words like "Bausparkasse" and "Bausparen" in the original German and provided an explanation where necessary. Incidentally, "bausparen" as an activity may or may not lead to buying or building a house. There are tax advantages associated with "bausparen" and so many people engage in "bausparen" with no ultimate intention of building a house.
Note from asker:
Building society: yes that's exactly my problem with the Czech - it's not an equivalent institution. And your last point fits in with the Czech system too - many people have no intention of building, they just use the scheme for the tax advantages. So I think I could use the German in a translation from Czech to English. I am toying with the idea of keeping the term in the original Czech (with an explanation), but obviously Czech isn't an international language so you never know whether it will be found acceptable.
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