Some observations on funny words and (re)cycling

Some observations . . .

1. On long words and funny pronunciation
My French teacher calls me 'Gayorg Hopper' even though she knows I'm English. Is it a quintessential display of British linguistic arrogance for me to assume that everyone knows how to pronounce George? As in Orwell, Clooney, Bush? And hope is hardly a step up in complexity either. Speaking of French, I just remembered a funny scenario in today's lesson. We were watching a video clip about the life of a French poet and had to answer some true/false questions. One said 'Dans ses poèmes, il raconte son mal-être et son spleen', which Gemma and I roughly translated in our heads as 'in his poems, he recounts his discontent and his spleen'. We thought that it was a bit strange to talk about his spleen in his poems. Turns out 'le spleen' in French actually means melancholy, not the organ.

I love the long German words. I am torn between admiring their brilliant precision and laughing at their unnecessary complexity. If you use one of them and the person you're talking to knows it, then you've been brilliantly efficient. But what if they don't know it and you have to explain it anyway? Someone told me there's a German word meaning the feeling of obligation you get when someone gives you a present to give them one in return when you didn't really want to. I can't remember what the word is though, but I'll try and find out. Typing in all those English words to Google doesn't find it, unsurprisingly. Another good one is Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung. You'd logically think that this must mean something legal, or maybe medical, for it to be so long. Actually it just means speed-limit! There are also some words that you'd be wise not to translate too literally. Like 'Schweinefleisch', meaning pork. I might not be so interested in my dinner if I had to order 'flesh of swine'.

2.On being Green
Freiburg: Germany's 'eco-capital'. (I saw that on a postcard, I didn't make it up.)
Freiburgians (?) are cycling mad. The cyclists here have priority over cars on the roads (seems reasonable) but strangely enough they seem to have priority over pedestrians on the pavements too. Many a time have I been walking home with my weelky Lidl shop and a cyclist has shot past me, always making me think if I had done a star jump at that exact moment it would have ended nastily. Everyone seems to have a bike here. When I told one of my flatmates that I didn't need one until the summer because I have a semester pass for the buses and trams, she said 'but everyone needs a bike in Freiburg. It's the quickest way to get around.' Not to mention the healthiest, cheapest and most environmentally friendly.

Turns out they love all types of cycling because they're crazy about recycling too. I'm still getting used to it; it is a bureaucracy in itself. You have to separate paper, plastic and everything else (Restmüll) and also glass into the different colours (brown, clear, green). People also seem to take a lot of their rubbish home with them so they can put it in the right section rather than chucking it in the Restmüll. Tolle Idee.

3. On Food
In Germany the students aren't stingy about spending money on food. They'll splash out, buying expensive olive oil, really good coffee and organic milk instead of the Sainsburys-basics-Asda-price-Tesco-value type option. Linking in with observation number two, the Germans are super keen on buying organic products. There are quite a few organic-only supermarkets in Freiburg which I go into sometimes and treat myself to some fancy hummus or something similar.


George x