Indifference. A term every political economics student is ranting and raving about. When an individual is indifferent about option A or B, then he/she values both equally and thus considers them as good or as bad as the other.

Meh Magazine. Go buy it or don't... Whatever. I dont care. *Shrugs*. · by shammonds on flickr.com

Meh is the more casual term for it and I wish I could have “Meh” go mainstream in German as well. I’m working on it. philafication.com proudly presents the word of all-time:

Expression: Meh
A word used to show indifference.
Example: “Barack Obama, you are the first Black president, do you think you are ready to take office?”
“Meh.”

It’s basically a short version, and thus is ideal for text lingo, for I couldn’t care less about it. The German language lacks an equivalent of equal efficiency and thus needs to adapt the English. Resistance is futile.

The image attached shows the Face of Meh. On Meh Magazine. Get it at the newspaper stand near you or don’t… whatever. For only 1.50 I guess.

I’m sure you’ve seen me make that kind of face once or twice.

Here’s some German expressions that’s worth mentioning in this compelling case of Lingo Bingo…

• Das juckt mich nicht.
• Das kratzt mich nicht.
• Das tangiert mich perifär.

It’s either Opernball or a Calvin and Hobbes comic explaining the economic downturn.

Btw, this comic covers most vocabulary that you’ll have to handle with in the  EBC1 exam.

When you first start out in the beginner phase, you can only say things like “Ick heisse John. Ick kann sprecken Deutsch.” At this point you sound like a moron, but as your German improves to the point where you can talk about the weather, your credibility as an intelligent human sky rockets and peaks at the point where you realize that when you look up words in the German/English dictionary you shouldn’t always pick the one that sounds just like English because it shares a Latin root. [...]

Nothing for Ungood, an expatriate blog “poking a little fun at life in Germany from an American perspective”, gives us a detailed overview of how English speakers advance from the “you sound like a moron” level of German speaking skills to a rather sophisticated one where you know how to juggle your sausage/pig references in routine conversations.

Definitely a good read and worth checking out during the slump season at philafication.com (due to a examination week coming up next week)… Sorry for that.

I had great pleasure in editing this slang business letter (It’s linguistically captivating isn’t it?) and transform it into beautiful EBC 1 high-register kind of language. See for yourself. This is not how you want to write business letters and to be successful i simultaneously.

Hey dude, outta stocks. Sorry. Big time.

Live long and prosper.

Long long before Saturday meant “Let’s Go Out And Have A Shot Or Two” Day I used to spend the entire Saturday at my favorite auntie’s place. She had cable. She was the coolest. Saturday mornings the Power Rangers were on, so there was no way around it and around 4 or so, it was Star Trek with Shattner and Co. So when I found out they were planning a movie starting next year (2009), I was more than stoked to accidently slip over on this trailer on Star Trek. Are you as excited? The cast is very similar looking to the series’ cast from the point of appearance.

And yes, I used to watch Power Rangers and Star Trek Enterprise (I didn’t care too much about all the newer versions).

Also a final note: I need to tell my English teacher at university, he outed himself as a Trekkie in our very first lesson. We were discussing the different meanings of enterprise and he was giving us hints of what not all enterprise means, and so he clearly was hinting the TV series and -- probably tooembarrassedto admit you knew “The USS Enterprise”, somebody was saying something like “Oh yeah, Star Wars” and then he immediately went with a really fierce, passionate tone: Know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek there, Mister! In case you are one of them mixing up these entirely opposing legendary movie themes, you might want to check this comparison (and in case you are well aware of how to translate this article into Klingon, then, you also need to read this)…

Know Your Star Wars and Star Trek!

My two favorite difference is that Spock puts his toilet paper on so it rolls over the top, whereas Vader puts it the other way around. Also a main characteristic of Star Trek is that some Trekkies (the fanboys even call themselves like that) are now said to be old enough to move straight from their parents’ basement to the retirement home.

Whereas English has taken over a large proportion of “the language of choice” for most blog entries, we all know that I speak both German (mother tongue) and English (as a second language). I cause a load of hits on online dictionaries pages since I can’t always stand vague interpretations by me, myself and I.

In beta.

My “dictionary of choice” has been dict.leo.org for quite a while. Also I used to look up words on pons.de a long time ago, but I was really not enjoying the user experience.

But what do I find out now? Pons was entirely overhauled and revealed a new approach to online dictionary (compared to the sloppy thing they had before). Now,pons.eu/dict/search(in Beta status, how trendy of them) offers registered-user only suggestions and contributions,pronunciation assistance (mp3 format) and a unique display of words that groups results according to their meaning (something I definitely miss on dict.leo.org).

I can’t wait to check out the new old kid on the block* and see how it will fit my daily use with looking up words. Is it going to replace dict.leo.org? I’m undecided, but really attracted…

*Mini Lingo Bingo: The new kid on the block is a phrase to describe someone who has just appeared or is new. It is not only used for new people entering a social circle, often used in context with a company entered a new market. The german equivalent is “der/die Neue sein.” An example: Google’s Gear browser solution is the new kid on the block and will be tested really hard. – Google’s Gear Internetbrowser ist der Neue und wird hart beurteilt werden.

The choice of language, namely French, to illustrate a dialogue of incomprehension, I assure you, is totally accidental. Not · illustr.byGuacamole Goalie

Whenever an attempt to communication or action fails, people get very creative when they encounter a lack of understanding. Both German and English have a vast repertoire listing expressions ofincomprehension.

Proceed In The Face Of Utter Incomprehension -Of course, people should always follow that rule, however, we have so many ways to let others know that we just didn’t get what the heck he or she was talking about. Buh-n-howf?

As much as some enjoy Spelling Bee contests, others are fed up with this infinite inconsitancy · photo by For Ever Soul

You are not alone… Confusion rules over Englishas a rule in terms of vocabulary, phrasal verbs and so on. We know that. Being an English as a Second Languagespeaker I am more than familiar – compellingly – with the phonetic unreliability as The Guardian describes the messed uppronunciationand spelling relation of English words. If you know how to pronounce a word in – say – Italian, you automatically can construct the word’s spelling for there are clear rules. This rule does apply for many languages, but English does not feature thisconsistencyas a world language. Unfortunately this gives English speakers (both natives and ELS speakers) a really hard time. What do these 100 words have in common? Visible for you and you only, after the jump.