Original subtitles

How did you learn to speak so fast?

I used to go to a lot of auctions with my dad.

In our area, there was this brilliant auctioneer.

I was fascinated by his ability to hold the attention of 400 or 500 people.

I wanted to do that someday too.

So I would listen to him.

I began by practising with numbers.

Then you move on to tongue twisters, for example, in German:

"A big black bug bit a big brown bear."

Or: "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?"

Then you start with numbers.

You start building up speed and establishing a rhythm.

It takes a lot of practice and you really have to love to talk.

Have you got another example?

Can you try saying it in slow motion?

OBSERVATIONS ON A NEW LANGUAGE

A FILM BY WERNER HERZOG

WORLD LIVESTOCK AUCTIONEERS CHAMPIONSHIP

Can you decode what you just said for us?

Well, I'm selling.

In slow-motion, I'm saying:

"I bid $30. Would you give me $30.50?

"Would you give me $30.75?" And so on.

More so than that, it's the personal feeling I get.

I've managed to reach a goal I've had since I was six years old.

That one day I'd become World Champion Livestock Auctioneer.

I can hardly believe that I've done it.

I started practising when I was a student at the National Auction Institute.

I also took lessons with an opera teacher to learn breathing techniques.

He taught me to breathe properly,

to develop my volume and stamina.

I used to drive down the motorway

and try to sell to every telegraph pole that went by.

I'd pretend they were bidders at an auction.

Then at every junction it would start again.

This broke the monotony of travelling

and gave me the chance to practise.

I have a few friends in this trade.

They are real, true friends. They tell me when I make mistakes.

How did you turn professional?

It always takes practice| to make perfect.

When I started out as an auctioneer in 1965.

I was just a kid from the country.

Uncle Sam got me. After that, I started auctioneering.

And just like Ralph here, I used to hold auctions with myself.

You can never get too much practice.

But where I really started from...

You probably won't believe this.

...I was the only one in our family who would milk the cows.

I'd sit down on a bucket,

and every time I pulled on the udder, I'd take a bid.

And then I'd be through milking.

The World Championships take place

in the village of New Holland, Pennsylvania,

one of the centres for cattle farming in the US.

We thought it important to show some of the surrounding area,

because it is home to a community of Amish people.

Here, they till the soil and raise cattle the biblical way.

The Amish are a sect who originally come from Switzerland.

However, they mainly consist of a group of German immigrants

who arrived from the Palatinate around 200 years ago.

These days, they still speak an old Palatinate dialect.

Their most remarkable trait is their puritanical attitude

towards developments in our society.

The Amish reject the ideas of capitalism and competition.

So they are the very antithesis of the world championships

that are being held in their region this year.

The Amish also reject progress.

They dress the same as they did 200 years ago,

and still follow many of the same customs.

The orthodox Amish even reject electricity and cars.

Today, they still drive horse-drawn carriages.

It may appear strange at first,

but there's a lot to be said for their way of life.

They have refused to participate in war.

They don't suffer from the pollution problems

that afflict the rest of the US.

The Amish don't normally| like being filmed.

They turned away as soon as they saw us.

They viewed the championships with an air of mistrust.

Even so, they still pitched a tent| outside the auction room

and handed out free snacks from their farms.

The venue for the championships is an arena in this building.

Inside, we eavesdropped on an auctioneer while he warmed up.

We only have about an hour left now until the contest starts,

and there are 53 competitors here from all over the US and Canada.

In fact, we don't have enough cattle for all the auctioneers,

and each has just three to six minutes to show what they can do.

That's not enough time.

Normally, we need ten to fifteen minutes,

so that we can really warm up and satisfy the buyers and the judges.

And which of you gentlemen is going to win?

The best. That guy over there.

How do you find out who is going to bid?

No idea, you can just tell.

They wink, signal with a piece of card,

or do this with their fingers.

How do you pick them out from the crowd?

just find them. It's a gift.

We were curious to seel

if the Amish could understand us when we spoke German.

What kind of work do you do here during the auction?

I open the door and let the stock off the scales.

What is telling, is that their dialect has no way of saying "world championship".

Before the auction, which sold cattle worth two million marks,

you could inspect the produce in stalls behind the auction room.

This contest is sponsored by the "Livestock Market Digest",

a trade magazine published in the US each week.

This is the 13th annual World Livestock Auctioneering Championship.

I must point out one thing about the jury.

Their decisions are based on professional criteria.

They are organizers and buyers.

They select the contestant they would most like to work for them.

We'll start by showing a scene from above

to make it clear how proceedings work.

The stalls are behind the auctioneers, who take it in turns to lead.

The cattle enter the arena from the right, over the scales,

and leave to the left.

The buyers are dotted about in the crowd.

The most interested buyers sit in the front row.

The auctioneer is handed a note stating the weight.

Buyers bid per 100 pounds] of live weight

and for all cattle in the arena at that particular point in time.

When a bid is accepted, it is written on the note

and then sent via a conveyor belt to the main office.

The competition is underway.

Needless to say, we were unable to film all 53 competitors,

but we were lucky enough to catch the overall winner.

Look out for slight hand movements.

This is how you spot buyers.

They too are competing against each other,

just not as openly as the others.

This is the first time that a woman has ever competed.

The cattle have ground to a halt on the scales.

The auctioneer says that all this waiting has made him nervous.

This is Ralph Wade from Miami in Oklahoma.

He came in second.[

The next auctioneer adds a little variety.

He's been working for 50 years.

He starts by miscounting the number of cattle.

He announces Canadian Steve Liptay,

who later goes on to win this World Championship.

This type of language is somewhat frightening,

but fascinating at the same time.

What frightens me personally

is the idea that our system has managed to produce a language

that almost surpasses the boundaries of extremity.

Sometimes I ask myself,

"Where did church liturgy come from?

"Where did the language of propaganda come from?

"And how did our economic system spawn this language?"

But at the same time, it exerts a deep, musical fascination.

Sometimes I think that this here could be the last remaining lyrical form.

This auctioneer was the final contestant after only three hours.

From this we can work out that each slot lasted no more than three minutes.

The afternoon ended with buyers paying and loading up their cattle,

while bystanders bid for cakes.

The awards ceremony took place in the evening

in the town of Herschey, an hour's drive away.

Leon Wallace from West Monroe, Louisiana, came third.

Ralph Wade from Miami, Oklahoma, came second.

And here is the new world champion, Steve Liptay.

It took him a long time to grasp that he had really done it.

Steve thanks everyone,

and says he knows of no other profession

where the best come together and compete against each other

for the title of World Champion.