Unfamiliar Face...book.

   Reading through Facebook in German this weekend was quite an eye opener.  When skimming through this familiar site in a different language it truly shows the obvious similarities and differences between English and the German language.  It was especially intriguing when looking at the different options you have when trying to comment on or like a specific status.
   One of the more interesting aspects of Facebook in German, is the fact that there are so many cognates.  For example, to comment on a status, you simply click the button labeled kommentieren.  It was also fairly easy to determine that that "suche" meant search in the drop box where you may search for a friend to chat with.  These cognates are a great help when trying to deal with a site that is currently being processed in a language that you are not completely familiar with.
    Although there were many helpful similarities between the site in German and the site in English, it is also worth mentioning that some differences could make it difficult to navigate the site in German. One major example of one such difference is the fact that the "share" button for a specific status is labeled "tellen" when viewing the site in German.  This was misleading to me due to the fact that "tellen" seems more like "comment" or "tell' in English. This could definitely confuse the user of Facebook if they were unfamiliar with the location of each specific button prior to this experience.
    Overall, I feel that this experience shows exactly how important both the similarities and differences are when it comes to one language compared to another.  This shows me that in the future, it may be a good idea to look for cognates in a German sentence to help decipher it.  It also shows that when using cognates to help interpret a foreign language, you must be careful not to assume every similar word directly translates.  These ideas will play an important role in the future development in my understanding of the German language.