You're not good; you're well.

Since there is a big lull in work right now, I've been binge-watching some DIY series on the BBC archive. Right now, it is the turn of Money for Nothing, in which someone goes to a recycling centre and asks people chucking away their old stuff if they can take three things away with them (all carefully chosen, of course). The presenter works on one project and delegates the other two items to various people, such as a blacksmith, a signwriter, and other upcyclers.

The designs and amount of creativity evinced by everyone involved are impressive and on the whole, the programme provides plenty of inspiration.

However, there is one thing that really irks me, that really gets my goat and that is that most people, when asked how they are, reply "I'm really good." And why does that annoy me? Because they are not being asked about their morals but about their health.

If someone asks you how you are, there are various reply options. They range from "Very well, thank you" to "Mustn't grumble". The word "good", on the other hand, describes a person's moral status. "He is such a good, kind-hearted person he is almost a saint."

Other responses to "How are you?" are as follows....

"I'm fine, thanks."

"Fine, thanks."

"Fine."

"Great, thanks."

"Not bad."

"Okay."

"I've been better."

"Busy."

"A bit poorly."

"A bit under the weather." (Like the previous phrase, this one means 'not so well'.)

"Stressed out."

Or as I sometimes say, "I'm still breathing."

And, of course, to be polite, your response should incorporate an enquiry about the other person's health by adding "And you?" to the end of your response. Like this: 

"How are you?"

"Fine, thanks. And you?"

"Oh, I'm fine, too."

But "good" as an answer to how you are just pains me. I wince every time I hear it. It's just as bad as hearing someone ask for a drink (or whatever) by saying "Can I get...?" Aaargh.

Here is a "good" person:

And here is a well person:

Film recommendation: Wochenendrebellen

Seeing as I had nothing else lined up for my birthday, I took myself off for the 5 o'clock showing of a German film I'd seen a preview of: Wochenendrebellen.

Based on a true story, it is about an autistic 10-year-old who tries to fit in better at school because he's been threatened with being sent to a Förderschule or special school. He makes a deal with his father: he will do his best not to get enraged when his fellow pupils tease and bully him, so long as he can visit all 56 football teams in Germany to find his favourite team. After all, all the other children at school have a favourite team; if he has one, too, he'll fit in with the others. Right?

Being autistic, though, means he has a lot of rules: the football ground has to be environmentally friendly; the players shouldn't have colourful football boots, the mascot mustn't be stupid; there should be no Nazis. 

Now that doesn't sound that exciting does it? Well, it kept a whole row of small boys quiet and engrossed. They were maybe 8 years old (the film is approved for 6-year-olds and up) and very well behaved. 

The issue of autism is dealt in quite a sensitive way but the actors were fantastic. Two actors in particular deserve special mention: Florian David Fitz as the father Mirco (quite a famous actor in Germany( and the absolute marvel who played the son Jason. That role was acted by newcomer Cecilio Andresen and this was only his third film (and all filmed in 2023). He reminded me of Nicholas Hoult in About a Boy.

I've been reading interviews given by the real father and son as well as one with Jason and Cecilio and Jason says that the scenes are pretty much authentic - the actions, the tone of voice, everything. 

Basically, the film is a little gem and really should be more widely seen. Rush out over the weekend and watch it before it disappears from the cinema screen. The scenes at the various football grounds across Germany deserve to be viewed on a large screen. 

I'm so glad I made the effort to walk through the pouring rain to see it. And it's even made me want to go to at least one football match - just to feel what the atmosphere is like at first hand. The film really is an inspiration.

Here's an interview in German with Jason and Cecilio:

https://www.familie.de/familienleben/interview-zu-wochenendrebellen-ich-leide-nicht-unter-autismus--01HB6WGY03W7R8VSC4Y8W3N5NE

And here's the official trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VNmKbIFlzw&ab_channel=ConstantinFilm%C3%96sterreich

And here is a news report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWr0z-c-_ss&ab_channel=hessenschau

The actors on the left; the "real" characters on the right.

Don't you call me a Stakhanovite, matey!

A couple of days ago, I wrote a comment on the website of The Guardian newspaper about how many workers in the UK don't seem to focus on getting work done. I gave a couple of examples.

One was from the time I worked in London. Before I found a permanent position as "P.A. to the Management", I signed up with a whole swathe of temping agencies. Unlike in Germany, where one temping agencies signs you up and pays you a monthly sum, whether you work for a company or not, in the UK, you only get paid when a temping agency sends you somewhere to work. I was hired for three days of data entry, i.e. entering data into a computer. Well, you can imagine the surprise of the company when I finished at 11 a.m. on the second day. I, in turn, was surprised that they thought that the amount of work they gave to me would last three entire days. Naturally, I was only paid for one and a bit days.

Or take a more recent example. When translating, many translators say that they can manage 200 standards lines a day. A standard line is 55 keystrokes, including the empty spaces between words and punctuation - basically, every time your fingers hit the keyboard. A while back, I got 1,200 lines to do and they gave me 6 days to do it in. Reader, I got it done in two.

