Efficiency

Here in Germany, there is a reputation for efficiency. This "German Efficiency" is world-renowned (I was even a member of a Facebook group celebrating this phenomenon) and regarded as one of the best models for social interactions, work, public transportation, and many more facets of the lives of the German citizens. After living here for a couple months, I've observed a few examples of this golden standard of Wirksamkeit

Example One: Language
The first couple examples I have stem from my grammar class. These are both genitive(a case-we don't have these in English) prepositions, and can be used to contract an entire phrase or sentence into a single word. Seitens prefaces a phrase with "In the opinion of" or "from the point of view of", so a phrase like "from the point of view of the Democrats" could be shortened to "seitens der Demokraten" Efficiency Count = Deutsch +5. That's pretty good.

The next one is another genitive preposition, this time "kraft". This kind of translates to "in virtue of" but a much better explanation is as "By the power vested in me by". So we can make another comparison, using the marriage vow : "By the power vested in me by the State of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you man and wife (or man and man, if you so prefer) Auf Deutsch, "Kraft der Stadt Massachusetts seid ihr jetzt Mann und Frau"Efficiency Count = Deutsch +8 Even better.

During my rides on the wonderful U-Bahn (subway) here, I've noticed a message that is occasionally played before the arrival in certain stations, which goes something like "Bitte beachten Sie beim Aussteigen die Lücke zwischen Fahrzeug und Bahnsteigkante"
English Translation: "Mind the Gap"
Oh. That's the wrong direction. Looks like this German Efficiency is a little more complicated than expected...

German Word for the Post: Wirksamkeit
Pronunciation: Veerk-zahm-KITE
Definition: See title