Learning from German--los geht's! It is estimated the English language comprises 600,000 words, yet there are times when its paucity is hard to ignore. This usually happens when you learn a new word in the (more compact) German language for which there's no English equivalent. German speakers know how this confounds us, and describe that smug sense of satisfaction with the useful word Schadenfreude.
| Auteur | De Faoite, Diarmuid |
| Fonction | Humour |
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Other words we have no equivalent for include Geisterfahrer (lit. ghost driver)--when a car drives the wrong direction along a motorway, and Ohrwurm (lit. ear worm)--a song you can't get out of your head.
Keine Worter
Just as there are no English words to describe certain things, sometimes words cannot describe unique experiences that can only happen to you here: for example, that feeling you get when a window is hanging on by just one hinge because you failed in "kipp-ing"* it.
I knew about strangers' eyes momentarily meeting as their trains pass one another before I came here, but in Switzerland you can travel parallel to another train for several minutes--sitting just feet from somebody in the next train. You see the same faces again and again, as the trains jockey for position: were it not for our being on separate trains, such prolonged eye contact would be downright embarrassing! Where do you even begin to find a word for this kind of social discomfort?
But word problems aren't only limited to vocabulary. Swiss-German computer keyboards are a menace for English speakers, because although they look friendly, Z has swapped places with Y. If you live in Switzerland for long enough, you will have difficulty when confronted with a standard QWERTY keyboard. You'll have to retrain yourself by writing the word "layz" [sic] over and over again.
Shoptalk
A lot of Germans now work in Switzerland, attracted by large salaries and the fact they can speak High German. Imagine their surprise, when they sit down at a computer and find they can't type a lot of words because there is no ss key. They sit there saying "Scheisse" over and over again--ironically also a word they can't type.
Meanwhile, their Swiss co-workers look like the living definition of schadenfreude ...
Actually...
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