And for this I was accused, by fellow Guardian readers, of workaholism and of being a 'Stakhanovite'. Yeah, I had to look that one up, too.

Apparently, a Stakhanovite was a worker in the USSR who was exceptionally productive, hard-working and zealous. (Alexei Stakhanov was a superstar miner in the 1930s who, with some colleagues, had mined 14 times the normal target of coal in just 6 hours.)

I refute  [widerlegen] those accusations, because, at heart, I am an extremely lazy person. Whether I take 6 days or 2 to translate the same piece of work, I still get paid the same, because I am paid by the length of the text and not by how much time I spend doing it. Thus, the faster I work, the sooner I can stop working and start relaxing. Why waste your time idling over a task when you could be reading a book? 

Don't get me wrong. I love my work, but work is not everything and I like to balance it out with other interests. When I worked in offices, like the one I was in for 3 years, I often ran out of work but still had to 'look busy'. I couldn't read a book, learn something, do handicrafts (in the office?!) or anything else but 'look busy'. I had to look as though I was a 'workaholic' rather than enjoying my free time.

Now that I work for myself, I don't have to appear to be busy to anyone. Which is bliss for this lazy person.

Blog recommendation: 40% German

40% German is a blog that is written by Nic Houghton, an English trainer living somewhere in Bavaria. He's married to a German.

I really like his style of writing and the wide-ranging topics about German life that he chooses to write about. Anyone reading his blog entries will understand how outsiders (especially the Brits) view Germany from the inside. 

If you want to practise your English and see how this British man sees Germans and life in Germany, go to this website. You won't regret it.

https://40percentgerman.com/

Cocoa - Kakao - why?

Another thing about English and German vocabulary that I have always found quite strange is the way the Os and the As are the other way round in these two words:

Cocoa (pronounced: ko-ko) and  Kakao (pronounced: ca-cow)

We talk of 'cocoa beans' to make bars of chocolate and Kakaobohnen to make 'Schokolade'. 

When it comes to the drink, however, there is some disparity once again. The hot milky drink that the Germans call 'Kakao' is known as 'hot chocolate' in English.

What the British call 'cocoa' is also a drink, but not very chocolatey, and you certainly wouldn't order it in a cafe. It's made with milk or water, a bit of cocoa powder and usually sweetened with sugar. It's what the Brits used to drink before bedtime. Hot chocolate is a much richer, more pleasurable and more decadent concoction.

As the Sleep Charity organisation says:

A classic pre-bedtime beverage, hot cocoa isn’t to be confused with hot chocolate. Cocoa is powder without the fat from the cocoa butter whereas ‘drinking chocolate’ is shavings or pellets of chocolate melted and mixed with milk, cream or water. The drawback of hot chocolate is not just the caffeine but the sugar content.  It also contains phenylethylamine, which causes a natural high.

So enjoy a cup of cocoa before bedtime and sweet dreams.

Series recommendation: Psych

 As you may know, when it comes to books, I like the three Cs: comedy, crime and classics. If you can combine at least two of those factors, even better, e.g. a comedy crime book.

It's the same with my crime series: a bit of humour is always welcome. After all, although there is a lot of murder in crime series and people sometimes get hurt, we, the viewer, know that it is, after all, merely a story for amusement - to take us away from thinking about our daily lives. So, if there is a bit of humour thrown in, all the better.

One series that combines crime with comedy is Psych, which ran for 8 series (or 'seasons' as the Americans like to say) from 2006 to 2014. The premise is that Shawn Spencer, a man who's never held a job down for long, pretends to be psychic in order to help the Santa Barbara Police Department. He knows he's not psychic, as does his father, a former policeman, and his best friend from childhood onwards Gus (Burton Guster). But the police don't.

On the police department side, we have a police chief (Chief Vick - a down-to-earth woman), an uptight head detective called Carlton Lassiter, whom Shawn calls 'Lassie' and drives round the bend, and the lovely junior detective Juliet O'Hara (or "Jules").

What makes it possible for Shawn to claim he is psychic is his hypervigilance and eidetic memory. Or in other words, he is very good at observing things and putting two and two together. And he has good recall when thinking back to a scene and remembering exactly where everything was. The fun we have is that we see the same clues that Shawn sees, so we have a chance to come to the same conclusions.

Another fun part are the escapades that Shawn and Gus get involved in: the disguises, the silly names, the stories they come up with, the quick talking. It's all very enjoyable and will definitely distract you from the world outside - even if  it's just for a little while.

What do the words standstill, pomegranate and beetroot have in common?

Any guesses? No? Well, let me tell you.

All these words are the other way round in German.

Standstill in German is 'Stillstand'.

Beetroot in German is 'rote Beete' (red beet)

And pomegranate in German is 'Granatapfel'. Ah, I hear you cry, "But 'pome' isn't the English word for apple." But it is in French (pomme).

Now why this should be the case, I have no idea. But it does tickle me. Any other examples?