Something lighter to start the weekend off right… July 20, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.trackback
And now for something completely different than the upsetting news article… I hope you enjoy reading 25 handy words that simply don’t exist in English from the blog So Good, So Good. My favorite was Backpfeifengesicht – A face badly in need of a fist. I can honestly say I hadn’t ever heard this one in the 27 years I’ve been learning and speaking German. And for what it’s worth, we do have a word for Bakku-shan in English. It’s ‘butterface’. And thus ends today’s English lesson… LOL!
Is there a word in your language you feel that should be included on the list? Please share it with us in the comments!
Musings from an overworked translator 
One verb I particularly like in German is “fremd schaemen”. It literally means that you feel ashamed on someone else’s behalf. A case of collective German Fremdschaemen occurred when German CDU Minister Günther Oettinger declared how important English was as a language. He then proceeded to massacre it in a simply gob-smackingly terrible speech (pronunciation execrable!) in Berlin during a conference. The you tube video went viral. He was also parodied mercilessly in the German media.
Jaksaa: (Finnish) literally, to have the energy or strength to do something; most often used in the negative sense, as in, “En jaksa”, or, “I don’t have the energy” (I’m too lazy/tired/I don’t feel like it); its true beauty and usefulness can only be appreciated through seeing it in use 🙂