Sunday, April 8, 2012

Favorite German Phrases

My 2 favorite German phrases of all time:

1) Fremdschämen - A German term which describes the process of being vicariously embarrassed by someone else. For example when somebody's concept for a great party gag goes terribly wrong and you watch him fail in front of all of his friends.

e.g., Tom was completely wasted while he held the speech on Mike's wedding party. Fremdschämen in perfection. (From urbandictionary)

 (I often feel this in the U.S., usually when watching Fox News.)


2) Schadenfreude - (Epicaricacy) Literally meaning "damage joy."
Malicious enjoyment derived from observing someone else's misfortune. (From wiktionary)

 (I don't think I can say I've ever felt this way.)

No comments:

Post a Comment