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I am working on a project with my son for his school's presentation on Germany. We are having a selfie station where the children can stand in front of a backdrop of Rothenburg and use selfie props. I'm trying to write the signs in English and German but don't know how to label this. I know "selfie" is pretty self-explanatory, but I want to be consistent with the signage in English and German. Any suggestions?

English: Selfie Station

German: ???

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Nice idea! My first impulse would be to just use the English sign; it will be understood in Germany, too.

If you really want to translate "station", one way would be the German "die Station" (= the stop), which, with German spelling, would make it "Selfie-Station".

Or maybe "der Stand" (= booth), so this would be "Selfie-Stand".

Also possible, but a bit square, would be "Selfie-Kulisse" (Kulisse = theater backdrop, scenery) or "Selfie-Hintergrund" (= backdrop).

Given that German "Station" and English "station" are so similar, unless you want something that looks particularly German, I would probably stick with the English sign, but you know better what fits the situation.

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    Of course, one can also do a proper compound noun without a hyphen, like Selfiestand.
    – Carsten S
    Mar 24 at 19:16
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    @CarstenS Selfieanfertigungsgelegenheitspopupstation would look appropriately German.
    – HalvarF
    Mar 24 at 23:59
  • @CarstenS: To omit the hyphen isn't optional.
    – user unknown
    Mar 26 at 10:52
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    @userunknown Doch, of course it is. Setting a hyphen for readability ("zur Verdeutlichung") makes sense for "Selfie-Station" because Selfie is a relatively new word with non-German pronuciation,. while "station" has both a German and an English pronunciation and the German one is meant.
    – HalvarF
    Mar 26 at 12:23
  • Bei Selfiestation gibt es nichts zu verdeutlichen. Die Lesbarkeit leidet ja unter dem Bindestrich. Die Aussprache wird durch den Bindestrich nicht tangiert. Die Neuigkeit ist schon gleich gar kein Argument - wo gäbe es so was, dass man es erst falsch schreibt, und dann, wenn sich die Leute an die falsche Schreibung gewöhnt haben, plötzlich und überraschend richtig? Abc-Schütze und U-Turn kannst Du mit Bindestrich schreiben.
    – user unknown
    Mar 26 at 21:37
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The modern cultural phenomenon "selfie" would be referred to by the same phrase in German (to the anguish of those opposed to the new import of English words into German). Station translate to Station (just pronounced slightly different), and thus "selfie station" just becomes "Selfiestation".

On the other hand, there is the more traditional "Selbstporträt" (more artsy, less modern, could be a painting rather than a photo). From this, one could derive eg the word "Selbstporträtanfertigungsgelegenheit", which translates into "opportunity to create a portrait of oneself".

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