Tag Archives: Language

Germany Is NATO’s Biggest Freeloader

April 4, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That was a Washington Post headline, not mine.

NATO

There’s a German word for freeloader, by the way. Sounds worse in German, too.

As Nato commemorates its 70th anniversary in Washington this week, Germany seems to be labouring mightily to reassure the 29-member alliance that it will never threaten anyone militarily again — because it is in fact its own worst enemy.

How else can you qualify an ally that has announced it won’t be meeting its own pledge to increase defence spending to 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2024, even when it has formally committed to a target of 2 per cent, like everybody else?

Eines kann man Donald Trump nicht vorwerfen: Dass er mit seiner Meinung hinter dem Berg halten würde.

German Of The Day: Litfaßsäule

April 2, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means advertising column.

Pillar

Take a good look. They won’t be around much longer. They’re going to a better place – the same place the LPs, dial phones, typewriters and carrier pigeons went.

They have been an integral part of the city’s furniture for so long, Berliners admit to taking them for granted.

But concrete advertising pillars, known as Litfaßsäule – or Litfaß columns – after the man who invented them, around 3,000 of which dot the German capital, are under threat. A low-key, grassroots protest has sprung up in an effort to save them from destruction and sparked a trend involving writing messages on the pillars, as well as poems and heart felt tributes.

It takes two or three people to group hug a Litfaßsäule, and that has also become another way of highlighting the reluctance to let them go.

“I’m certainly still more drawn to a catchy poster on the Litfaßsäule, than I am to something that flashes up on my mobile phone which I’m likely to swipe away in annoyance.”

German Of The Day: Migrationshintergrund

March 31, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means migrant or immigration background.

Migrationshintergrund

You know, like almost half of the unemployed in Germany have Migrationshintergrund? 46 percent, to be exact, sort of (answering this question at the employment office is not mandatory so the number will actually be higher). Back in 2013 it was 36 percent. Kind of a high percentage, don’t you think? But the talking heads in government and media don’t worry about something like this turning into a larger problem than it already is because they have been told, officially like, that “they can do it.”

Die entsprechende Quote liegt demnach bei 46 Prozent. Ende 2013, vor Beginn der verstärkten Migration nach Deutschland, hatte der Wert noch bei 36 Prozent gelegen.

German Of The Day: Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei

March 28, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means the “fat” (good) years are over.

Fat

Merkel Doesn’t Want to Tell Germans the Good Times May Be Over – The leaders preparing to take over when Merkel steps aside are worried too. They say voters could be caught unawares by an economic shock in the middle of the political transition from Merkel’s rule. Two senior party officials this month voiced concerns that such a double whammy could shake up the political map ahead of the next election. They asked not to be identified questioning the chancellor’s approach.

One shouldn’t undermine the economic upswing by talking it down.

Deutsche Sprache Schwere Sprache

March 22, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

German is a tough language to learn.

German

For example, nearly half of the migrants who took the German language course offered by Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees last year (93,500 from 202,000 participants), failed. That failure rate of 45% is up from 40% the previous year.

And this was after 600 teaching units forty-five minutes each. Are they stupid? Of course not. But maybe the people who think “integrating” them would be easy. This just shows you what a mammoth task the integration of such a large number of people will be, should it ever succeed at all. If they can’t even speak the language, how can anyone expect them to be integrated? But maybe nobody really does anymore.

Die Durchfallquote bei den Deutschprüfungen am Ende der Integrationskurse ist vergangenes Jahr auf 45 Prozent angewachsen. 2017 lag sie noch bei 40 Prozent. Das zuständige Ministerium will die Kursqualität anheben.

German Of The Day: Sollte, Müsste, Könnte, Würde…

March 21, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

These are examples of the infamous German Konjunktiv or conjunctive mood. They mean, in essence, should, ought to, could, would but… It ain’t gonna happen.

Spending

Take this example here: Why Germany Should Further Boost Defense Spending, and Why It Probably Won’t. Of course, the Germans know that they should, ought to, could, would spend more on defense but they just won’t because… It ain’t gonna happen. This grammatical subtlety has always worked nicely in the past, whether they were in a conjunctive mood or not. So, hey. Never touch a running system.

