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

A Useful German Phrase

I happened upon an interesting phrase as I was playing Doppelkopf (I'll try to explain this one later) here, and I'm not sure it has an English equivalent. The phrase is "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof" or "nur Bahnhof verstehen", and translates exactly to "I only understand the train station". I think it's pretty close to saying something is "over your head" or similar in English, but it essentially means you have no idea what is going on and/or what was just said.

According to our grammar professor, Jörg Sohst (who tells great stories, although I'm not entirely sure about the veracity of all of them), it stems from the first days of P.A. systems in train stations. Initially, they had one large loudspeaker for the entire train station, which was great if you were the optimal distance from it, but any further and you would probably hear something akin to an adult speaking in Charlie Brown: "wohn woahwn waowahn wah -Bahnhof- waohsn wah..." thus the 'I only understood Bahnhof from that message'. Of course now, the PA systems are better and we can hear much more than Bahnhof, but the phrase stuck.

Thus, the word for today: Bahnhof (BAHN-hof)

Bahn - the a sound in ahhhh

hof- replace the -pe in 'hope' with an f.

Translation: Train Station.