Sunday, October 24, 2004

Ausgezeitnet!

I think that means "outstanding" in German. I really can't remember - but those German dudes we met at the bar last night acted like I said it in context, so I guess I'm correct. What do you talk about with a bunch of German engineers you meet at the bar? Well, first, you say words like "ausgezeitnet" and "gemutlichkeit"*, the latter of which kind of means "warm feelings", but doesn't truly have an English translation. You can try to remember that one bar in north Minneapolis when talking about gemutlichkeit with the Germans, but you're kind of buzzed so you can't remember. You ask them about typical German stereotypes and learn that Kraftwerk isn't really pronounced "CRAFT-work", it's "KKKRRRRRRRRRRRRAFT-WEERRRRRRRRKKKK!!!". You learn that David Hasselhoff is not so popular - not now, at least. You sympathize somewhat with how they find baseball boring, because you feel the exact same way when you watch a soccer match. You learn that Germany hasn't won a world cup since, like, 1992. "Drunk" is "Hacke" in German. "Shitfaced drunk" is "Fulhacke"* in German. You try to remember other things from your 4 years of high school German classes, but all you come up with is "Immer mit der Ruhe!" (Always in a hurry? Something like that.) You go home at bar close and wonder why you can't get the phrase "efficient German sex" out of your head.

*I think these words contain umlauts, but didn't want to put forth the effort to research or publish this accordingly.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

haha, nice little read.