Spotlight - 01.2020

74 Spotlight 1/2020 FEEDBACK

Example:

“As much as we use ‘intelligence’ to de-

scribe technical expertise and reasoned

judgment, it has also been the go-to ex-

planation for success.”

— from The Washington Post

WORDPLAY

FEEDBACK

Dear Ms Sharp

I always enjoyed reading Dagmar Tay-

lor’s witty tales of inadvertent mishaps

that occur in the everyday life of a Brit

(a Scottish lady, of course, living in Ger-

many) from her series “...and then I...”.

As an English Brit living in Switzerland,

I can relate very well to these situations.

However, another dimension is added to

them when your carefully learned High

German needs to be tailored to Swiss

German.

As a member of my local Frauenturn-

verein, I was going to play a game of bas-

ketball, and I was explaining which team

would be playing in which direction. The

word for shoot (schießen) is pronounced

“schiese” in Swiss German. If pronounced

“schiise”, on the other hand, it would

mean “to shit”!

So you can imagine how taken aback

everyone was when I, to my total em-

barrassment, mispronounced the word,

telling one team to shit at one end and

egalitarian [i)gÄlI(teriEn]

, Verfechter(in) des

Egalitarismus

imply [Im(plaI]

, bedeuten, beinhalten

incumbent [In(kVmbEnt]

, Amtsinhaber(in)

insult [(InsVlt]

, Beleidigung

liken: ~ sb. to sb. [(laIkEn]

, jmdn. mit jmdm.

vergleichen

obsessed [Eb(sest]

, besessen

reasoned [(ri:z&nd]

, begründet

unmatched [)Vn(mÄtSt]

, unübertroffen

wisdom [(wIzdEm]

, Weisheit, Klugheit

go-to

An informal adjective meaning

“someone or something regularly

turned to for a high level of

knowledge or skill.”

MEDIUM US

The adjective “go-to” implies “the first

person or thing you would think of in

a certain situation.” For example: “Sam

is my go-to guy for garden work” or “Ice

cream is my go-to dessert for parties.”

The example here (below) is from an

article that asks why the US president

is so obsessed with intelligence. Donald

Trump has said that his enemies have an

“extraordinarily low IQ” in contrast to his

own “great and unmatched wisdom.”

The writer explains that such insults

are a tradition in American politics, as

intelligence is a “go-to” (or “top”) indica-

tor of fitness for public office. He men-

tions the 1828 presidential race between

cool incumbent John Quincy Adams and

charismatic “tough guy” Andrew Jackson.

Jackson, who won, was said to be “smart”

in an emotional way, a “man of the peo-

ple.” Some liken Trump to Jackson, but

not presidential historian David Green-

berg, who told politifact.com: “Jackson was

a true egalitarian with a passion for dem-

ocratic equality that you just don’t see in

Trump.”

The^ Rea

dYour ers’ Issue

experiencestravel and learning

Game of moansThe language

of complainingGratis

VokabeltrainerTeil 3: Freizeit

EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH

Deutschland € 8,50CH sfr 13,90A·E ·I ·L ·SK: € 9,60

13 / 2019 (^13) — 19
THE READERS’ ISSUE Your tips • LANGUAGE How to complain • TRAVEL Ireland
THE VIKINGS IN
IRELANDDiscover the drama
of Ireland’s Norse history
document5335465437299221948.indd 1 10.10.19 10:53
Deutschland € 8,50CH sfr 13,90A·E ·I ·L ·SK: € 9,60
14 / 2019 (^14) — 19
NATURE A wilderness school in South Africa • LANGUAGE Activate your verbs • TRAVEL Aliens in Nevada
EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH
ACTIVATE
your English
Practise your verbs with our fun winter story
reindeer on Meet our farting ❄^
page 18
KostenloserDownload
Sprachtraining60 MinutenEnglisch
Gratis❄
VokabeltrainerEssen & Trinken
❄
document2670502579506359199.indd 1 28.10.19 13:57
by Claudine Weber-Hof
the others to do the same at the other end.
Yours sincerely
Tina Bernet (Lucerne, Switzerland),
by e-mail
Dear Ms Bernet
Thank you for your e-mail. What a hilari-
ous story! By the way, we have produced a
German-English book based on her series.
You can order ...and then I stepped into the
Fett näpfchen at shop.spotlight-verlag.de
Kind regards
Inez Sharp, editor-in-chief
Dear Ms Sharp
From my three children, I received a
Spotlight subscription as a Christmas pres-
ent. I am 67, and I read and learn English
so that my brain has something to work
on. I am always pleased when I find a new
issue in my letterbox. Thanks for your in-
teresting articles.
Yours
Theresia Hessenberger, by e-mail
Dear Ms Hessenberger
Thanks to you and to your obviously
quite wonderful family! We agree that
magazines from Spotlight Verlag, and
Spotlight magazine in particular, make for
wonderful gifts. For more information
on all our company’s helpful language-
learning products, please refer to this
website: spotlight-online.de/spotlight-produkte
Kind regards
Inez Sharp, editor-in-chief