Deutschland € 8,50CH sfr 13,90A·E ·I ·L ·SK: € 9,60EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH
7 / 2019SOCIETY Bestselling author Nico Walker • LANGUAGE Agreeing and disagreeing • TRAVEL A walking tour through London(^7) — 19
Five-page special
How to agree and disagree in English (^)
From prison to publishing sensation
Meet writer Nico Walker
Crime time againMs Winslow
is back
SUMMER IN
LONDON LOOK, SHOP, EAT, ENJOY!
Spotlight 9/2019 FEEDBACK
Liebe Spotlight
ich habe einen Geheimtipp, der weder
im Langenscheidt steht, noch verrät ihn
der Englischlehrer, wie man es macht,
dass man das englische „ä“ nicht wie
„alle Deutschen“ praktisch wie in „e“ aus-
spricht. Man bilde sich ein, um ein Haar
eine Gräte verschluckt zu haben! (Der
Arnold Schwarzenegger fällt mit seinem
Spruch auf: “I’ll be ba:ck!”)
As regards The Lighter Side jokes page:
“Oh, what a classy chassis has this lassie.
Wow!” (= Holz vor den Hüttn). Untrans-
latable jokes: „Steht ein Kakadu im Klo
und sagt: „Kakadu?“ Here comes the next
one. Frage: „Warum hast’n du den Arm
deiner Frau mit Senf vollgeschmiert?“
Antwort: „Um sie zu besänftigen!“
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Christoph Ermann, by post
Dear Mr Ermann
My goodness, what a sense of humour!
It’s too bad we cannot use these jokes for
The Lighter Side page, as they work only
in German.
That said, fans of Spotlight can look for-
ward to our special Readers’ Issue (issue
13/2019, on sale from 30 October), for
which subscribers have sent us numer-
ous jokes in English. (The deadline for
submissions has passed, so please do not
send any more.) Some of these jokes will
be published in the magazine — together
with the names of the subscribers who
submitted them, of course.
The Readers’ Issue will also include tips
from subscribers about their favourite
travel destinations, question-and-answer
sessions between subscribers and Spotlight
columnists, as well as a language feature
about those subscribers who visited us at
our editorial offices to attend the work-
shop “How to speak better English in 10
easy steps”.
As regards your use of “chassis” above,
I found an interesting US pop-culture
reference in the lyrics of the 1959 rock ’n’
roll hit “Tallahassee Lassie” performed
by Freddy Cannon (real name: Frederick
Picariello). The word is used to describe
a woman whom he admires as “classy”
in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital city. In
this case, per the online Urban Diction-
ary, “chassis” would seem to refer to the
woman’s entire body or person, and not
any particular aspect of it.
By the way, I read somewhere that Picari-
ello wrote an early version of this catchy
song together with his mother.
Best regards
Claudine Weber-Hof, deputy editor
As The Washington Post reports, a writer at
The Seattle Times recently got into trouble
after he sent lewd messages to a female
colleague. She did not believe his excuse
that the messages had been “meant for
someone else.” “Feigning oopsie is pret-
ty typical in sexual harassment,” she
later wrote on Twitter. Post columnist
Monica Hesse called the man’s behavior
“crasslighting,” combining “gaslighting”
with “crass” behavior. “It’s a neat trick, to
immediately follow an obscene comment
with an ‘Oh, you misunderstood what
happened,’” Hesse wrote. “It causes the
recipient to question their own ... ability
to read a situation. Essentially, it forces
someone to choose between whether
they’re being sexually harassed or wheth-
er they’re crazy.”
Example:
“Did he just harass you or are you just
imagining it? You might be a victim of
crasslighting.”
— headline in The Washington Post
“Crasslighting” is a combination of
“gaslighting,” using manipulative
behavior to confuse someone into
thinking their perceptions or reactions
are wrong, and “crass” behavior.
EASY US
crasslighting
FEEDBACK
WORDPLAY
by Claudine Weber-Hof
74
County Wexford Ireland nowLovely
8 / 2019
Deutschland € 8,50CH sfr 13,90A·E ·I ·L ·SK: € 9,60
— 198
SOCIETY English gardens • LANGUAGE Nature idioms • TRAVEL County Wexford, Ireland
EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH
LanguageWichtige Wörter SUMMER
für den Sommer
ENGLISH
GARDENS Gartenträume im Herzen Englands
crass [krÄs]
, grob
feign [feIn]
, vortäuschen, vorgeben
gaslighting [(gÄs)laItIN]]
, jmd. an seiner Wahr-
nehmung der Realität
zweifeln lassen
harass [hE(rÄs]
, belästigen, anmachen
lewd [lu:d]
, anzüglich, unanständig
neat [ni:t]
, geschickt
pretty [(prIti]
, hier: ziemlich
recipient [ri(sIpiEnt]
, Empfänger(in)