The United States is bristling at the suggestion Germany might miss its own defense spending target, which is already short of the NATO goal, prompting comments from officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell.

NATO countries have pledged to move toward spending 2 percent of GDP on defense and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government had pledged to increase spending to 1.5 percent by 2024. Last year, at the NATO summit in Brussels, Trump criticized Germany’s contribution to the NATO and Merkel countered that the European country is the organization’s “second largest providers of troops,” according to The Guardian.

“NATO members clearly pledged to move towards, not away, from 2 percent by 2024. That the German government would even be considering reducing its already unacceptable commitments to military readiness is a worrisome signal to Germany’s 28 NATO Allies.”

German Of The Day: Unsinn

March 10, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means nonsense.

Nonsense

German academics and authors call for end to ‘gender nonsense‘ – .Open letter hits back at demand for more gender-neutral nouns.

A group of German authors, comedians and academics have added fuel to the flames of an increasingly bad-tempered culture war over language bias by calling for a fightback against “ridiculous linguistic constructions” designed to make German more gender-neutral.

“And no one has been bothered by the fact that everything feminine has for 1,000 years been based on the [neuter] word das Weib.”

German Of The Day: Gaga

March 7, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means gaga.

Language

And that’s what this lady, State Secretary Dorothee Bär (CSU), thinks about the new spelling rules for gender-inclusive language now proposed for German. This is because these spelling rules are gaga, of course, just like everything else having to do with today’s gender-fluid non-binary macro-trend terrorist fashion craze. It’s just as gaga as not being allowed to call it gaga, which she did anyway. And thanks so much for that, ma’am.

She says it “rapes and butchers” the German language, which, of course, it does. But I’m not sure she understands that that is precisely the intention. That is the intention, isn’t it? Just look what it’s doing to our language.

One little New German spelling example: What used to be a department head – Abteilungsleiter (male) or Abteilungsleiterin (female) – will now be an Abteilungsleiter*innen. I’m not sure how the * pronounced but what’s that matter at this point?

“Ich finde das alles total gaga, sowohl das Binnen-I als auch das Gender-Sternchen.”

German Of The Day: Umerziehen

February 19, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hostility, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

That means re-educate.

Umerziehen

And that’s what the “framing” expert at Germany state TV “Channel One” (ARD) has advised its employees to do. Viewers are in dire need of re-education.

Her secret “framing manual” indicates that the ARD is at war with its critics and private television channels alike, disruptive elements who refer to the ARD as “state TV,” criticize “compulsory fees” (they’re not compulsory, they’re a show of solidarity!) and “question the ARD’s relevance.” Gee, I guess she means me, too.

These disruptive elements don’t understand that the ARD is “guided by moral principles” and its own “moral necessity for social interaction” and not, like them, motivated by profit. The ARD doesn’t have to be motivated by profit, people. All Germans get taxed for this state supported media bias whether they’re viewers or not.

Isn’t that a nice smirk? Big Sister is watching. She wants you all to keep on watching, that is.

Die Arbeit der ARD, so heißt es, sei „von moralischen Prinzipien getragen“, überzeugt von der eigenen „moralischen Notwendigkeit für das gesellschaftliche Miteinander“ – während die „medienkapitalistischen Heuschrecken“ des Privat-TV nur dem Profit dienen würden.

German Of The Day: Grenzschließung

February 12, 2019 By in Habeas Corpus, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

That means border closure.

Borders

Damn. Maybe Mini-MErkel isn’t so Mini-MErkel after all.

Much like the SPD desperately trying to get back the people who used to vote for them with yesterday’s Hartz IV shenanigans, Germany’s CDU 2.0 (can we call it post-Merkel yet?) is fighting to get back the voters who abandoned them in droves after Angela Merkel’s bat shit crazy migrant fiasco of 2015. Boss lady Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has made it clear that this can and will never happen again – without pointing fingers or naming any names, of course – and has even said that her party would be prepared shut down German borders (no, really, they have borders, too) should it ever be necessary.

Odd. These are stands that the pure evil of evilness AfD has been taking from the start (that’s were the CDU voters ran off to). Now the CDU is acting as though they just figured this out all by themselves. Better late than never, I guess.

„Wir haben gesagt, als Ultima Ratio wäre das durchaus auch denkbar.”