Schadenfreude

Of course, living here in Germany, one thing that interests me are things that cannot really be translated. At first, it was things like “doch,” the German word that automatically disagrees with what you are saying. For example:

Question: “You didn’t understand what I said?”
Answer: “Doch!” (means “Yes, I did understand you.”)

It’s so convenient, because you basically are saying “what you just said is not true” by just saying one word. Plus, it has that really guttural sound at the end of which gives it that extra umph to really make the point.

What interests me about little things like this is that they are examples of how language has evolved differently. But, even more interesting is when one starts to extrapolate as to what sort of commentary such linguistic differences make on German society and societal ways of thinking. To me, it’s obvious, Germans love to be right almost more than anything, and they have a word to prove it.

I was getting really sick of what was an apparent cultural block, making it almost impossible for Germans to understand the gist of what I was trying to say. I thought that they didn’t understand because they kept disagreeing with me. Little did I know, until this friend explained it to me, that disagreeing is not in any way negative, but, in fact, can be considered positive. A typical German way of starting a conversation, one that can be expected to last a minimum of 45 minutes on any given subject, is do disagree with what you are saying. To just say, flat out, “you’re wrong” is nothing but an opportunity for you to begin the taking apart of the subject at hand and prove that you are right. It was when a friend explained the lack of negativity in the “you’re wrong” statement that I started to understand why a German friend of mine, years ago, said that I would really get along well in Germany. He was right. I really like it here.

At any rate, what was to be a short anecdote as a lead-in turned out to be too long. Nonetheless, the differences in German that cannot be translated are now more rare, but I heard one the other day that really wins, hands down, the Untranslatable Kraut Prize.

Schadenfreude. This is a word made up of two other words (“Schade” – pity, and “Freude”- happy.)

Schadenfreude is when you take delight in the misfortune of others. For instance, when Bricky’s arch nemesis Crochety completely messed up his part in Aida and cracked all over the place, Bricky laughed, actually laughed, visibly, on stage. He had Schadenfreude. He was so overcome with joy at his colleague’s misfortune that he had to laugh. When your most hated neighbor’s house burns down, you would have Schadenfreude. You get it. It is a human feeling not unfamiliar to us all. Troubling, however, is the fact that there is a word for it in German. What does this say about Germans?