Saturday, May 16, 2020

10 Soft Insults in German and What They Mean

When you come to Germany and walk through the streets you might listen to some slang or curse words in the German language. They are very often used to make fun of certain aspects of someone’s behavior. Here are some of the more interesting ones that you might hear when you are an attentive listener. Warmduscher This is someone who likes to take hot showers.  In Germany, it is an often discussed myth that showering with ice-cold water is considered as masculine.  Well, somehow they had to see the bright side of a life without electricity and put it like that.  Today we just joke and say Warmduscher to people who like it comfortable or might be a little cowardly. Sitzpinkler A man who is peeing sitting on the toilet instead of standing. Real men stand when they mark their territory - and hopefully clean it afterward. Streber This is an interesting one because it describes a striver or nerd.  And as nerd† is cooler than â€Å"Streber†, we started to use â€Å"nerd† too in German when we talk about Streber. If someone is very eager or is behaving like Hermione Granger—you can call him a Streber. Angeber The â€Å"Angeber† is a poser, a show-off.  This is much stronger and you will hear it for sure when you will see an expensive car at a traffic light and the owner is playing with the pedal to impress the people in the street.   Teletubbyzurà ¼ckwinker Remember the Teletubbies? Well, this word describes someone who would wave back to the Teletubbies and this is, unless you are two years old, considered to be really wimpy. Cool grown-ups don’t do this unless they lost a bet. So if you want to use this, do not apply it to yourself and make sure the person you consider as a Teletubbyzurà ¼ckwinkler is far away so he or she would not hear you. Tee-Trinker In Germany, the country of beer drinking, drinking tea while others have a beer is uncool—sorry to the British and other tea drinkers. Of course, you are not supposed to get drunk and become an alcoholic, neither should you feel forced to have a beer—it is just this feeling of having a real â€Å"Feierabend Bier† (after-work beer) that makes drinking tea look like a weird idea for a real German. Schattenparker A word which describes someone who parks his car in the shadow because he can not stand the heat. A real man is supposed to stand any heat. Well, if you believe that—have fun during German summer in the city. Weichei Literally, a soft egg. This is simply a wimp, a coward.  This could be said in any imaginable situation. Verzà ¶gerungsgenießer This word comes from the German-dubbed movie Vanilla Sky. It describes persons who like to enjoy not everything at once but bit by bit. â€Å"Verzà ¶gerung†Ã¢â‚¬â€means delay. Frauenversteher This is most likely a word a woman wouldnt use as an insult. Most women would probably love to be understood by a man. But men have turned this quality into a non-virtue and a lack of masculinity. Enjoy this little counterexample of a women understander by one of the better-known comedians from some time ago. If those insults above are not manly enough for you, try this Beleidigungsgenerator, which wont beat around the bush. Hopefully, this list gives you a little insight into the mindset of some Germans, which is still surprisingly macho.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Analysis Of Lord Of The Flies - 1058 Words

In the popular novel, Lord of the Flies, there are many elements to the story that are not seen when just viewed from the surface. In order to understand these ideas, we have to dive deeper and really analyze the characters in the story. When you do this, a very important theme will arise and that is the very different personality types of the boys on the island. These personality types can be explained using Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality. His theory explains that there are three basic parts of personality; the id, the ego, and the superego. Everyone has a different combination of these three parts, which makes everyone’s personality different. In the novel, Jack is a character who has a lot of id in his personality.†¦show more content†¦He also sees hunting as a need, even though it is not. â€Å"You could have had everyone when the shelters were finished. But you had to hunt...You didn t ought to have let that fire out. You said you d kee p the smoke going... (Golding 100). He even goes out hunting and neglects to tend to the fire, which goes out, inhibiting Ralph from signaling a passing ship for their rescue. He went hunting and didn t think about the consequences of his actions. Lastly, Jack ambushes Ralph’s campsite in search of Piggy’s glasses because he needs them to make fire. He acted upon his first savage instinct instead of thinking through a solution that wouldn t hurt Ralph’s group. He could have just asked to borrow the glasses or a stick from Ralph’s fire, but instead he uses violence to hurt Ralph’s tribe and take away Piggy’s vision. Jack acts upon impulses and only wants to help himself and doesn t care about others. He also doesn t think about how his actions could have negative consequences for him or for others. For these reasons, Jack is a great representation of the id personality. The second personality type is the ego. Ralph is a character that demonstrates a lot of ego. According to Freud, â€Å"the ego is the rational, pragmatic part of our personality. It is less primitive than the id and is partly conscious and partly unconscious. It s what

