You know that situation when the bully gets his butt kicked for once? Or when the glamour boy arrives at school with a giant ugly zit on his nose? This is the point where Schadenfreude kicks in.
These kind of euphemistic mispronunciations are present in other languages as well—just think of English “shoot!” or “sugar!”
There are memorial days for pretty much every kind of nonsense – from “International Lost Socks Memorial Day” or “Wiggle Your Toes Day.” However, the “Crap Days” in Germany were a real thing, and pretty severe for the ones they affected.
Germany has a difficult relationship with humor. Nevertheless there is a bewilderingly large number of words for a joke: Witz, Scherz, Ulk, Jux, Flachs, and Kalauer are just 6 of the many examples.
Everyone knows that one guy you wouldn’t buy a used car from. I don’t mean like a convicted criminal. More that Moe Szyslak type of person. That’s what Germans like to call a “Schlitzohr”.
According to the most recent studies, you can basically think of Germany as an all-year Oktoberfest with 83 million daily visitors.
If you ever texted your ex at 3 a.m. after you have just recovered from the breakup, you know that ideas you have under heavy alcohol influence are rarely worth imitating.
You know why Schnapszahl is something like the perfect German word? Because it combines two of German’s greatest passions: the passion for booze… and the passion for order.
I remember birthday parties where we had to walk through our town and follow clues to find a treasure. I also remember my birthdays being in February and everyone having a cold the next day ;)
They are not viewed as negative as you might think. Take, for example, celebrities like Will Smith, Christiano Ronaldo, Kate Hudson and Daniel Craig. They all don’t hide their Segelohren.
In Germany, women are the ones who are in the lead when it comes to cheating. At least, that’s what a representative study from 2020 suggests.
About 14,8 million Germans work in offices. That’s more than a third of all Germans who have a job. That’s one of reasons why many Germans already have quite a pronounced backside in their 30s.
The word refers to a slight squint that, depending on the beholder’s preferences, may well be considered to be kind of sexy and mysterious.
Just about everyone has made the experience that it’s not always easy to get a visitor to clear the place out. Especially when there’s still beer in the fridge.
Some might see them as a beauty flaw. Others, however, believe they look pretty cute on the faces of celebrities like Emma Watson, Dakota Fanning or Emily Ratajkowski.
It might be true that skinny shaming is just as bad as fat shaming. But still: men who don’t have an ounce of fat on their ribs always look a bit dorky to me.
The “Speckgürtel” of Frankfurt for instance is known to be home to some of Germany’s richest municipalities, the likes of Königstein or Kronberg.
This blog is a love letter to the curiosities of the German language that give it its poetic and, at times, oddly humorous qualities.
The “German Is Weird” book is now available: order here!
