There Are Words Words In German That Make Me Ponder & Question Whether Or Not There Is True “Elegance In Simplicity.”
The accredidation of the coining of the phrase and even the phrasing itself varies throughout the years since I first heard it, but at somepoint, within the beginning twixing and twaining years of this millenium I encounterd the phrase “there is elegance in simplicty” this was, back then known to have been said by Leonardo Da Vinci, who now apparently never said that and has via some form of the whispering or telephone game come to have actually said that “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Be that as it may, the validity of the source of said coined terminology and it’s ever evolving annunciation are a moot point in German.
Germans have a saying that goes something along the lines of “why easy when hard/complicated works” or “warum einfach wann schwer/kompliziert gehts?!” Pronounced in an interrobang Satzmelodie or sentence melody because why not.
The reason the interrobang is so popular in German is you can be a complete and total idiot aka #vollidiot making a declaration (ending with an exclamation point), and before anyone can react adversly and call you out on your nonsense you can ask of yourself and all other parties involved the word or? pronounced “oder?”
The oder eaters, swallow the question or that naturally follows their exclamation and pronounce a statement said like it is gospel truth with a question lingering to it in true interrobang fashion, this way no German can be accused of being wrong or having a “kompetenz minderung” or a moderate competence.
To insult one’s intellectual capacites or thought processes is probably one of the highest insults or slurs a German on German verbally abusive toungelashing can achieve, it doesn’t really bother the foreigners, expats, migrants, immigrants, or $&%ß Outlanders the Fremde of the stranger or foreign or unknown as in unbekannt unacquainted kind in the least.
It is a distinctly German thing to take offense to/at the accusation of not fully having one’s wits about them, even if for just a moment or on one specific/fach thing.
These German on German slurs of the highest order, still sound to me like preadolescents attempting to mock one another, but within Germans interacting with one another in the German language uni- and multiverses...
“Waschlappen!...” (unsaid fur ein hirn, as in gehirn) That’s right, Germans go around calling each other washcloths or cleaning rags and rarely if ever follow through with the whole thought or labe of “Wash rags for brains.”
“Noodle!...” as in “Was fur ein Noodle...” Even that which goes unsaid is further mystified by having a third verse go more often than not unsaid “ist diese/es/er Mensch/Person” It goes unsaid because the word “Noodle” is the primary insult, if you follow all the way through to calling the same person a Mensch, it might ruin the mood or feel of the insult becaus saying “ach du Mensch” in informal German “auf du” is a back handed yet endearing compliment for the word Person or Human.
There are distinctions between Fachidiot, Vollidiot, and your run of the mill idiot. The latter is literally everyone that is not idiotic or more realistically “on the same page” as you as in you “have common ground” or “something in common” you can focus on, wich brings me to the Fachidiot or easily idot / specialised idiot, ususally a Besserwisser, or what English speaker would call a Know It All rather than a Better Knower, but Geman and it’s verbs... Especially auf Sie or in the formal version. A Vollidiot doesn’t really have varients or room for interpretation they, unfortunately are fully an idiot and that usually is bound or sealed with the equivilant of bestowing a curse upon the matter once the word Vollidiot has been uttered the sealing encantation will be uttered “Scluss damit” meaning Closed Therewith(in) or “kein Gespräch” the all encompassing No Discussion.
To compound on that idiom often expressed as proverb of wisdom surpassing any all that Solomon did and prounced as an idiom as well.
Sometimes, should the accusing party of the German influence choose to show genade or mercy they will drop the slur of “Noodle” and benevolently utter or mutter or proclaim or disclaim “was fur ein hirn!?” the equivelant to “what a brain” or Brainaic.
This German competency accusation stuff is far more serious that it sounds and devistates Germans beyond comprehension or belief, but what works works.
There are two words Germans use as sort of neutral intellectual off hand remarks, calling each other Depp or Fool and Alter or Older, Aged, Aulder, somthing having to do with Age, it can be used as either a compliment or insult a or a nickname.
It’s not very easy to fully understand because of the constant use of interrobangs, and the reality of how often it is not what you say but how you say it, the intonation or satzmelodie/sentence melody and betonung of how one says what they say in German that matters.
There are other words that end in zeug, meaning thing that stump people in their simplicity
Workzeug means tool or literally work thing
Flugzeug means airplane or literally flying thing
Feurzeug means lighter or literally fire thing
I laughed the first time I was called an Auslander, which literally means Outlander, because I remember watching the original Mad Max where the BDSM crowd was trying to take control of society and they kept calling one of the main characters an outlander.
Südlander is an odd one as well it literally means southlander, a person most likely born further south than the German borders of Germany, extending into and beyond the European Union grasp of Germany’s sphere of influence.
It is a term I have only ever heard directed at people of a darker complexion than I am, and has a sort of implication of being a gangster be that plastic gangster as they are called in Europe or wannabes as they are called by most Americans or not. ...The nicest way I have ever heard someone be called a südlander was in informal German auf du, they were asked “bist du Südlandisch” even that though carried several connotations beyond national heritage, there was that ever-present interrobangesque implication of being literally from the the south side of the tracks in the Südstadt or southtown of the city I was in.
I’ve been called Fremde, never to my face but directly in front of me before, this word means Stranger, or unknown or unacquainted or is implied to mean Foreigner without outright saying it which is probably why so many bloggers any YouTubers and journalists in Germany insist on being called an Expat.
No one really knows what to do with that word. I have read several article one in the guardian with the actual title “Why are white people expats when the rest of us are immigrants” They did not do their due dilligence, it is a legal term for Americans on several .gov websites with reason and purpose cited for calling people expats. Search away!
Even The Local Germany an online news website wrote an article “Who’s an expat or immigrant in Germany.”
Quoara even has a question about the matter wondering if it has to do with socioeconomic status or race, sigh. Many folks that are not from America or England simply need to update the terminology on their laws and rules and guidelines for those who live outside of their country of origin.
To me an Expat lives outside of their country of origin but maintains the citizenship of their birthplace, an immigrant is someone who moved away from thier birthplace nationality and has or is in the proscess of changing nationaliities.
Either way, calling yourself an Expat to a German who uses oversimplified words and language deeper than Alltagssprache, Umgangssprache, Dialect or what the call the K?&§ language sounds Hoity Toity, or fancy as it gets, bordering on accusing yourself of being a pretentious luxus or luxurious and elegant etepetete or a schickimicki Auslander of the most schick schicksal (destiny) imaginable.
