James Baquet

    Mark and Ming are in the common room of their dorm.

    Ming: Eins, zwei, drei!

    Mark: What are you doing, Ming?

    Ming: My teacher said that we should learn some German words.

    Mark: So, you’re learning to count to three?

    Ming: Yeah! Good idea, right?

    Mark: Maybe. But I don’t think it will be very useful.

    Ming: Why not?

    Mark: When was the last time you had to count anything in a language besides your own?

    Ming: Oh. I guess it’s not very practical. What do you suggest?

    Mark: Actually, for many years, advanced students in university had to learn German, or French, or both. So we have lots of academic words borrowed from German. Why not learn some of those?

    Ming: Such as?

    Mark: “Zeitgeist” is a good one.

    Ming: What’s that?

    Mark: It means something like “the spirit of the age.”

    Ming: I don’t get it.

    Mark: Think of it like this: Our current time is dominated by rapid communications. News travels fast, and people share ideas and opinions on social media.

    Ming: Right. It’s a very different feeling from when I was a kid, just a few years ago.

    Mark: Exactly. So that’s part of the “zeitgeist” of our time.

    Ming: That’s a really useful word. Got another one?

    Mark: Sure! How about “weltanschauung?”

    Ming: What’s that?

    Mark: It means “world-view,” or one’s way of perceiving the world.

    Ming: Why not just say “world-view?”

    Mark: When we say Weltanschauung, we’re also thinking about the way the individual interacts with the world.

    Ming: Sorry?

    Mark: Look, how you react to things — what the people around you do, the news that you hear, the things that happen to you — this all depends on how you see the world. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Is there a God or not? Is life good or bad?

    Ming: I see. So it’s kind of how I live in the context of my view of things.

    Mark: That’s a pretty good way to put it. Here’s another word using “welt,” which means “world”: “weltschmerz.”

    Ming: That sounds funny!

    Mark: But it’s really not. It means “world-pain,” and refers to the suffering that is part of just being alive.

    Ming: Yuck! That’s not part of my weltanschauung!

    Mark: I know what you mean. But you have to admit: things are never as wonderful as you can imagine them in your head.

    Ming: That’s true.

    Mark: And the feeling you get regarding the difference between things as they are and things as you imagine them? That’s weltschmerz.

    Ming: Okay, I’ll accept that. Thanks, Mark — I think.

    Mark: Don’t mention it!