Business Spotlight SCHIMPFEN IM BERUF^7
A German problem?
Why is it that Germans who
might not swear very much in
their own language feel it’s fine
to use the filthiest four-letter
words in English? Here are a few
of the worst examples.
“A shitstorm”
Although shit (Scheiße, Kacke)
and storm are clearly common
English words, the combina-
tion shitstorm isn’t, really. You
won’t even find it in Merriam-
Webster’s online dictionary. We
know what you mean when you
use it, but you really shouldn’t.
Instead, try the less offensive
“huge fuss” or the more elegant
“furore”.
“Fuck the diet”
For some strange reason, this
slogan was used in Germany for
an advertising campaign in Du
darfst products. You could even
order stickers with the “Fuck
the diet” slogan. Where you
were supposed to stick them
wasn’t clear. The campaign was
dropped. ( ficken)
“Fuck you*, Greta”
What is it with swear words
and stickers in Germany? This
abusive text was the line on a
bumper sticker that started ap-
pearing in Germany in 2019. The
“Greta” here is Greta Thunberg,
the teenage climate activist. It’s
unclear whether the designer
of the sticker really understood
how offensive the f-you expres-
sion is, especially when com-
bined with the name of a young
teenager. It was originally avail-
able on Amazon, but has now
been removed. Somebody saw
sense. (* fick dich)Fack ju Göhte
This was the title of the most
successful German film in 2013.
It was supposed to highlight
how dumb the young teenag-
ers in the film were. So dumb
that they couldn’t spell, or pro-
nounce, “Fuck you, Goethe” cor-
rectly. Interestingly, the title was
changed for the US market — to
Suck* Me Shakespeare. (* lutschen)