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Downsizing - Issues and Strategies To Improve Process

References Introduction Downsizing means that there is a calibrated effort by the organization for improving the performance (Cascio, 1993). Downsizing is treated as a way in which the costs of the organization is reduced, however studies have noted that even the companies that are growing in the business can downsize (Cameron, 1994a). The studies from Luthans Sommer (1999) argues that both internal and external environment is responsible for downsizing in the organization. The internal pressure can be failure to innovate and remain competitive in the business and the external environment refers to the competitors policies and strategies. Issues of Downsizing Downsizing also creates problems for the organizations. The general idea is the reduction of costs while in many cases it has been noted that the actual expenses of the organization increases after downsizing (Morris et al.,1995). The other problem that is witnessed in the downsizing is the decline in the motivation levels of the employees. These include both outgoing and working employees. It has been noted that the downsizing results in the creation of scepticism among the employees in regards to the safety and security of the job. The problems of affect on the creativity of the existing employees are also noted after the downsizing. Failure of Downsizing efforts Downsizing efforts should be well regulated and planned. Bruton et al., (1996) downsizing reduced the market capitalization of the companies. The downsizing efforts fail primarily because after effects of it is huge. The firm looses productivity, while they do not want to change from primitive techniques of commanding the employees, controlling them and compartmentalizing them. The failure in the downsize is because of the fact that most of the firms are not at all prepared to face the challenges of the downsizing. Lack of innovation and the morale of the employees are to be dealt with proper plan, however, the motive of the organization remains stuck to controlling the costs (Freeman, 1994). Strategies to Improve Process of Downsizing The organization planning to downsize must first study the approaches that are ideal for the business. When realignment is the purpose of the organization, it should adopt the reorientation approach. The reorientation is done by reorganizing the firms plans and approaches and checks whether the same is in line with the strategies organization is trying to adopt. The mission of the company is revisited and changed. It is critical to note that implementation of this strategy must be communicated in the proper manner. The employees should be taken in loop and measures like the inspiration by leaders, motivating speeches and rewards must be given. If the downsizing is done in a particular department it is essential that the co-ordination of other departments is there. The recent example of Microsoft can be taken where the company is laying off 14 percent of its employees, 18000 in number (Reeves, 2014). The company said that the restructuring policy was made in order to create One Micros oft (Warren, 2013). The other policy that organizations adopt is the convergence, which means that the improvement is to be made on a constant basis. The employees and the managers of the organization are made to think on how can the company improve in the existing business and its expertise. References Cameron, K. S., Freeman, S. J., Mishra, A. K. (1993). Downsizing and redesigning organizations in Huber, G. Glick, W. (eds), Organizational Change and Redesign (19-63) New York Oxford University Press. Cascio, W.F. (1993), Downsizing: what do we know? What have we learned?, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 7 (1), pp. 95-104. Freeman, S.J. (1994), Organizational downsizing as convergence or reorientation: implications for human resource management, Human Resource Management, Vol. 33 (2), pp. 213-38. Luthans, B. C., Sommer, S. M. (1999). The impact of downsizing on workplace attitudes. Group and Organization Management, 24 (1): 46-70. Morris, J.R., Cascio, W.F., Young, C.E. (1999). Downsizing after all these years: Questions and answers about who did it, how many did it, and who benefited from it. Organizational Dynamics, Winter 1999: 78-87.