Skip to main content

I managed to accomplish nothing today.




I could finally persue my dream career -- Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


There's an Old Saying in German that roughly translates into the following:

We like our words, like we like our sausage: Long and made up of random parts of other things.


Or something to that effect. Actually, you might not want to quote me on that...

A few months ago, I was reading NEON Magazine. It has a section called Unnützes Wissen, which is dedicated to one of my favorite topics: useless knowledge.* However, instead of the usual one-page of random facts, this particular issue came with an entire little booklet of random facts.

One little tidbit happened to catch my eye -- Sesquipedalophobia is the fear of long words.

In and of itself, not the most interesting or intriguing piece of information that I've ever stumbled across (especially in light of some of the other factoids). Though for some reason, reading that sentence in German was very amusing to me. I tried to imagine a native German-speaker afflicted with this condition, because (in case you didn't know) the German language is full of crazy-long compound words...and it's not really like you can avoid them.

Or can you? (Click below for more)

I mean, for as many compound words that the language has, there's got to be about 5 bajillion times as many abbreviations. It kinda makes you feel as though you were surrounded by sesquipedalophobes.**

Actually, what I enjoy much more than abbreviations, is how Germans (or rather, German-speakers -- I don't want you to feel left out, S.A.M III) take long-ass words and take a few letters from each syllable to form a completely new word that means the same as the original long-ass word. Did I lose you?***

For example: a popular fruit drink here is a mixture of cherry juice and banana juice. You've got the Kirschsaft (cherry juice) and the Bananensaft (banana juice)and you mix them together to get a KiBa.

This doesn't really work so well in English. Using the same example as above you'd get something like CheBa...which I suppose is also good, but I think it's something different altogether.****

Whereas Americans have the FBI, the Germans have the Kripo. The Kriminalpolizei. Personally, I think that Kripo sounds more gangsta...if only because of the whole krip part in there. Although, I wouldn't want to fuck with either crew.

Berlin shortened its famous shopping street, Kurfürstendamm, to Ku'damm and the main drag in Barmbek, Fuhlsbüttler Strasse, is just called the Fuhle. For the latter, I would have personally gone with the Fubü...but nobody asked me. I suppose, it'll have to wait until The Revolution gets here.

It goes on and on.

By far, my favorite has to be Vokuhila, which is basically German for mullet. You know, the hairstyle...the whole business in the front, party in the back, shit. And that's basically what it means vorne kurz, hinten lang (short in the front, long in the back)

Thanks to Wikipedia, I learned today that there's also the opposite (aka the "frullet" -- front mullet), which is called the Volahiku (vorne lang, hinten kurz -- long in the front, short in the back)

and strangely enough there's also the Vokuhilaoliba or vorne kurz, hinten lang, Oberlippenbart (short in the front, long in the back, and a moustache)

This, I think, is taking it a bit too far...

And now, because I have no idea how to end this post, you should read about 12-year-old Abbie and her dilemma concerning the 7th Grade Dance.

Because it's way more entertaining that the drivel I just wrote.
(Source: Pissed & Petty)




*= I'd just like to apologize to the German-speakers who may have found this sentence to be redundant. Notice how I'm NOT apologizing for making up a fake German Saying.

**= Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

***= Geheime Staatspolizei...anyone? No, I'm not going there.

****= The stickiest of the icky

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Best Taco Bell in Germany

 Last weekend, I crossed off a major item on my bucket list. I went to Taco Bell in Germany. "But Raven, shouldn't you aspire to better, healthier things that have a measurable positive impact on society?" I know that's what you're thinking, but I don't really give a crap... because you are not the boss of me.  I wanted Taco Bell, because it's probably the one thing from back at home that I crave the most. Say what you want about it (again, I don't give a crap), but get at me when you've spent years away from your homeland and are unable to acquire whatever nasty-ass comfort food is available wherever you're from. For me, my nasty-ass comfort food of choice is Taco Bell...with Sonic a close second. However, you can't even find Sonic all over the U.S. and I don't find myself craving burgers and hot dogs all the time (plus, those urges are a lot easier to satisfy than a craving for Mexican or Tex-mex).
3 comments
More crap »

The One Who Got Away (Part 6): PLOT TWIST

Quick Translation: This confirms that German citizenship will not be opposed, if within two years it can be verified that the aforementioned person no longer possesses citizenship for Trinidad and Tobago e   and/or has fulfilled the requirements for the loss of this citizenship and that nothing has happened in the meantime, which would forbid naturalization.  I almost forgot what it felt like to receive a industrial size dose of 100% homegrown German bureaucratic pedantry. Luckily, the German authorities will never leave you too long without a fix. You can count on that. As you can see from the picture above (and from my previous posts), Trinidad and Tobago e  had only been mentioned once in passing up until now, when I finalized my application and paid the fee. Mr. S: Your mother was naturalized in the U.S. after you were born? Me: Yes, but she never applied for Trinidadian citizenship for me, which would have had to have been done by my 18th birthday....
Post a Comment
More crap »
I’ve been fighting a huge craving for Taco Bell all day long. I don’t know how the idea got in my head, but I can’t seem to shake it. It’s not even so much that I want tacos or Mexican(-ish) food. In fact, I think if someone were to make a taco and put it right in front of me (ok, admittedly, I would eat it). However, there would be a part of my soul that would be entirely disappointed that it wasn’t Taco Bell. I found the Unofficial Taco Bell Blog this afternoon. I highly recommend it, especially if you (in their words) want to know more about the "seemingly endless wonders of Taco Bell". If you are jonesing for the Bell, however, this site will do nothing but compound the problem. Maybe part of the reason that I can’t stop thinking about it, is because Tunde is coming to Hamburg next Tuesday. And when I think Tunde , I think about the Air Force. When I think of the Air Force, I think about how the only Taco Bells in Germany are located on Air Force bases. These location...
7 comments
More crap »